Is it selfish to say I miss you?
April 15th 2010 03:42
"Barista", by Paul Schulenburg
There is a disturbing trend in my city's coffee shops of employing young people travelling the world.
They are transients. They come into my life as the face that greets me each morning for the important, crucial, ritualistic experience of preparing and presenting that daily latte.
I like an extra large, no sugar, thanks, but I don't need to say that. They see me approach their little coffee kingdom, they smile good morning, they start preparing my shot. How they know the preferences of so many people I'll never understand, but they do.
The other thing they all seem to have is personality. They come from France, Israel, Malaysia, Canada, Scandinavia ... and they all speak the language of happy enthusiasm.
Early last year my morning coffee maker was a young woman from New Zealand. She had charm in the way that Jupiter has size. She rivalled coffee itself as a great way to kick-start a day. She was seeing the world, as young people do, and one day she was gone, off travelling again, leaving a hole the size of Jupiter which the dour coffee shop owner failed to fill.
More recently, it has been a young Scottish couple running my local brew house with extraordinary efficiency, humour and conviviality. They were there every morning, reliable and capable, seamless and essential.
That is until this morning. "Are they having a day off?" I asked the replacement? "They have gone," he said.
Gone. It's disturbing. I wonder where they are, my New Zealand and Scottish baristas, my young friends out there attacking life with energy. Is it selfish to say I miss you?
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