Coffee Anyone, a Short Fiction Story

Carolynn Dumas, a traveling nurse, was heading home from a ten o'clock at nigh call. It was late for her and if it hadn't been an emergency call she wouldn't have been out that time of night. She feared being alone on the road after dark. There were so many terrible things going on lately, that she had even thought about refusing late calls.

Suddenly, her headlights captured a small figure ahead on the side of the deserted road. Normally, she wouldn't stop for anyone or anything. However this appeared to be a child frantically waving both arms in the air.

Without thinking, something within her compelled her to take a closer look. Maybe it was empathy for a child, woman's intuition, a premonition, her sense of duty, but whatever it was Carolynn knew she had no choice, she had to stop.

Indeed, it was a child, alone in the dark. She wore a dirty forlorn face, a flimsy white dress and no shoes. As the car came closer, the child bolted into the woods beside the road as quickly as she had appeared and vanished.

She slowly drove by the place where the child had been but could find no sign of her. Carolynn began to wonder if she had just imagined it. She even stopped and called out, but there was no answer or movement in the trees. Finally, she gave up waiting and drove away.

A few miles down the road she saw a sign announcing Joe's diner. "Maybe its time to stop for a cup of coffee?" she said to herself.

She entered and noticed how empty the place was. Carolynn went over and took a seat on a red plastic stool in front of the 50's style counter. She could see across the order pickup-bar into the kitchen where the cook and waitress were talking to each other.

"Hi," the waitress smiled and greeted her through the opening. The large print on her name tag read Dora. Smiling, the waitress asked, "What will you have?"

Carolynn ordered, "A cup of coffee and a cruller! Kind of quiet around here, isn't it Dora?"

The waitress handed her the coffee, and hollered to the cook. "Joe, heat me up a cruller!" Then she answered Carolynn's question. "Yep, not much call for eaten out this time of night. We get some tourist, a few truckers, now and then, a policemen but that's about it. We really ought to close down, but we keep thinking maybe someone might need a coffee break or help, so we stay open."

"May I ask you a question?"

"Sure," the waitress leaned across the counter to listen more intently. "Fire away!"

"I just had an extremely strange experience down the road." Carolynn then related her story about the child. "Do you have any idea who she is or why she would be out on the road this time of night?"

Dora laughed. "Oh that's our little Angel. Folks often see her out there after dark. She won't cause you any harm." She absently minded turned, walking away, as she wiped down the counter top.

Carolynn frowned and asked. "Are you trying to say that child is a real angel or is that the child's name?"
Joe, the short order cook, answered from the serving window as he passed out the cruller to Dora. "That's her name! She shore ain't no REAL angel, that's for sure!" His roar of laughter filled the air and Dora was also laughing.

Carolynn's anxiety grew, as she thought about all the horrible things that might happen to the child.

"What kind of parent's does she have that let her stand on the side of the road this time of night? Don't they know she could get killed or kidnapped?"

The waitress answered the question. "Don't need to fear for that little imp. She is not in any danger. If anyone got hold of her, they'd turn her loose right quick. Ain't that so Joe?" They both laughed again.

Carolynn couldn't fathom their attitude, but didn't say anything more. Instead, she hurriedly drank her coffee, ate a bit out of her cruller and left. It was obvious they didn't comprehend present day dangers that surrounded children.

Driving down the road a little farther Carolynn saw two police cars parked, one on each side of the road.
That's odd, she thought.

She pulled over to ask the officer what was going on and to find out what they knew about the strange child who stood by the road waving at passer-bys.

The officer came over to her car and spoke. "You having a problem lady?"

"No, not really, but I do have a dilemma," she said smiling.

"OH! How can we help you, Mam?"

She proceeded to tell him her story and what the people in the diner had told her. Then she added, "I don't understand the people in the diner at all or the little girl's parents. Don't they realize that something horrible could happen to her? She is just kid and there's lots of crazies out there these days, that would do bad things to her. Is there any way you could talk to her parents and get them to understand?"

"Oh they are probably more aware of danger than you know, I assure you. I'd be glad to do talk to them, if I could. But you see, I'm afraid I can't." He paused and scratched his head.

"The truth is, the little girl and her family don't exist any more; neither does that diner you had coffee in this evening. That place burnt down eight years ago. The little girl named Angel, accidentally set the place on fire playing with matches. Joe and Dora Francis, her parents, ran that place. They perished in the blaze trying to save their daughter, Angel."

Stunned, Carolynn asked, "How can that be? I sat at that counter and had coffee with them not five minutes ago!"

"I don't know what happened to you or where you were, but that diner is gone. But I can tell you we've heard the story before. It always happens to people in danger on this road. Angel may have saved your life."

"That's ridiculous!" she said. "I wasn't in any danger. I just stopped for information and a cup of coffee. I haven't even seen an accident, just the child on this road."

"Well, that's where you are wrong, Mam. Further down the road tonight, a sniper shot and killed five people. One of the victims managed to call 911 on his cell phone, before the sniper walked up and shot him in the head. We have dogs out searching for the shooter, right now."

Unbelievable, Carolynn thought as her eyes grew wide and she began to shake. She couldn't believe what she had just heard.

"You better let me escort you out to the freeway and safely from this area."
Carolynn thanked him and followed behind in her car.
. . .
Several days later, the news reported the sniper's capture. Carolynn still couldn't get the little girl and the diner out of her mind. She knew there'd be no rest until she saw the place again.

During the day time, she drove back out the old deserted road searching for the diner. She knew it had to be there. It was too vivid in her mind not to be real.

She didn't find the restaurant but instead found the sign announcing Joe's diner, still standing beside the road.

She got out of her car to look around, she found the burnt out remains of the old building and there in the ashes were a couple of charred red plastic stools.

To her surprise, lying there in the rubble beside the stools was a fresh cruller with lipstick on it. The color was the same as the one that Carolynn wore and the cruller had only one bite missing .