The Bright Abyss - Empty Memories

   He sat alone.

   The temperature was perfect in this cozy coffee shop on the bottom floor of an old Victorian-style building. Lo-if music played through crackling speakers as the warm aroma of coffee covered the smell of the aging but up-kept facility.

   Staring outside, he saw the streets were equally empty. Gray clouds started to roll in with drizzle. The pavement slowly turned a darker gray, one tiny splash at a time. The newly formed sheet of glass glistened. If anyone had been outside, they would have seen a single blurry silhouette behind the street reflecting on the window.

   He didn't remember the last time he had seen his family. There hadn't been anyone to talk to in eight days. The familiar sound of rain on the roof shook him out of his panic. Gifting him the first brief moment of comfort he felt since arriving in the city.

   The rain made for good thinking weather, he thought. There was nothing to interrupt his morning without glowing faces buried in laptops tattooed with stickers. When suddenly, an uninvited unanswered group of questions rushed through the door.

   He pulled out a crumpled piece of stationary from his jeans pocket and a plastic pen branded with the words Pacific Edge Hotel. After examining the utensil, he added the fourth dash to the page. A few other hastily scribbled notes joined the four lone tallies on the page. The first was a statement followed by three vague questions.

   I am Calvin Blanc, in room 701.
   Sacramento?
   Accident?
   Family?

   This single silhouette in the stillness was called Calvin Blanc. Of his name, he was sure, but how he had gotten there and why remained a mystery. In the middle of a deserted metropolis, he didn't have enough information to fill out a fake ID.

   Frustration flooded in again and filled him inside. His body bubbled helplessly with confusion from a bad dream where the answer was missing as his mouth started to move. Outside he was surrounded by an unreal beauty. Like a golden dream, one fondly remembers from time to time while avoiding responsibilities. Stuck in this reality, he wished he wasn't, and as the days tallied, reality set in.

   Of course, there were a few advantages to his new lifestyle. Bohemian-type coffee shops like this had no lines. The window table with the misty bay view was always open. And on a primal level, no occupancy meant no anxiety on coffee-fueled bathroom trips.
    As the lone wolf, Cal was free to hop over the counter. Amongst the collection of coffee paraphernalia, he found a machine that seemed reasonably easy to operate. Coffee brewed and dripped as he added syrups and milk to his concoction, free from upcharge. When the final drop filled his mug, he moved to the best table in the house. A distant memory sailed in from the calm gray ocean surrounded by towering green mountain peaks.

   Cal recalled a trip to Vancouver with his maternal grandparents. Mother told him it was a treat for being a good boy. His young mind could not comprehend what was truly going on. Nothing was unusual about his parent's muffled fights as he lay in his bed. Vancouver was his last pure memory before life showed its true duality.

   Carefree, he watched cartoons In the backseat of their maroon Toyota Sienna as they drove north. At the border crossing, a straight-faced man in a black uniform asked his grandparents why they were coming to Canada. After a short interrogation, the van began to roll. Cal cheered, and the booth man gave him a wink and a smile as they passed.

   Gravel crunched beneath the tires as the van rolled into a parking lot at the end of a windy road. Where they walked into an enclosed gondola, and up they went as the world opened up before his eyes. On top of the world, the boy was amazed at the scene below as the sun began to set. Tree-covered mountains seemingly melted into the ocean. Where the two met sat a city of sparkling lights. 

    At that moment, he felt full of life. A boy had found a treasure while not searching. That trip left him longing for adventure. Cal had chased that feeling as a man, but every time he thought he came close, it seemed just out of reach. Now here he was in an empty coffee shop in an empty city.

He sat alone.