I’ve got plenty of regulars, but Mr. Cavendish is my favorite. He putters in every morning after the breakfast rush, newspaper tucked beneath his bony arm, and reads me the baseball box score while I pour the decaf. When I bring him his egg-white omelet he asks about my mom’s chemo. How I wish I could crawl into the booth beside him and admit I’m afraid the treatment’s not working anymore. He lost his wife to cancer; I know he’d understand. But I don’t want to burden him, so I muster a smile and offer him a refill.
Lori Cramer’s short prose has appeared in The Cabinet of Heed, The Drabble, Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, MoonPark Review, Truffle Magazine, and elsewhere. Her work has been nominated for Best Microfiction. Links to her writing can be found athttps://loricramerfiction.wordpress.com. Twitter: @LCramer29.