The  cappuccino hit differently. He didn't find himself enjoying it. Instead he was rushing through it.

Well Max knew he would drink the first fast. He needed the caffeine, a little pick me up. But he didn't expect to be so dis-satisfied by it.

He was already looking ahead to the second...

The  Blue Man had to move. He knew that, but another part of him just wanted to stay. So what if this man knew where he was. So what if he was found. Maybe that would be better. He thought he had had a good run.

He ordered his usual. An ...

"What do you mean it wasn't that nice?"

"I just thought it was, hmm, meh I don't know."

There was a long pause as Shelly and Tom were walking. 

"I just can't believe we played there, and..." Tom was saying. 

She wasn't really listening to what Tom was saying she was imagining...

On the beach Marc Love drank water from a large bottle. People here used plastic for everything, even though the normal water was fine. So he did too. Much of his life he was like this. Like an octopus changing to the environment. He even learned some words. He could...

It wasn't the voice. Her fear came from the words.

"Why you calling so much? Who is this?"

Whoever was on the other line wasn't concerned about concealing themselves. Didn't try to imitate Jack.

It didn't even feel like they thought they were in the wrong. Like they were aggravated that she was...

The guy got up the next day. Fast he always liked getting up fast he'd tell people its when he had the best ideas. Early and right away. He go around with his notebook while he made his coffee or while he made his toast.

"Before the toaster popped is when...

It was the first cold morning of the fall. The summer must be over for good, thought Carol as she tugged her shirt trying to keep warm. Usually she got hot easily. Was the one trying to turn the thermostat lower. But today she had not anticipated this chill. Had...

Jared couldn't drink all four espressos. He looked into the cup. Guessed that he had drunk perhaps half. Decided he was too nervous. Looked both way on the street to make sure nobody was watching him. And dumped it out.

He was already a nervous guy. Had he drunk the rest...

Group A push Keith into a new rhythm he woke up at 4 before anyone else, ready a cold shower was all he needed to get on with it. He took now an  espresso neat sometimes iced. In a small glass the coffee shop kept just for him. They didn't...

Keith had gotten into a new rhythm in life. A new era. His new era could be described by his new drink of choice. A cappuccino, an espresso with foamed milk and then more foam. This café he moved next to did them nice. Well he didn’t really go any...

What Cal wanted now more than ever was a doctors note. He told him he had what Marianna had, and the doctor said that wasn't possible. Then he told him maybe it was cancer what Keith's got but the doctor said that was also impossible but still ran tests. All...

When Keith was younger he played a lot. Outside mostly with two neighborhood kids, always playing the same games. One they just threw a frisbee across the road. You got a point if it landed on the other side's grass. Two if you skipped it on the road first. Keith...

I thought of  World War I . When young men were scorched in trenches at the hand of industrialization 's first war. The  birds chirped and sung alongside the machine guns and artillery blasts. They could be heard during the quiet times.

But for a 19 year old volunteer who grew...

That might have been the reason they broke up Andrew thought. After the diagnosis the doctor told him there are options. And she said see there are options while scrolling through her phone don't worry. Andrew thought about this, and felt like he could see how much time he had...

Once he got stomach  cancer he began recounting how many meals he had had without ever being truly grateful. Now his time was limited. But everyone's time was that way wasn't it? Since the day they were born. Nobody lived forever. Although some people wanted to live as long as...

George Bannister had read recently that the U.S. consumed roughly 18 million barrels of oil daily. He had been surprised that he didn't even know how many gallons of oil a barrel amounted to. He had simply gone his 40 odd something years accepting the barrel as a unit of...

By 2010 the world had become unrecognizable. On the surface.

Peer deeper and you'd see how things were changing less.

The details were changing. smartphones , increasingly  global economies,  electric vehicles , and promises of  self-driving cars.

But what actually mattered had calcified further.

Sebastian thought this while sipping through the middle of his ...