Fall break had just ended, and it was the end of the first day back. Grace texted her friend Julie about meeting at the coffee shop, grabbed her backpack, and headed out the door. She didn't live far from school, and liked to walk most days when the weather wasn't terrible. If she had a few extra dollars, she liked to stop at Grounded for Life, a trendy coffee shop that was near the school, before heading home. She and Julie hadn't seen each other since before the break, and needed to catch up on the latest gossip.

Grace's family had gone out of town, while Julie's had stayed around home. Doubtless, Julie wanted to know if Grace met any cute boys on their trip. And, of course, Grace wanted to know if anything exciting happened while she was gone. Both already knew pretty much everything, since they had been texting each other the whole time. However, they both suffered their parents periodically screening their phones, including text conversations for anything worrisome or subversive. They had learned long ago to keep some of the best discussion for the coffee shop.

Plopped down on their favorite love seat, sitting cross-legged and facing each other, they sipped their coffee, and started catching each other up.

"So, you know Damien?"

"He's such an idiot!"

"I know. Well, on Saturday he was at the mall with Parker... "

"Was that skank with them?"

"What skank? Oh, you mean Emerie?"

"Yeah. That whore. God, I fucking hate her. Why do they always hang around with her?"

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"I don't know. Well, anyways."

"How did Parker look? Was he sad?"

"Uhm... I don't think so. But Damien..."

"He should be sad. He should be..."

"Listen, I'm trying to tell you about Damien..."

"I know, I just think he should be sad."

"Well, that's in the past or whatever."

"Yeah, I guess..." (looking sullen)

"So, anyway. I was there with Avalon and her boyfriend, nomming on some fries in the food court. We saw Parker and Emerie were on, like, the other side of the food court. Then we saw Damien, walking from the Chinese place over to them. He had these like brand new super white shoes. Like all white, or whatever. Anyway, so he’s walking to the table with Parker and Emerie, and he like, tripped, or something, and all this like Chinese noodles or something spilled off his tray and down his pants and on to his shoes! It was so funny!"

"Oh my god! That's freaking hilarious."

"Yeah! It was too funny."

"I wish he had spilled it on Parker or maybe on Emerie's nasty hair! What's up with those dreadlocks, anyway? Ugh".

"Ugh" (Julie rolls her eyes).

The girls continued in this manner for a while until they were all caught up, and all hopped up on caffeine.

Grace walked home and had about an hour before her parents would be home from work. She set up shop at the desk in her room and poured through her homework before relocating to her favorite reading chair. She had just started reading Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness". Her English teacher, Mr. Jacobi, had recommended it to her after she finished an outstanding report on Rudyard Kipling's "Kim". While the new book seemed to have some similar themes, she found Conrad's prose a bit stiffer than Kipling's lyricism. But since she had so many half-read books on her shelf, she had committed to seeing this one through to the end.

After several minutes of reading, Grace felt her attention waning. She couldn't focus on the book any longer - and reached for her phone and ear buds. After stabbing the buds into her ear canals, she navigated to a streaming radio station she had been listening to earlier in the day. She clicked play and suddenly the sounds of Siouxsie and The Banshees came on playing a song about a staircase, or maybe a cat? She wasn't sure. But she liked the triplet rhythm of the song, and the strange shape of the melody.