Coffee Anyone, a Short Fiction Story

COFFEE ANYONE?

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?"