Today's Special is the Jerk-Chicken Salad - Chapter 1: Espresso, Biscotti, and the New York Times
Gio parked his motorcycle around the back of his restaurant and hauled its load, a box containing the day's perishables - fruit, bread, milk, and a newspaper - into the small kitchen, setting it on the little table in the center of the room.
After putting the groceries away, he stepped back out into the warm predawn morning of what promised to be a scorching hot day, and cut ten sprigs of hibiscus blossoms from the fragrant bushes under the kitchen window, taking them into the deserted restaurant's dining room and popping them into the ten glass vases on the bar, lined up and waiting for the flowers.
He took out a cup and saucer, pulled a shot of espresso, and took a biscotti out of the large jar on the bar's counter, laying it on the saucer.
Then Gio sat at the polished wooden bar and picked up that day's newspaper, the New York Times of Wednesday, April 4, 2012.
Scanning the headlines, Gio turned to page five, folding the paper carefully and reading the story intently.
"Betty!" uttered Gio aloud, several times, as he read and reread the article.
His mind whirling in turmoil, Gio pondered the significance of the story's news.
Ignoring the rest of the paper and forgetting his coffee and biscotti, he got up, and, working automatically, thoroughly mopped the dining room's black and white tile floor.
Preoccupied by his turbulent thoughts, Gio continued to wash the floor long after it was perfectly clean.