Coffee
She was drifting in an endless cobalt sea. The blue ice boat rocked her, keeping her comforted and warm. Despite waves crashing around her, the boat remained steady, holding her safe. She looked to the horizon where the endless sea merged with the limitless cerulean sky. Where one ended and the other began she didn't know, and she didn't care. The sea was a brilliant, sparkling sapphire. She thought back, had she ever seen anything that blue. Yes, before they moved out here to this endless desert, her family had visited mamma's parents in Mobile. Grams and Gramps had brought them to the Gulf and there they had taken an excursion boat on a beautiful day, sailing, watching the dolphins leaping around them. She saw no dolphins now, yet the same excitement and the sense of anticipation lingered as she floated in blue – surrounded and cradled in blue.
The scene shifted and she was swimming in a vast pool of molten chocolate, cool, yet liquid, lifting her, exciting her. She longed to reach down and fill herself with brown, to dive into the deep amber swirls. Yet something held her back, the glimmering cocoa warned her, not yet, not now. Soon. Coffee! Yes, deep, rich umber coffee, that would enable it. She remembered the first time she'd tasted it; for so long it had been denied her because she was too young. The day she was old enough to enjoy the decadence of the rich, smooth blend, was a day of triumph. Chocolate and coffee warred for her attention, her love.
"Jayce! For the last time!"
A hand shook her roughly. Startled, she leapt from the heavenly coffee, swam through the azure sea, back to wakefulness. "What? Why?" she wailed.
"Jayce, wake up. We have to serve breakfast; you know we do." Her sister ruthlessly stripped off the bedclothes and yanked the pillow from beneath her head.
Jayce sat up blinking, her mind still back in her dreams.
"Come on, Jayce! Get moving," her sister urged.
Yawning and stretching Jayce reluctantly began to rise. "What's the hurry?"
"Come on. I want to be down there if they come, when they come. Do you think they'll come? This morning?"
"Who?"
"Those men. They've breakfasted here the last two days. Do you think they'll be here today?" Her sister babbled as she darted around dressing and brushing her hair. "Which one do you like better? The blond or the dark, dangerous one?"
"Blond? Dark and dangerous?" Jayce stopped braiding her hair and stared at her little sister (after all, Jayce was ten minutes older). "What are you talking about?"
"Those two strangers. The men. Aren't they the most exciting, gorgeous things you've ever seen?"
"Those drifters?"
"How can you call them drifters? They're real men, not like the boys around here."
As Jayce opened the door and whisked herself out of the room to be the first one in the café, she called over her shoulder, "I hadn't noticed."