Nancy Drew: Mystery of the Six and a Half Keys
Chapter Four
Ten minutes later, Nancy finally finished finding Patricie's three missing items. It had taken Nancy way too long to realize the recipe book was on the low wall near the mystery section of the library. Why wasn't in the cooking section?!
"I got your stuff," Nancy said. "Can I have my coffee now?"
"No, first you must learn how to brew the perfect cup of coffee," Patricie said. "You want to learn about the local culture here in Prague, no? This will help you."
"Unless someone stole Adela's necklace in order to buy coffee, I'm pretty sure this won't help," Nancy muttered. She took several steps backwards, then did a running jump over the counter. Nancy thought it was pretty impressive-looking, even if she broke three coffee mugs in the process.
Patricie showed Nancy to the expresso machine. "You take the customer's order here," she said.
"I want a sweet sunrise," the customer said.
"That has twice the espresso as the café americano, plus the amount of milk in the café con leche divided by the scoops of vanilla in an au lait," Patricie said.
"I do not understand a single thing you just said," Nancy said.
"It's simple. Put the cup in the coffee maker and press the button with two beans," Patricie said. "That's because this order has two shots of espresso. Understand?"
"I guess," Nancy said. She put down the cup under the middle faucet and pressed the button.
"No, that's the wrong—that's the water faucet!" Patricie cried. Espresso started pouring out of the right faucet, nowhere near the cup.
"A water faucet? Shouldn't that be in the sink?" Nancy asked. "Don't tell me the coffee in this café is watered down!"
"This machine dispenses hot water, in addition to coffee," Patricie explained.
"Then what's this button do?" Nancy asked. Suddenly, the metallic rod started shooting out hot milk.
"That's the milk dispenser!" Patricie said. "You're getting it all over the floor!"
"This thing makes water, milk and beans?" Nancy asked. "Yeesh, sounds like it makes everything besides coffee!"
"Espresso is coffee!" Patricie said.
"No way, I thought it was just a type of coffee," Nancy said.
"Uh...is this a bad time?" the customer asked.
"Don't worry, I'll get your coffee done as soon as I figure out this screwy machine," Nancy promised. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to want a cup of milk instead of coffee, would you?"
"Allow me," Patricie said, stepping in with a fresh cup. She quickly put in two shots of espresso, vanilla and sugar. "You," she said, pointing at Nancy. "Since you're so good with hot milk, you get to make latte art."
"But the guy didn't order a latte," Nancy said.
"It's simple," Patricie said. "See the fun designs here? You need to pour the milk on top of the coffee, to make those designs."
"I totally got this," Nancy said. She picked a cute little cat and started pouring.
"You went outside the line," Patricie said immediately.
"Crap," Nancy said. She scooped out half the coffee, then tried again.
"The whiskers are too tiny," Patricie said.
"Try, try again!" Nancy said. She scooped out half of the coffee, then tried pouring as slowly as possible.
"Could you please hurry it up?" the customer asked.
"Dang it, you made me mess up!" Nancy said, as she accidentally dumped a huge blob onto the cat's eye. She scooped out half of the coffee, then tried again.
"That's the third time you've thrown out the coffee," the customer complained. "My drink now has more milk than coffee!"
"Stop trying to ruin my artistic vision!" Nancy cried. She made a frowny face with the creamy milk. "See? That's what you look like."
The man left without paying for his coffee.
"Wow, that guy was a jerk!" Nancy said. "NEXT!"
"That's okay," Patricie said. "I think you've made enough coffee today."
"But I only made the one coffee," Nancy said.
"And it was wonderful," Patricie said. "As a reward for your excellent coffee-making skills, here is a snowglobe."
"A snowglobe? I wanted coffee!" Nancy complained. Then she shrugged. She could always give the snowglobe to Ned and pretend she bought it for him on purpose. It did look kind of expensive.
"This is a totally normal snowglobe, right?" Nancy asked.
"As far as I know," Patricie said.
"Good, because how weird would it be if the snowglobe ended up being a secret key that unlocks a hidden underground laboratory or something?" Nancy asked.
"You have a very active imagination," Patricie said.
"It's what makes me a great detective," Nancy said proudly.