Description
Runners to Nowhere
by Isaac Bashevius Singer
In the story Runners To Nowhere, by Isaac Bashevius Singer, a coffee shop is mentioned. Following is a description of that coffee shop: The two men sit in the well lit diner, it is well past sunset. Occasionally a car will rumble down the street, making a noise like thunder rolling across the sky, and the assorted diners glance up through the glass walls. Few other people sit finishing their coffee in the roomy booths that line the wall next to and to the right of the door. Small clinks of dishes come from around the room, sounding like separate notes on a page. A man finishes his coffee and rises from the dark blue plastic cushions. He tosses a handful of change onto the wooden table top. The coins bounce off the scratched surface, bouncing as if they were made of rubber, and finally finds a place in the plastic green sugar packet dispenser. On his way out the door, the diner glances around and nods at a waitress. The woman looks up from wiping down the turquoise and gray flecked Formica counter top and waves back, the rag she was using waving like a flag in a brisk wind. Clothed in her usual uniform, short sleeved, knee high aqua colored cotton dress with white apron, she goes over to the vacated table and scoops up the change along with the small white coffee cup. Walking back to the order window behind the counter, a clatter of pots emanates from the opening. All heads snap up; the waitress hurries over to her right, the shoelaces of her canvas shoes clicking on the floor like ticks of a clock towards the swinging door. Peering through the small circular opening, she sees the cook is alright, he simply dropped a pan. Another diner picks at the white paint covering the wall, and stares with glazed over eyes, as if they had been painted over with matte paint at the hanging fluorescent lights, clearly bored with what her dining partner is saying. A small bell rings and a new diner saunters in, eager for a cup of coffee. He settles on one of the dark blue cushioned stools and swivels around like a child would as he waits for the waitress to take his order. Two diners, sipping coffee at a square wooden table continue sipping form their white ceramic cups, one talking, the other listening in rapt attention.