LUCKY ESPRESSO CAFE

©2003 Cynthia Helen Summers

Introduction While surfing through Usenet on March 27th, 2001 I decided to look up writers newsgroups because I'm a writer. I stumbled across an empty little newsgroup called alt.espresso-fiction. When I say it was EMPTY, I do mean it was EMPTY!!! There was NOBODY home! So I decide to take a chance and post there just because it was there and then check back later to find out if my post came through. It did. And so I decided I would "adopt" alt.espresso-fiction. I decided I would create a little Usenet cybercafe. It would be an imaginary coffeehouse on a sidestreet in West Hollywood where folks could drop in to roleplay and create. The Lucky Espresso Cafe was born on March 28, 2001. "Lucky" is the nickname I have been using after I changed my nickname ( I do this occasionally ) to Cid Lucky. "Lucky" was inspired by St Patrick's Day and the little website I had created for my parents who had met on St Patrick's Day and the 50 years of luck love God had blessed them with. So feel free to drop on over to alt.espresso-fiction and visit LEC ( Lucky Espresso Cafe )! Your hostess, Cid Lucky UPDATE: APRIL 5,2002 Due to "Skam" (spam) and an newsgroup that continues to stay deserted, I have chosen to no longer post at alt.espresso fiction. LEC was born there so I will always appreciate the fact that it inspired my creativity. But in the future I will write about Lucky Espresso Cafe, as well as Sunrise Boulevard on webpages and on "hard copy."

7777 SW Sunrise Boulevard Cid had looked up from her cards. She placed a bright red ring in the center of the pile in front of her. "It belonged to my great-great grandmother." she spoke softly. The bald,roly-poly, very short man looked across the table at her, his bleary, steel gray eyes were cold. "I'm sure that when I win this game it will be a nice trinket to add to my others." A blindingly bright pinky ring with dozens of gems that eclipsed the size and beauty of her famly's treasured heirloom looked up at her from his pudgy right hand. "Have anything to add to the pot besides that ring?" she asked. That ring was a bit too gaudy for Cid. The man nodded. He tossed a piece of paper and a keyring with several keys of different sizes and colors onto the table. "Deed to seven pieces of property on Southwest Sunrise Boulevard in West Hollywood." he said. He peered at Cid as she looked her cards over. "Go fish." he said. At the end of the night, in the early morning hours, Cid had picked up the piece of paper that was the deed to her new properties, the keyring, her great-great grandmother's ruby ring and the pile of gold coins. As soon as twilight had passed into the dawning of day the man across from her had disappeared. But not before he had renamed Cid Sassiseasons "Cid Lucky." The deck of cards had disappeared along with the man. When she had touched the gold coins they had turned into dry leaves that disintegrated into dust. A wind out of nowhere grabbed the dust and it burst into a small kalidescopic rainbow. Cid could have sworn that she heard haunting music for just one second before the wind disappeared from view. She looked at where the gold coins and then the leaves had been and saw a small scrap of paper. Picking it up, she read "If you had been dazzled by the the glitter of my glamour ring you would have lost your game of chance. Enjoy your new property, Ms. Lucky." It was signed with the embossed imprint of a four-leaf clover. The ruby ring went back on her finger; the key ring and the deed went into the pocket of her faded jeans. Cid had just enough money to grab a bus to West Hollywood from the Faery's Luck Casino in Gardena that she had stumbled into last night when she had read "Free buffet" on its marquee. Yestersday she had been homeless and today she was a property owner. Indeed, she felt she deserved her new nickname: Lucky. Southwest Sunrise Boulevard is a street in West Hollywood south of Sunset Boulevard and North of Fountain Avenue. Cid now owned, at 7777, a good-sized building there, along with six other properties. She had painted a bright sign that glowed neon in the dark: Lucky Espresso Cafe, it read. Cid was very excited about her new business. She had always wanted to own her own coffeehouse. Unlike the other coffeehouses in the L.A. area, LEC ( as Lucky Espresso Cafe came to be called ) would be open 24/7. In other dimensions, space and time, the hours were even longer. At any time, the artistically inclined could come in to sing, dance. paint or write. It would take some elbow grease and a certain amount of creatvity but Cid hoped to have LEC open and ready for business in a month or two. Right next door to LEC at 7775 SW Sunrise were the Sunrise Fountain Bungalow Apartments. Cid was the owner of the apartments as well. Like the coffeehouse, the apartments were "fixer-uppers.' Two-story stucco, the bungalows looked out on a weedy courtyard with a broken fountain in the middle of it. The top levels of the bungalows had balconies in the front and back. Fenced in backyards, big enough for fruit trees and a small garden, were in the back of them. She had moved into one of the apartments. No more sleeping under the bridge wih homeless teens ( and Cid was middle-aged ) and having to deal with hunger, cold and scuzzy, smelly trolls. Cid now had PROPERTY! She had a place ( or seven ) to hang her beret.

The Wish-Shadow Cid Lucky looked at the front door of the Lucky Espresso Cafe. Even though the sun was shining, it was a chilly afternoon in West Hollywood. She opened the door to her newly acquited establishment and walked in. And sighed. Definitely a fixer-upper. There were cobwebs on the tall ceilings and corners of the walls. Dust was in the air. She ran her hand over the dirty counter that separated the kitchen from the main room of the coffeehouse. Her mouth formed a grimace as she lifted her hand up swiftly. "Yuck!" Her hand came up grimy. "Where is everyone?" she thought and sighed a sad sigh at the overwhelming thought of getting things into shape. She walked over to the stage. Behind it was a dressing room and a glassed-in deejay booth. A shadow appeared in the booth, startling her. It was an alter wish-being of a fifty-something properly correct ( Republican, of course ) upper-class married matron who lives in Anaheim Hills in Orange County. Back in the sixties Marianne Thorndale had wished, in her very proper "Establishment" heart ( though it was only a whisper of a wish it had, nonetheless, hidden itself away until it found itself, years later, as the wish-shadow deejay at Lucky Espresso's ) that she could have been a deejay at a club, discotheque or even...a coffeehouse. Mrs. John Kenneth Sinclair the Third ( the former Marianne Thorndale ) lived a busy and boring corporate executive's wife's life in Anaheim Hills while the wish-being of her extremely nonwayward youth lived a fantasy life in a city she would not even have considered stepping foot in. Wish-Shadow nodded in Cid's direction and soon music filled LEC ( Lucky Espresso Cafe, as Cid and others called it ). Holding a wireless microphone, Cid stood on the stage and entertained an empty cafe --- and a wish-being who played background music for her to sing along with. As soon as the music started, Cid's appearance changed. The apron she had worn, while cooking behind the counter, disappeared. Her golden hair was upswept and pinned by clips in the back of her head. She was now wearing a strapless emerald silk brocade dress. Long pale green gloves held the microphone. She began to sing a torch song. "Yearning sinks way down inside of my soul.... like a snow blizzard, blowing chill and cold.... why these feelings assault me, baby, I don't know.... but I'm loving, you, loving you soooo...." [ Copyr 1990 Cynthia Helen Summers ]

Zombie-guys and New Decor "Welcome! Welcome! One and all!" Cid looked around LEC, months from its opening. She had discovered that there were zombie-guys who came with the place. They lived within the cracks of the walls and ate cockroaches ( this made Cid VERY happy to know ). And they came out in the early evening to let her know that she was now their zombie-mistress ( she didn't want them to call her zombie-MASTER, as she was a good Christian lady who knew that Jesus had told His followers not to call each other "masters" ) and her every wish or desire was their command. She had balked at first but once they made it clear that yes, they'd be willing to be called her buddies instead of slaves, she agreed not to feed the cockroaches they fed upon any salt ( zombies being on a salf-free diet ). The zombie-guys agreed to clear up the cobwebs, dust the place and scrub down the kitchen and the floors. They also told her how to change the furniture. As the zombie-guys looked on Cid showed the Wish-Shadow and them just how to go about being an interior decorator. "If the decor doesn't suit you then we will take a vote." She raised her hand. "Majority rules and we'll just push a little button under the counter here and voila! That uncomfortable stylish piece of rot-iron pompous piece of furniture will find its way to a more stylish dimension. Ah! Comfort...that is what you're asking for? No problemo! Birrrriiiizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!!!!! There we have it! Chartreuse or magenta fringed chenille-covered comfy sofas with a looooooooooong and wiiiiiiiide coffee table with foot grooves for sticking your feet in and grooves to put your plates and mugs in. Just REEEEEEELAXXXXXXXX! Now you just kick back and ENJOY your time with us...if you manage to find your way here that is....."

Thursday Afternoon "Good afternoon." Cid Lucky tipped her beret at the zombie-guys who were hard at work. She had found a large painting in a gilded golden frame at her apartment. It was of a handsome young man dressed in the height of eighteenth-century fashion. She had brought the painting over with the help of a couple of zombie-guys. They hung it up on the wall of the men's room. "The Lucky Espresso Cafe is now open for business." Cid tried out practicing her hostess with the mostest speech on the zombie-guys. "Things are a bit slow this afternoon. Here's our menu for the day: we have clam chowder and fish and chips. Malt vinegar for you Brits, homemade tartar sauce. A nice apple pie. And several types of tea and coffee. Our coffees are the finest to be found in any world or dimension. They can be served up hot or cold. Here at the Lucky Espresso Cafe we have a pass the hat open mike stage throughout the day. Just sign in and preform all you like for the customers. Hopefully they will be generous enough with their tips to afford you a decent meal and don't worry too much about the customers who shapechange as cats. They know it's thursday --- and we have fish here on thursday. Every cat-shape in the Southland is going to make their way to LEC."

Galaxy Visitor and Flyers Cid had dozed off on one of the chartreuse couches. She looked up to see four heads peeking in the door. Each head had three eyes and two slit-mouths. With ten arms and green-speckled orangey-pink skin it was obviously a being from another galaxy.... "Hi!" Cid smiled at the thought of someone inquiring about LEC. But as soon as it had ducked its head in the door it vanished from view. "Well hopefully it will come back once we open and bring its friends. A shy sort of creature, though. I HOPE it comes back. LEC is gonna be a friendly place. I'LL make sure of that!" She went back to sleep on the couch. The next day Cid decided to see about getting some flyers run up and distributed around town and to various galaxy and dimensional portals. The zombie-guys had shown her that the handsome young man in the painting that had been hanging in the men's room was actually the guardian of a timeline tunnel. The Honorable Frederick Robertshire, was taken and placed in the hallway leading to both the men's and women's rooms ( the zombie-guys explained that Freddy had been complaining as he wanted to be able to eye the ladies. A bit of a rake in his time, they told Cid ). Freddy reached out to Cid, who took his hand. They walked down a time tunnel together and he pointed her towards where she could find some carrier pigeons who would take her flyers to any time or dimension.

No Cover Bands A homely, middle-aged woman with a saggy face and cold eyes, arrogant attitude and pursed lips pushed open the door. "We're not open yet. " Cid said, smiling. "Though you are more than welcome to the grand opening of the Lucky Espresso Cafe when it is finally open in a few months." The woman's whiny voice spat out noise pollution. "My name is Hag Ranketta Rottugly Skank and I'm here to see about booking my cover band, the Ego Not Soul Blues Band because I'm the STAR." "We don't book cover bands here." Cid said. "Sorry." Ranketta Skank looked astonished. "B-b-butttt! I'n the STAR!!!!!! I'm WONDERFUL! All women but me look like drag queens and pathetic hippie hos! And my husturd, the Trailer Park King, thinks so too!" One of the janitors, a shy kind of zombie-guy, came over, a broom in his hand. "Any problems,boss?" Cid shook her head. "No. I'm just explaining to the troll here that we don't book cover bands." Zoo-beX, the zombie-guy janitor looked nauseous at the thought of a cover band playing LEC. Cid was afraid that he'd barf all over Ranketta Skank's dress but from the print and material it appeared that Ranketta had already done so and had then forgotten to wash it. "I'd loan you the broom to fly home on." Zoo-beX started to speak but Cid cut him off in mid-sentence. "She's not a witch. She's too homely to be a witch. She's just one of those loser trolls." Cid mumbled to herself in disgust. "Not even open yet and the trolls already show up."