The angle of view

The angle of view

I have been visiting that café for ages and it is also a long time since I have noticed that young man for the first time. He was tall, skinny and dressed in a shirt and tie, sweater and pale brown loose pants. His facial features were sharp with a distinctive big nose and sunken eyes that gave a dark tinge to his quite comical figure. The kid wasn't a Marine, he was too young, too hiccup, and seem to have low self-esteem. Nevertheless he wore a gun, he went to "the Marine Cafe" and he had the stare. The stare I have seen before on my face in a mirror.

I have been seeing this boy almost every day, except a few weeks, when I assumed he was out of the country, or at least out of town. Over the time, the boy looked worse, more and more desperate, lost and his eyes were darker and grimmer. The shadows around his eyes were no longer only shadows, but I would bet he had puffy eyes because of the lack of sleep and mental stress. I was almost sure, that he must work as I do as a federal agent, but not for us, maybe for NSA, CIA, or FBI. Nevertheless, I did not really know the boy and I hated other agencies. I bought him a coffee and sat down to his table. I did not know why I did that. Maybe today the boy looked even more desperate, or maybe I really am a father figure, who knows.

Today, the young man was sitting alone, gazed sadly out of the window. Startled he winced when I came to him and put in front of him a mug. He looked up at me with confusion and scare and shyness. He fixed his eyes on the cup, then at me and then back to the cup of hot drink. He opened his mouth, but after a while he without a word closed it, like a fish out of water. Perhaps he wondered if I want to poison him, but then probably he came to the conclusion that I don't, because eventually he accepted the cup.

"I told myself, that I'd rather wait a while until the line vanish and then buy a cup, but… Well, thank you," jabbered the young man embarrassed.

"You are welcome!" I smiled.

There was a long silence, we just were sitting there, sipping coffee and looking out of the window at the daily bustle of the city. After I drank my coffee, I got up and gave the boy one more friendly smile, wished him a good luck and left.

Since then, I have always drunk a morning coffee with him.

I was sitting in my favorite coffee room and waited until the line at the bar vanishes, so I could buy my morning coffee. I was at my usual table. The sun was shining. I watched people on the street, hurrying here and there, to school, to work for their daily duties. That I have done every morning. Normally this view calm me down, it brought me confidence that this is something that will always be the same, what will be here forever, but not today. Today it did not brought inner peace; on the contrary, I was angry at the world.

Damn, I was kidnapped, I played Russian roulette with the unknown, I was infected by anthrax, I killed to survive and not just once, but none of it was as bad as the time, when I have lost HER.

I was fully engrossed in myself. I hardly perceive the surroundings, so I was quite startled when suddenly a cup of coffee landed in front of me. I instinctively flinched and then looked in disbelief at the giver of that hot drink, whom I obviously amused by my reactions, because his lips for a moment flashed a smile. A rare smile if I could judge, according to the profile.

He was an older man with gray hair, but could be much older than Hotch. I think one of the types of people who begin to turn gray in college. With Hotch he had in addition to age, when I do not count that fleeting smile, the same unreadable. He looked like a soldier, but his eyes were not dark brown as Hotch's, but clear blue, like the ocean. He didn't wear a suit, but far more informal clothes than my boss, jeans, shirt and jacket. Body posture seemed at first glance to be lax and relaxed, but if you looked more carefully, there was some internal tension in that pose. At the side of his body he had a revolver in a holster. If I met him on the street just once, I would think that he might be an employee of a security guard, a soldier or a policeman. However, considering the place, where I was and the fact that I had been seeing him here every morning, I'd guess the he was a former Marine, now working at the NCIS. He's always appeared in the same hour, and always bought two coffees, one for himself and the other one for, who knows, wife, lover, colleague... He always bought and gone, but today not. Today he bought three and sat with me.

I uncomprehendingly stared at the cup, I looked at him and then back again on the cup of coffee. What does it mean? I mean, It does not happened every day that a stranger buys you a cup of coffee, right? Well not to me. The possibility that he would like to poison me, did not come to my mind at that moment. It was a ridiculous idea. You would not try to give someone a poison in such a clear way, plus the man wasn't profile-tip of a cold-blooded killer, or at least not poisoner. No, no, this was not a bad thing, but on the contrary. A friendly gesture, you might say. It was quite nice, but maybe I'd be happier if it was the first case, because at least then I would know how what to do. Now I just blushed. I hope it wasn't well visible. And I started to splatter something unintelligible.

"You are welcome!" he smiled and smiled again.

The long silence came but that didn't matter. We sipped coffee and I thought about life moments like this, such a gesture of support among the people. It lighted up the torches in the world of darkness, in another words it simply restored my faith in humanity. What he was thinking? I do not know. He finished his coffee and wished me a good luck, then he left.

I expected that it was just a fleeting moment, and tomorrow everything will be the same as usual, but it wasn't. It wasn't over. And then there was the case of the dead Marine, and everyone was really astonished how I know the boss of the best NCIS team. Before I answered them, so I had known they will be laughing, because who would not laugh?

"Well, we ... we ... we drink a coffee together every morning."