And the girl was not very pretty – overweight and unfashionable. She worked as a cleaner, even though it was called beautifully, “office hostess. And during the day she made instant coffee in her cubicle. And she ate lunch with cookies. It wasn’t the right food, but it was cheap. One day the boss came into her cubicle for some need, and she offered him coffee and cookies. She was simple-minded, like a child.
And this David drank the coffee and ate the cookies – he lived at a frantic pace, he didn’t even have time to eat. He sat on an iron stool at a rickety table. And about the cookies, he said that when he was a kid, they were such cookies! “Milk Jar” – so good! My grandfather brought them from the capital; they just melted in my mouth. And then there were these little caramels, chocolate on top and stuffed caramel on the inside. Very tasty! And chocolate was very different when I was a kid.
So he told me, and then he left. And then a couple of days later he dropped by again, asking for coffee – he was late for a meeting, he had no time to wait for the secretary to make it. Let’s have instant! And he told me how he used to go fishing with a muzzle as a kid. A muzzle is a braided thing, the fish get into it by themselves.
It was at his dacha. There was a small river, but in the army he served in the Marine Corps, on the Pacific Ocean. It was different there, of course! There were lots of fish! And the girl wrote and wrote him letters, and then stopped – she got married. That was quite understandable – they were serving for three years… So Jessica listened attentively. She even cried sometimes when David told her sad stories. Or laughed when he told a funny story. And they drank this horrible drink in huge quantities, completely unaware of how disgusting it was. And they ate cookies. And then David brought a cake. And he didn’t tell Jessica, “You should eat less. Instead, he cut off the biggest pieces with a plastic knife.
He went on and on about how his son had died, how his wife had left him, how he had been in prison during the bad years, and how he had escaped… It was a long story, but then they got married. And that was it. Although David is twenty years older than Jessica – so what? He fell terribly in love with her for her intelligence and good heart. And for her beauty – Jessica really had grown prettier.
Apparently, the coffee was healthy after all. Or love. Or David’s stories-he loved to talk about his life. But no one listened to them during his whole life. Only instructions were listened to without question, that’s for sure. Such a story about a terrible drink, which turned out to be the elixir of love. And about the fact that there are a lot of successful, beautiful, strong people out there who have no one to talk to. Who no one hears or listens to. And who will listen – that will lie on their hearts, because sincerity and frankness forever bind good people. And to his child, who will be born soon, David will also tell everything. And will listen to him.
And Jessica doesn’t talk much; but in the evenings they sing songs at home, a ridiculous thing for a married couple to do. But it’s very good; it’s almost like childhood stories…
