Coffee in the Park…

☼ Phyzz watched from the window as Earth went from a speck in a distant galaxy to a decent sized plant. He was excited to get out of his ship. He had been traveling alone across the universe for years. Phyzz began to slow down as Earth got closer. Unfortunately, he did not start to slow down soon enough. Phyzz buckled in as he hit Earth’s atmosphere. His ship’s lifters burned off in seconds; then control was impossible and the ground was coming fast.

☼ It smelled of hot metal and burnt trees when Phyzz woke up. He kicked his way out and looked around. Blackness everywhere. His map wasn’t working, the ship was wrecked, and he couldn’t see anything but stars. His only good thought was that he didn’t land in the wet, at least on land he could fix his ship and be on his way. Phyzz sat next his ship and used his personal informational to finish reading up on Earth. He might as well know he was in for when the sun came up.

~ Becca gasped for air as she sat up. Something was wrong, she could feel it. Looking at the window she noticed the sun was barely starting to come up. What time was it? She was never up this early; work didn’t start until nine. The clock was blinking midnight. The power must have gone out. Becca didn’t see the point in trying to fall back to sleep, might as well start her day.

~ After she set all the clocks and started her coffee she went to take a quick shower. In the steam Becca thought about her life. How did she end up this way? She was a twenty-three-year-old librarian on her own in Westport, Washington. Mind you, she was very on her own. Becca had been orphaned as a baby, raised in foster care, had a slew of bad relationships, and was finally on her own.

~ The thick steam let Becca know it was time to get out of the shower. She tossed her hair in a bun and put her eyeliner on. Then her black slacks and grey polka-dot blouse. Next was coffee, crossword, and news, same as every morning. Becca was about half way done with her morning routine when the news got interesting. “Space junk,” they called it, that is what caused the power outage. A piece of an old satellite fell from space, making a purple line in the night sky, and taking out the power when it hit the ground. “Ya right,” was all she could think. Twenty minutes later she was headed down the driveway.

~ It was only a forty-five-minute walk to the city library from her house. Becca lived at the base of Mountain road and yes, it went from town to the mountain top. Thankfully she didn’t have to walk up that every morning. She got to go the other way, past where Mid-City Park and the woods met. This was her favorite part of the walk due to the fact, that no matter what, she always got to see wild animals. She loved animals. She had rescued many in her life but never got to keep one and truly have a pet.

~ Becca crossed the barely used street. It was still early for a great deal of the town, most of them didn’t really get going until eleven-ish. The smell of coffee from ‘Flirty Fran’s Frapps’ made her nose happy. Standing outside, the doors of the coffee shop was Mixxy. Before Becca could say anything Mixxy shoved a cup in her face. “One super triple ‘C’ for my best bestie in the world. Good morning Becca.”

~ Becca smiled, “Good morning Miss Mixxy. Oh, that looks good. Thank you.” Mixxy was the only friend that Becca had ever made. They helped each other through university, jobs, family, and boys; now they got to run the library together.

~ “So, any bites?” Mixxy asked. Then before Becca could answer, “Wait, why don’t I hear the chirp? Ugh, Becca! You’re gonna be alone forever if you don’t at least try to date.”

~ Becca rolled her eyes as she handed over her phone. Mixxy was going to turn the notifications back on for the dating app she had forcefully put on Becca’s phone. “Fine. I’ll get a pet, I promise. Just no more guys. I only attract dirt bag cheaters that use me and leave me.”

~ By the time they had reached the library Mixxy had the sound back on and was showing Becca guy after guy. None of them seemed interesting. Yes, some were cute but Becca was looking for a connection, something that sparked her. Then she saw a profile picture that took her breath away. It was a galaxy, so beautiful and it felt so close. Becca let Mixxy set up a meeting for after work. It was nine now, her meeting was at six, only nine hours to calm down. Ugh…

☼ As the sun came up Phyzz was able to see where he was. He was in a forest and by the placement of Earth’s sun he was in Washington. He looked over at his ship, it was bad. After a good look at the pieces he could find Phyzz realized he was going to be stuck here on Earth, probably for the rest of his life. He sat for a while remembering his travels through galaxies studying other life forms.

☼ Phyzz had grown up on a planet full of beauty and knowledge. His kind were like the keepers of knowledge for the universe. They collected information; data and stories only. No data that couldn’t speak for itself could go to his home planet. It was a good thing Phyzz knew over three million forms of communication. Finally, Phyzz stood up. He wasn’t going to sit and just give up. He wanted to live the rest of his life the best he could on this new planet.

☼ Other than Phyzz the only thing that survived the crash was his personal informational and it was only picking up signals from Earth. All of the other channels were dead. It must have been the heat on the way in. Phyzz was on his way down the mountain, still looking at Earth information, when he came across a dating app. He made a profile hoping it would help get him near a human. He used his favorite picture of his home galaxy as his picture.

☼ When Phyzz reached town he realized that he blended in way better than he thought he would. He just had to be careful who he spoke to. Phyzz managed to get himself some food and find a place to rest and observe the humans. While he tried to figure out what it was he was eating his informational made a sound. His eye widened, it was the dating app. There was a human interested in him.

☼ Phyzz opened the message. The picture was books. He thought this was great since he loved knowledge so much. After looking at the picture for a few moments he moved on to reading the attached profile. Her name is Becca. She is a local here in town and is the head librarian. Red hair, blue eyes, doesn’t like to drive, and loves to read. Phyzz happily agreed to a coffee meeting in Mid-City Park at six. This was great for Phyzz since he was already there. He found a shade tree and waited.

~ Becca had spent all day with butterflies in her stomach. She was really done with guys and relationships but Mixxy was being a good friend and trying to help, in her own way. At a quarter till six Becca left Mixxy to close the library. She had to stop at ‘Flirty Fran’s’ to get coffee for her meeting. As she walked up to the coffee shop she smiled, coffee made her happy.

~ “Hey girly, how are you?” Fran asked, bubbly as ever.

~ As Becca opened her mouth to say fine something else shoved its way out, “Shit! No! Oh no, how can I bring coffee to a coffee meeting when I have no idea what so ever about what kind of coffee he likes? Hot or cold? Big or small? Icky black or good?” Becca’s happy smile was melting faster than ice in Death Valley.

~ Fran’s bubbly stopped for the first time that Becca could remember. “Oh my dear girl, it’s normal not to know his coffee order yet and a head that just set a date is far to scattered to remember to ask.” Her true Italian accent came out, “You listen to Fran, my ‘fadar took-a to my mamma and my gammy took-a to my papa the wine. It is what you do on first date in old country Italy.”

~ After a few tears and a hug Becca was on her way to the park and she wouldn’t be more than three minutes late. As she walked Becca looked at the wine bottle in her hands. It was so elegant. The crisp autumn, almost burnt orange top of the bottle made the trees on the label pop. She had never had a Merlot before, only a dry white served at her and Mixxy’s hiring party. It was tart and left a funny taste in her mouth but she had heard reds and whites were very different. So in an effort to keep learning she decided to try the Wandering Giants Merlot. What a natural name she thought as she walked into the park.

☼ Phyzz had made sure to stay out of sight as best he could for most of the day. He really liked the shade tree he had found but he remembered that it was a coffee date and there was no discussion about food. He didn’t want to be rude and bother the human at her job so he ventured off to find snacks for his date.

☼ It didn’t take long for Phyzz to get back under his shade tree. Just up the block from the park was a deli. Phyzz had managed to get roasted turkey sandwiches, salad with a plum vinaigrette, and two cherry tarts. Now nothing to do but wait for her.

≈ Phyzz saw Becca before she could even call his name once. He knew he had to go about this just right. Becca on the other hand was ready to run home. She still thought this was a bad idea. Just as she called for Phyzz she saw a bush move. Becca began to back up. She wasn’t crazy, she knew wild animals can be twitchy. Becca was about to turn and bolt when she heard a whimper. She stopped and looked closer at the bush. It was a dog. Most certainly a chow-chow or husky with that amount of hair. He looked so sweet.

≈ After about a half hour of sitting on the grass petting the dog Becca told him it was time for her to head home. The dog rolled to his feet, barked at her, then ran off by the trees. Becca just sat stunned. Should she follow him? Would he bite her? After a minute to collect herself, Becca stood to leave.

≈ “Wait! Please! I’m here.” Becca froze. “I know that you’re going to scream and run but I got us this picnic and I’d like to spend more time with you.” Becca was confused. It was her date but how would he want more time with her? She hadn’t met him yet. What was going on?

≈ Becca was frozen in place as she watched the dog she had been petting come out from the tree line with a picnic basket in his mouth. He walked closer and set the basket down. “Hello Becca. I am Phyzz. Yes, I am an alien. No, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m stuck here and just didn’t know how to approach a human. I’m… thank you.” Phyzz finished as he sat in front of her.

≈ “Sorry. You’re sorry, not thank you.” Becca said as normally as she could. “Um, I brought wine because I realized I didn’t know how you like your coffee.” Becca couldn’t help but stare at Phyzz. “I really liked your picture or space.” Phyzz wagged his tail and Becca smiled.

≈ Becca and Phyzz spent the rest of the night sitting in the park, having a picnic, sipping and slurping their wine. Becca told Phyzz about being abandoned and living in foster care. In turn Phyzz told Becca the reason he was out so far with no supplies was because he just wanted to learn the information not have to sit and report it.

≈ By the time morning came around Becca and Phyzz had headed to Becca’s house. She had called Mixxy and asked her to be at the house. Once the three of them were together Becca and Phyzz sat Mixxy down and told her all about Phyzz, how they had stayed up all night getting to know each other, and how they had decided that Becca was keeping Phyzz. Mixxy was happy that her friend not only found a good guy but a loving pet as well.

≈ Every year on their anniversary you can still find Becca and Phyzz in the park sipping and slurping a bottle of Wandering Giants Merlot.