Coffee mugs can make you smile

“Here comes Miss M. to get her shot of death” she said each day when I stepped into the Mansion hall at 1PM every god’s praised afternoon during the workweek to ask for my single-shot-brazilian-blend-expresso.

Taheetah’s her name and she works at the Java City coffee shop inside the Techwood complex of Turner Inc. She’s black, she smiles with a full face – which includes her dark, long eyes – and she’s just happy to be alive. She has a son, a football player in Georgia Tech, that hugs her every night and thanks her for being the best single mom in the whole width world. She lives in the toughest part of town and knows all her neighbors by their first names. She sings at the Baptist mess every Sunday, rolling her chubby hips in gospel rhythm. Always smiling.

She cried when she embraced me in her strong, powerful, black arms the day I left, and she sent me this brownish yellow coffee mug last Christmas. With a single line written in black ink, a strong fist carving the sheet as she went “Even that sour black syrup you call a coffee is gonna taste better in this one!”

Thank you Taheetah, even American mild coffee tastes good in this loving cup you gave me. Hope y’all doing good back there.

Publicado originalmente em Reservoir Dogs.