Chocolate
When I awoke, I lay there for a few minutes trying to sort things
out. The clock said 9:08. After reminding myself that this was a
Saturday and I did not have to go into the place I laughingly refer to
as “work,” I began to wonder: Had I dreamed it? No; there was a wet spot
where she’d lain. And I became aware of the aroma of fresh coffee (half-
Sumatra, quarter-pound each of French-roasted Mexican Altura and French-
roasted Colombian, dripped in a Braun Melitta-filter pot) I rolled to my
feet, pulled on my faded blue terrycloth robe, slipped into my slippers
(clever name for them, eh?) and thwap-thwapped into the living room.
Elly had opened the shutters and glorious sunshine was pouring in
through the fourth-floor windows of my tenement apartment. She was doing
wonderful things for my old, blue Dior robe (the tattered one that came
halfway to my calves). A cup of The Good Stuff was on the battered old
oak table next to the love seat and she’d switched the stereo to play
through the living room speakers, the ones in the books shelves. (more…)







