PART II

It is 2:13 PM.. It’s a pretty sunny day. You are going
to a coffee shop with Henry, a guy you just met. You go
with him because you said you’re thirsty when you
were waiting in the D.M.V.. Henry sat near you and
suggested you could go with him and have a nice coffee.
Your number was 2153, and it just went to 1582. You
agreed with him.

Now you are standing outside of a house and the
banner says “Carboniferous.” “Is this a coffee
shop?” you think, and you don’t even know how to
pronounce the word. Henry looks at you with a smile
and says, “This is the best coffee shop in Alhambra.”
You nod and go into the karboni-whatever after him.
When Henry opens the door, something immediately
dashes out. That scent dives into your nose with strong
power. It innervates all of you. The electric flow on the
nerves mightily impacts your brain. In this moment, your
brain is full of information, “It’s coffee,” “It’s
coffee,” “It’s coffee,” “It’s coffee,” “It’s
coffee…” When your brain returns to normal, you find
yourself standing in the middle of the entranceway.
Everyone in the shop is smiling and looking at you. You
feel embarrassed and uncomfortable. You walk quickly
following Henry.

“Just coffee,” You have a seat and say.

“Just a regular coffee? You’ve never seen the
menu, my friend.” We are NOT friends, you think.
“There,” he points to the menu, “Latte,
cappuccino…” You don’t really hear what he says.
You guess he may be the spokesman here.

You insist that you just want the “though it’s
great, too, but you should have a better one” coffee.
Henry goes for the order. And then you have quiet time
to look around this “Kar-blahblah” coffee shop. You
are sitting near the right hand side of the door. The shop
looks about 150 square feet, and the door side is a little
longer. Lying on the floor are orange tiles. You don’t
see any flaws or scratches on them. The walls are
paneled widthwise with dark planks. They make you
feel you are in a log cabin. The tables and chairs are
wood, too. You knock the table, and it sounds solid and
fine. You keep looking. There is a waitress in the back
of the room. Holy cow! Her hair is as pink as her dress.
You don’t understand why young people like to put
strange colors on their heads. The thing under the hair
is more important, you think. The waitress is carrying
some cookies on a plate. You look towards her. There
are two boys sitting on the table, and, a furry.

Anthropoid, wereanimal, and furry are words to name
these things which are half human and half beast. After
Would War II, your government made some laws in the
UN. The laws allowed genetic engineering and protect
the rights of those creatures, especially those things
with similar intelligence as humans. “Hum,” you
don’t believe their IQ really is as high as yours. In
these twenty years, they are getting more and more.
Now it is like they are everywhere; even when you just
want to have a cup of coffee. It didn’t occur you to
notice if this shop was for humans only or not. The furry
sitting with the two human boys looks like a white
weredog, and maybe is the same age as them. You
sniff the air; you seem to smell the smell from that dirty
beast.

“Coffee’s hereeee.” You turn your head; Henry
walks to you with two cups of coffee, three pitchers, and
four powder shakers. You look behind him; a
yellow-brown werecat in a waiter uniform is making
coffee behind the counter. This catman supposedly
made your coffee, you think. “This cup is for you. This
cup is for me. See, mine is espresso con panna! Here
you go. This pitcher is the soymilk; this is the half-half,
and this… Oh, no, I forget to bring the low fat one!”

“That’s okay,” you say. You take your coffee and
watch the surface, “Hmm… No hair…“

“Huh? What did you say?”

“Oh, nothing.”

“Well, these are for you, too. Chocolate powder,
cinnamon…” Henry keeps pushing those bottles to
you, but you just try the coffee. Fortunately, there is no
cat’s smell. And then, you still add a lot of whole milk
and cinnamon in it.

“It… it’s too much…” Henry’s eyes widen.

You look at those kids again. They are quarrelling.
The white dog boy holds a Game Boy, and the other two
are shouting at him.

In your mind, a voice comes up, “It is not right…
Animals can not disobey humans…” Then many
messages and images appear, like bubbles from the
abyss of your spirit.

“Beasts attacked in the Furry Pride parade…”

“A human sued by an animal…”

“Human police attacked one furry…”

“Furry commotion in Los Anglos…”

“The Martin Luther K. of the Anthropoid to be
killed…”

…

…

…


“Hey!” you are shocked by this sound; the human
boy with brown hair yells at the weredog boy and
presses on him.

“I said NO!” the weredog boy raises the Game Boy
in his right hand, his left hand grabs some pieces of
cookie, and he just throws those out. The cookies
don’t hit the brown hair kid, but hit the other black hair
one.

“OUCH!”

As the yelling continues, something hot, bouncing,
and surging happens to your heart. It is like the magna
and gas under the volcano. Then that emotion breaks
the bottom of your heart, seethes and fills into it. In two
heartbeats, that emotion seems to have already
disseminated into all of your blood vessels, no matter
arteries, veins, or micro vessels. You feel your body
move with the power from the emotion; you stand up,
move, and grab the weredog boy’s right hand!

“AAAAWUUUUU!” He yells. His paws open.

Dang. The Game Boy drops on the table.

And then someone holds your shoulder from
behind, “Let him go.” You turn your head; it’s the
yellow-brown catman. His fur puffs up, his ears pull
back, his eyes narrow, and his brow furrows. You feel
the power lessen. You can do nothing, except look at
him.

“WAAAAAA!” The weredog boy you are grabbing
starts crying.

“I Said… Let him go…!” The catman says. You
feel he puts more strength on his hand. The pink
waitress comes to take care of the other two kids. Henry
comes, too. He looks at you, looks at the catman, and
tries to put a word, but he has no ability to say anything.
Other customers start crowding.

You look around, and try to find anyone who can help.
However, everybody just looks at you. Your hands
sweat and shake.

Suddenly, you notice you still hold the cup of coffee.

And then, you throw it towards the catman’s head.