Coffee and Stars

I wrote this in March while sitting in a Starbucks in Fullerton California with California Stars in my head.

A coworker just IMed me and we tried to joke about me— the Mormon in the Coffee Shop. Neither of us knew enough about coffee to make very funny jokes, but the smell has jogged my memory and coffee and stars have come pouring out.

What I do know about coffee is the sight of it drying in great red bean heaps on burlap sacks in front of Andean homes. Where every boy in town has been working in the fields from morning to night because it is harvest time. Every home you enter offers you a “cafecito” that you graciously decline.

I can picture the streets of Barrio Monsenor Moreno now that I have written it. I can see them climbing right up into the tops of the hills. Low cinder block homes, papaya trees, and bean-covered burlap stretched out on the steep sidewalks. I can feel the sticky vinyl benches of the ancient door-less vans that take you to the top for 25 cents.

I loved it when we were up there so late that the buses stopped running and we would have to walk down the hill in the dark, the air finally cool after another hot day, echoing feet on cobblestone streets, and the sky full of more stars than you can imagine.

3 responses for Coffee and Stars

  1. ellie lou says:
    May 24, 2004 at 10:56 pm

    andes and stars…i can hardly wait!!!

  2. Nancy says:
    May 25, 2004 at 4:47 pm

    Sounds beautiful.

  3. jared says:
    June 1, 2004 at 9:30 am

    hey josh, here’s some fan mail from a 17 year old student of mine (she claims that before coming to heritage her californian teenage friends were dedicated amishrobot readers):

    My Art Teacher (Jared) has been reading me your comical little entries, & can I say I’ve never laughed harder? Some would attribute this to a lack of funny people surrounding me; I attribute it to your GENIOUS! So, I just wanted to tell you that if at any time I am to run into you, I will be carrying a laminated picture of YOU & a sharpie, then I will ask you to sign the picture because you ARE MY IDOL. Creepy, yes. Untrue, no. The following are a list of questions I would like to answer: 1. What did you dream last night? 2. Do you like the Pixies? 3. How much do you weigh? 4. Where did you meet Adrienne? Was it magic? 5. Do you find it funny when people sing falsetto? 6. If you could walk with anyone alive, dead, etc…(I don’t know why I threw ‘etc.’ in there…) the world & ask them anything, who would it be and what would you ask them?

    Thanks to you!

    (heart) and admiration, Sophia Claire