6th November 2015

On the day of Soma Edirisinghe's funeral. She was an incredible woman.

                                                                              *

I was sitting in an empty Hansa cafe that morning. The barista and I were a couple of coffees into enjoying each others silence. Dust floated in the soft sunlight.

The tiny room was scuffed from countless jazz and poetry nights and was steeped in that post-colonial Colombo ambiance, kind of frozen in the late-50's.

I was staring absently at the space between me and fliers on the opposite wall. Suddenly, the door swung open and slammed against the fliers. The room froze before tipping into chaos.

An older sweaty man in white linen staggered through the frame. He swung around at the sound of the door clicking shut and blinked at the window, tears streaming down his cheeks. He took off his sunglasses and stumbled closer to the counter.

"Can I have an espres- a double espresso? Please," he weighted each word with breathy sobriety.

"Y-y-yes, uhm please sit. I will bring for you," the barista quickly set about making the coffee.

"Can you grind the beans? Fresh, in front of me? What kind are they? Do I have a choice as to what kind of roast I'll be drinking?" he gargled.

The barista hesitated, looking over at me, cup in hand.

"I saw him grind the beans two minutes ago," I raised my coffee. He managed to focus on my face for a few seconds and smile.

The man pushed out a wheezy laugh and collapsed into the chair under the fliers. His left arm hung off the back of the chair and he rested his right elbow on the tiny table. He let his knees splay, melting his back against the wall.

"What's that you're reading? I- I- I'll tell you someone to read.. Malcolm Gladwell, he wrote Blink, Runaway, David and Goliath.." he sobbed lightly wiping his tears away.

The barista brought the coffee over and the man drew back slightly. He bowed his head in thanks.

"You know, I- I- you'll have to understand, I lost a very dear.. She was.. The reason why I am so very different to that dear, sweet girl is because of Karl Marx. She never tried to change anyone you know, always accepted people as they were." He pushed his sunglasses back on and sniffed, shaking his head.

"I'm sorry to hear that. Were you close?" I watched as he emptied cigarettes, a wad of cash and keys out of his pocket and onto the table. He cried all the while.

"She was.. You know, we.. What makes the world go round? Some say money, but actually it's the gravitational pull of the planetary system. Round and round it goes, on and on. And we? Well, we..." He pushed out another wheezy laugh.

The door tinkled open and a guy in a grey suit walked in. He ordered a coffee then sat on the sofa next to my chair. He pretended to read documents from a folder.

We listened to the hum of the AC, waiting for the man in linen to speak again.

"Now, now.. Now, you see, this is how I am going to categorise you. What is -" another older man with a pony-tail entered the cafe and the man in linen bolted out of his chair.

"Fancy meeting you here, join me for a coffee will you? I want you to sit right here with me and tell me a joke." He followed the pony-tail to the counter, holding his finger up as he spoke.

"Ah shit, don't do this now..." the pony-tail was wearing a blue shirt and jeans. "What are you doing here?" he sounded fed up.

"No- no- because now, I want to know, just what exactly were you doing before coming in here? Where were you? Come, sit here with me. Tell me a joke, I need one today. You are being very rude now because I have invited you to sit with me" he jerked in closer to the pony-tail's face with every word till they were nose to nose.

"Look, I'm leaving. I can't -" the pony-tail tried to duck past the man in linen.

"Can't? Or Won't?" the man in linen blocked the door, slowly shaking his head. "You, you, you.. You are like the dengue mosquito infecting everyone with your disease," his lip curled.

"Get out of my way." the pony-tail hissed and motioned for the barista.

The barista stood up.

"Okay, okay! Okay... Leave, if you must," he held his hands up and wheezed out a laugh as the pony-tail left. His eye's panicked as he padded around agitatedly, wringing his hands.

"Hey man, do you wanna go out for a smoke?" the guy in the grey suit gently asked.

"Now here is a real man!" gratitude rushed over his tear soaked face. Before the door shut on them he poked his head back into the cafe and laughed.

"Sorry for being, how do they say it? Interruptus maximus! Haa haa haa..."