His Hope

Part 1: Coffee Shop

1

There was something stirring deep in the atmosphere beneath two towns as the sun began to rise one morning. No one was the wiser as each person began to wake from their sleep, start their morning coffee or get in their car to head to work or school. It settled in the earth's core like a seed being planted into the soil and then slowly it sprouted its roots. There was no stopping it from turning into a bud or growing leaves, and eventually petals. It was born from somewhere that couldn't be explained, protected by the inner core of the earth, covered amongst the beauty of nature, waiting patiently for its moment to shine.

This particular morning a young woman was buried deep in her covers, enduring a dreamless sleep. Her job tended to keep her awake throughout the night, which meant sleeping through her morning, something she hated. When the shrill sound of her alarm clock woke her, she groaned feeling completely out of it. Sighing, she turned cutting off the third ring before it could start. Her arms reaching up above her head, pulling and twisting till all her joints popped back into place. Rubbing her eyes and stumbling out of bed and through her bedroom door, she held onto her railing as she descended the stairs. Entering the bathroom and flicking on the light, she squinted at the harsh rays that immediately attacked her corneas.

By the time she forced herself through her simple morning routine, she walked back into her bedroom feeling refreshed and a bit more ready for the day. She was in the middle of pulling a pair of jeans up her legs when her phone started ringing. She hopped and wobbled over to her dresser, shimmying her jeans up over her legs as she went, before picking her phone up quickly and swiping right on the screen to accept the call.

"Yellow." She huffed as she tried to button and zip up her pants.

"Green. Hi." Eloise, her younger sister sang through the speaker.

"What have you gotten yourself into this morning?" Louisa questioned skeptically. Eloise was a force of nature, and if you got in her way she'd just drag you right along with her.

"Meet me at old John's in fifteen and I'd be happy to tell you!" Eloise's voice sounded slightly far away, blanketed in a static and muffled noise.

"Alright, see you in 30." She mumbled, knowing it'd probably take her 45 minutes to get there; Eloise's time management skills were not the greatest.

"Love you, Bye!" Her younger sister laughed before she heard the dial tone.

Louisa was her name. She was a small girl, only about 5'1 and 112 lbs. on a good day. She had honey-brown locks that fell just below her ears, her eyes were round and wide resembling almonds with golden specs sitting just inside. She had never fretted much about the way she looked, quite content and comfortable in who she was. She was simple, easy to please, and she liked that about herself; That it didn't take much to make her happy.

Shaking her head, she chuckled and turned to finish getting ready. She opted for an over-sized sweater and pulled on a pair of white sneakers to go with it. She decided to tidy up her room, which took her about 15 minutes to complete. Sighing, she checked the small clock hung on her and decided to just walk down to old John's, figuring she'd still beat Eloise there and she'd get to enjoy the crisp air.

Old John's is a smaller brick building, which had seen better days, settled right outside of the town square. It had gone through many phases over the years, but the comfort and homey feeling you get when you walk in had always stuck around. There were 5 tables set up outside that a few people had settled into, despite the colder weather. A large sign that used to light up, but hadn't for many years, read 'SAL'S FLOWER SHOP', that Old John never had the heart to take down.

Sal was John's father's best friend, who passed the shop onto John when he was about Louisa's age because he had no kids of his own. John had tried to keep the flower shop open for a few years but realized that it wasn't his passion and had turned the old store into a coffee shop instead. "The best decision I ever made." He would say, but he still used the skill's Sal taught him and the old greenhouse out back to fill the place with plants and flowers, so it always felt like spring.