Coffee Break

By A.W.McCollough

Never skip the opportunity to caffeinate. The revolution runs on Freedom Roast, charred algae nodules flavored with synthetic caffeine, flavonoids, and a cocktail of immune boosters. Tastes like the acid rain dripping from the rusted corner of a strip-mall dumpster. But the rumor is that Citizens sometimes get the real thing. My chronometer ticks down to the direct action at 0100. But a shot of true Citizen brew, a roast that might have rubbed shoulders with actual coffee, is impossible to pass up.

The bell rings over the door and green cap, 6' even, a tired mid-twenties, likely Citizen, looked up, eyes glazing as my inattention field, a 'ghost cloak' according to the tabloids, persuaded him the bar needed polishing, nothing to see here. Green cap will remember my breve and nothing else.
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