As Medford and I made our way towards our usual table, the one by the front plate-glass window, where in the summer months we can (and do) make comments about the passers-by, but in winter we generally avoid looking out—the reflection’s not pretty, we were AGAIN stopped in our tracks by:

“HEY YOU TWO GENTLEMEN,” Molly yelled, “SIT OVER HERE!”

“AND A FINE GOOD MORNING TO YOU TOO,” Medford yelled back, and then in his indoor voice: “we’ll just have our usual mugs of organically & shade-grown, fair-trade, French-roast coffee. Don’t forget the cream & sugar.”

“Yuk,” I muttered, almost under my breath, “you may as well drink factory coffee out of a can.”

“How you guys doin’ t’day?” Molly asked as she brought our coffee, “you want to order?”

“Just finer than frog’s hair,” I replied, “not yet, as it’s not germane to the conversation.”

“Huh?”

“Never mind, it’s kind of an ‘in joke’,” Med quickly replied, as he polluted his coffee, “we’ll order later.”

“OK,” she answered, and then continued, “yesterday was not one of my better days: first I insulted you…”

“…That’s old news,” Medford interrupted, “sorry, go on, please.”

“’s OK, anyway, shortly after you left, these young ‘yuppie-types’ came in,” she continued, and I overheard part of their conversation while I was taking their order, “they were talking about Gov. Pawlenty’s plan to restore some funding to the ‘MinnCare’ health care program to include more low income working families.”

“Yeah, I heard,” Med said over the rim of his coffee mug, “they had to cut funding last session to help balance the budget. But now our state appears to be headed for a surplus, so their looking to restore some services that they feel are necessary. Pawlenty seems to be a (I hate to use the term) ‘compassionate conservative.”

“Anyway,” she went on, “this one guy, I think they called him James, went on and on about how if they did that, all ‘those people’ would come to Minnesota for our welfare benefits, and that he should not have to pay for their lack of ‘personal responsibility.’ Well I about lost it—my Irish temper almost got the best of me.”

“James, you say?” Med asked, “Do you suppose that’s the James who went off on Carl?”

“Look guys, I don’t mean to burden you, but I gotta vent a little,” Molly said, filling our cups, “I had it all—house, two wonderful kids, husband, I was a stay-at-home mom. One day, after the kids and I were visiting my sister in Duluth, we came home—and my husband, and most of the furniture, was gone! My loving husband had left us, lock, stock & barrel!”

“I’m really sorry to hear that,” I said, maybe a little lamely—I hate hearing this stuff.

“I did nothing wrong, I thought I had been ‘personally responsible,’ Maybe this James guy thinks I should have married better? We were married for ten years before this happened,” she said, “anyway, enough cryin’ in your coffee. Things are looking up for me—George (café owner) wants me to manage here, so he can spend more time with his other restaurant, and I found someone to share my home—a friend of mine and her daughter are moving in after Thanksgiving—the two incomes will come in handy—I’ve been struggling to keep up the payments—we can help each other out.”

As Molly left to take care of the increasing number of customers, heard Med say: “Look what just pulled up, Jay.”

I looked up in time to say James stepping out of his new Chevy Avalanche. The truck had a big ‘for sale’ sign in the window.” (To understand James in context, click this link)