Coffee and sugar

enough to wet the sting of the broiling, in temporal drought that etched in the back of her throat.

And so, at the end of every day; when the unforgiving sun made its bed in the blanket of the horizon, his mother, his father, his brothers and his sisters would all return from their toils on the land to a single cup of coffee awaiting each and every exhausted hand; a flavor unto its own, prepared as a toast to the marriage of the arduousness and amenity of their unique existences; the perfect coffee and sugar, brewed as the sum of their every day.

And then; in every morn, as the darkest hour turned to the faintest light, when in the outstretch of night, the sun birthed from nature’s womb, a coffee with sugar would be waiting each and every one.

Joao was happy to find a place; somewhere useful to belong inside his family, even if it were for just a minute or two at the start and end of every day and so he dedicated himself to becoming an artist at what he did, putting his heart and soul into every single cup, watching from the creepy shadows as each and every person whisked up their cup gingerly and pressed it gently against their lips, lightly breathing a chilling wind over the skin of the coffee; just enough to shake off the lines of steam that clung to the surface like fine dust on old photograph.

He loved to watch their eyes speaking what their voices could not. When the coffee touched their tongues, their pupils would shudder, as if the sun had just taken refuge in a blind man’s eyes, unshackling some obedient disconnection concerning within, shocking their senses into familiarity.

And as their eyes settled and their hands clasped the cup, their fingers would fold gently like the pages in a book; as if in silent prayer. And each and every person would; like a child seeing themselves for the first time in their own reflection, feel the warmth of their own aching heart stretching down to iron out the creases in their souls. And as each drop rolled from their wilted, cracked lips, over their enslaved, domesticated and tongues and deluged their droughted senses, each and every person would discover their 17