Today started as most days did for Joseph. He rolled out of his creaky twin bed at 6 AM and stretched his sore joints as he got ready for another day of work at Jumping Beans, the local coffee shop. After taking a quick shower and throwing on an old t-shirt and some tattered jeans, Joseph grabbed his bike and boarded the elevator to head to work. This morning there was, however, one exception to his usual routine. As Joseph exited the elevator on the ground floor, he overheard a hushed Coco telling George something about a dead man in the parking deck. Despite his curiosity about what had happened, Joseph usually tried to keep out of others’ business, and here would be no different, so he continued moving and opened the front door of the building to face the cool fall breeze.
After a short bike ride through the town, this time without any flat tires, Joseph arrived at Jumping Beans. Working there wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great, as were most things in life for Joseph. He enjoyed the smell of fresh ground coffee and the quiet jazz that played softly in the background while the usual customers flipped through newspapers and sipped their coffee each morning. While he found these parts of the coffee shop quite pleasant, working there was again part of a routine that just seemed a little too ordinary to Joseph. With every day spent serving hot drinks and pastries, Joseph felt as if he was missing out on something bigger and more meaningful. Regardless, he had a job and was getting by alright, something by this town’s standards that was nothing to complain about.
The coffee shop was never too busy so Joseph often found himself deep in thought pondering anything from his plans for the afternoon to deep philosophical questions, only to be interrupted by a customer eager for their daily caffeine fix. After overhearing Coco and George in the lobby this morning, Joseph couldn’t help but let his mind wonder about what happened in the parking deck last night. He hadn’t heard anything unusual. Or at least not that he could remember, and the mystery of the dead man nagged at his imagination throughout the entire shift.
After work, Joseph went for quick ride through Yelsnag park before returning to Pointe Place. When he finally arrived, he made a quick pass through the parking deck to see if he could find out anything about the dead man, but found only some yellow police tape and nothing else. He then rode the elevator back up to his apartment and told himself, “I’ll find out more tomorrow.”
