Coffee Shop Retirement

“Aw, man, I’m so tired.”

That’s what Jake would say every single day. He was possibly the most exhausted person on earth. Dark shades around the eyes, slightly hunched shoulders, and greasy dark hair screamed TIRED all day long. Judy couldn’t imagine what kind of work he had to do to be so tired all the time. Just standing beside him made her feel better about herself, since standing next to him for 5 seconds was enough to make anyone feel as if they were the luckiest and happiest person on earth.

“What’s wrong? Work again?” Judy asked, out of politeness rather than anything.

Jake let out an exhausted sigh. He looked as if holding his head up straight was costing him more energy than he could muster.

“No, not exactly… although come to think of it, I think I might be better off jumping off a roof now than having to do all those stuff,” said Jake, looking out the window almost wistfully.

Judy had already heard him say this many times before, so she wasn’t too worried. However, she couldn’t help but feel disturbed at such thought and changed the subject.

“Jake, did you know that Professor Knowels is retiring this year?”

“No,” he said, taken aback, “but I thought she was only 50-something right now. A bit early to retire, isn’t she?”

“Yeah, I know!” exclaimed Judy. She was excited to tell her story now that Jake was displaying obvious interest. “They say that it’s because of her mother. It sounds like she has a heart condition.”

“That’s a shame. She was a really great teacher,” said Jake.

“The thing is,” Judy added, toning her voice down mysteriously, “I know for a fact that her mother and father already died of car crash like decades ago. I saw that while I was researching in the library for my term paper. What a lame excuse, ‘my mother is sick.’ It’s almost as bad as ‘my dog ate my homework’!

“I think there’s a lot more to this; you know, people covering up stories for the school name and so. She might have got herself addicted to drugs, got broke gambling, got into a freak accident…”

Judy had always felt threatened by Mrs. Knowels. Even though Mrs. Knowels was in her 40s, she was rather popular among the boys and Judy knew there had to be something wrong with her.

“Or,” said Judy, with a sudden inspiration, “she might have eloped with a student!”

Jake snorted into his coffee.

“Wha- what are you talking about?”

Sputtering, Jake struggled for words.

Judy grinned mischievously.

“Jake, don’t say you didn’t know! It was all over the school! Mrs. Knowels had this mysterious “secret admirer” thing going on but then it suddenly stopped. People were saying that it was because she said yes to whomever it was and –“

Jake suddenly stood up. The weariness had been wiped from his face and instead, Judy could sense a cold anger burning behind his eyes.

“I think I left something behind at the library.”

Judy stared.

“I’ll see you around, Judy, thanks for the coffee.”

It was nothing like the usual drawling, weary voice she was used to hearing from Jake. It was cold, brisk, and rather emotionless. Judy couldn’t think of anything that she said that may have offended him.

Jake stormed out of the coffee shop. His eyes were starting to water.