#creativewritingprompt

“Hi, can I help you?” 

You go to the same cafe every day with the same order. This goes on for months and then years and you have the same barista every time. You become friends, close friends, hanging out and talking outside of the cafe. One day, though, you notice they’re gone and the only thing the other baristas can tell you is that they’re facing serious family problems. You can’t find a trace of them anywhere.

Fast forward a few years and you go to the cafe to reminisce. And there, standing behind the counter, is your old barista and friend.

(In Response to Rookie Mag’s September 30th Creative Writing Prompt: Write a stranger’s backstory)

Russ watched his father when he was young. That’s how he learned to be a person. That’s how most of us learn: by watching our parents. Russ’ father was awkward. He built model airplanes and he enunciated his words too much. As a result, Russ did the same. He built the planes. He enunciated. As an added bonus, Russ also had a slight stutter which was prominent whenever he doubted himself.

Russ’s father managed the finances at the local YMCA and his mother did not work. She stayed at home so that she could dote on her children, all adopted from foreign countries, apart from Russ. He was their only successful conception. They wanted to give him everything but the funds necessary to adopt Russ’ two sisters made that difficult. Russ worked hard on an old worn down PC and dreamed of the days he could afford an Apple computer, shiny and new.

Russ looked like a dork. Russ sounded like a dork. Russ could not escape the dufus mold. Russ was pretty good on paper, too. He had a steady stream of A’s in high school and a nice little package of A’s and B’s in college. His handwriting was sloppy but never seemed to hinder his grades. Most math and science teachers never minded sloppy. They just wanted right.

Russ was inevitably in the band in high school. The band was and remains today a cesspool of randy, pimply students who all attempt normality by enacting sexual acts on each other on the bus going to football games. Russ only did something like that once. But once was enough to grab him a handful of desperate, intellectual friends.

Russ was pretty rowdy when he was in his comfort zone. He just loved to get into a political discussion with his father, playing the well-informed scholar who pays attention to modern and historic events. In classes he was the one advocating the religious and moral perspective, rather than the more liberal, free-spirited views. He prided himself on being a young Republican because that’s what his father taught him to be. As good as Russ was at numbers, he never really got the hang of free thinking.