Andre is a 4 year old boy who comes into Starbucks once in a while with his grandfather who is 50 years old. He is a good looking and very active kid. He calls his grandfather "grandpa" and his grandfather calls him "pops". He will sit with his grandpa while his grandpa reads and writes on his computer and every once in a while he likes to hold his grandpa's coffee in his hand and pretend he is drinking it. His grandpa always buys him an apple juice. Some days he is able to convince his grandpa to buy him a big chocolate chunk cookie or a blue berry scone. But most days he just eats the snacks his grandpa put into small baggies for him. Usually it's cheerios, apple slices, or pop tarts. His grandpa always brings pop tarts for himself. Andre loves the brown sugar cinnamon ones and grandpa is crazy about the strawberry pop tarts.

While at Starbucks Andre plays with his toy dinosaurs and ninja turtles.He is fond of calling them by their scientific names and fighting them against the ninja turtles. Rafael, Donatello, Leonardo, and Michelangelo never stood a chance. The dinosaurs always win. Especially since one of the dinosaurs is the new Indominis Rex from the new Jurassic World movie, which he and grandpa saw together. 

His grandpa, sadly so,  pays very little attention to him and watches him only to make sure he does not walk off. Grandpa is babysitting during these times. If he wasn't he would be at park or somewhere else where Andre could run around and have fun.

Andre seems real active and in very good health. He is an extremely happy boy. When they are there they always get looks. Grandpa is Mexican-American and Andre is African-American. People look funny at them when they hear Andre say "Grandpa". Andre is a gorgeous little boy and, therefore, a real chick magnet. Girls of all ages are always coming up to him and touching him and telling grandpa what cute boy he has. Grandpa loves it.

Andre loves to look around a lot just like his grandpa does. Andre watches people. Though unlike grandpa Andre watches them because he thinks they are funny. He smiles and sometimes laughs at people. He especially gets real excited when someone close to his age comes in. He does not take his eyes off them until they leave, smiling the entire time.

Grandpa doesn't like surprises. He prides himself in knowing things that other people don't know. He is observant enough to rarely let things creep up on him. But things are about to change. Grandpa is about to be taken back by the things you don't see. Things you can't possibly see.

Grandpa is exactly 2 hours away from being told that Andre has cancer. The ALL kind of Leukemia with a T-cell marker. It's a very aggressive type of cancer. It is curable, but Andre is in for a very long and hard 3 1/2 years of chemotherapy and various other treatments and procedures. And nothing is promised.

It is devastating. This gorgeous, happy, and innocent little boy is about to experience what no child should go through. Grandpa would trade places with him in a second. But he can't. No grandpa can. Things are the way they are and all people can do is be there for each other. 

Cancer is such an ugly thing. Grandpa has seen it before, but never like this. Never this close and personal. There are so many thousands of people who go through this every day. They suffer this terrible thing called cancer. 

Things will change, obviously. Though Grandpa already spends a lot of time with Andre he will be spending a lot more time. Much of that time will be in cancer hospital rooms, playrooms, and waiting lobbies. Grandpa will join the thousand of other people in those places

Grandpa will continue to read and write on his computer and read his books, of course. Though only when Andre is asleep. It will be only during those sleeping hours that grandpa will continue writing his "People of Starbucks" series and other stories. All other times will be for Andre. 

Post Script- I apologize for this story as it is not based on observation of people I don't have inside information about like my other stories. But I thought about for a bit and figured, well, Andre and I are people of Starbucks also. We have stories. No one else is around to tell them so I did. I think it is important that people share stories so they know they are not alone. That is why I share all the stories I see.