"Hi." I smiled warmly. It was very hot today and I had pulled my pony tail into a messy bun just to get some more air around my neck. I wiped my sweat across my forehead using the corner of my sleeves. "Good afternoon."

The old lady looked up from her counter and smiled back. Her face was wrinkled, but her smile was more younger than she looked. She tugged her apron before she came to inquire. "Good afternoon, dear. What can I get you today?"

I nervously smiled at her, taking a few steps towards her. "Um, I saw your advertisement outside. Thought I could help."

"Oh, that's wonderful, dear." The old lady said, her smile growing bigger every moment. "The last person who worked here just left for the other country saying something about fashion." She threw her hand in the air in mock disgust and I had to keep myself from laughing. "She used to wait tables and do cleaning, you know."

"Oh," I said. "I'm sure I can handle that."

"That would be perfect." She said, wiping her hands on her apron. "I'm Mira by the way." She put her hand out at me to shake. "As you can see, we don't have more customers around here, so I don't want you thinking great about the pay."

I nodded my head. There were hardly a few college students who were sitting at the tables sipping their coffee.

The coffee shop gave a cozy feeling as soon as one entered it. The only drawback was it was hidden from the main road that the people usually took and only a few had discovered the shop.

Today as I was exploring coffee shops and pizza huts to see if there was any opening for me to join and work, 'The Kapoor's coffee shop' was what I came across. It was just a block away from where I stayed and I wondered how I hadn't known about it anytime sooner. As fate had it, Mira had stuck a flyer out in front for the by passers letting them know that there was an opening.

"Is there an interview of sorts?" I asked tentatively. "Like a demonstration I should be doing to let you know that I could handle the shop well?"

Mira laughed at this. "This is the first time I've been hearing this. Don't they usually hire and fire?"

"But it's better this way, isn't it?" I asked. "Not giving any false hopes about the job, just to make them fire the very next day."

"You are so much like my daughter." Mira smiled. "You two would be great friends. She too has such crazy ideas."

I smiled back not knowing what to say to her.

"So, are you willing to work?" Mira asked.

"I'm a school student, Mira." I said, taking a deep breath. She had to know a little about me at least. "So I hope I get some concession."

"I understand." She nodded her head, looking vaguely at the far away window. "You can come here thrice a week usually during the weekends so that it's not difficult for me to handle the shop. It would be great if you could stop by in the morning as well. But that's left to you."

"That would be great." I said. "I could come in the weekends, but I cannot assure you the mornings though."

We talked some more about when I could come in, what kind of work I should be doing and the exact reporting time. I mainly dealt with waiting tables and cleaning them up when the customers left.

Mira went ahead to explain the cafe's routine. The shop always opened at seven in the morning and was alive till eight in the evening. The morning hours till nine were the hectic ones with many on goers buying their morning coffee as they left for their work. When the evening came by, Mira said that customers were like bees between the hours of four to six.

The shop would close in the noon, from twelve to two. It seems that they hadn't planned to keep the break that short before. But Mira was too bored alone at home. So she thought of spending her time in the shop.

"Mom, do you know were the napkins are?" Someone shouted behind us. I saw that there was a stair leading to the house above the cafe that connected internally to the kitchen.

"It's in it's usual spot." Mira shouted back. "These girls won't even remember where they kept their belongings." She muttered.

A second later, the girl who had shouted, peeked from the stairs, looking very frantic. She looked exactly like Mira—curly hairs, tanned skin, big beautiful eyes and the same nose.

"Ma, I wouldn't be asking if it was there, correct?" She asked in a calm voice. She spared a second more to look at me wiping one of those tables at the side. "You already found a girl for your chores?"

"Yes." Mira said. "This is..." She stuttered. That was when I realized I had never mentioned her my name.

"I'm Scarlet Stone." I answered, looking at both of them alternately.

"Ma, can I talk to you for a second." She asked looking at me with her eyes full of suspicion. I already knew the conversation that would take place between them.

When Mira went around the kitchen to talk to her daughter, I was sure that I was losing the job that I had just got. I slowly took my bag which I had brought with me and stood at a corner when I finished my cleaning.

"What are you doing?" Mira asked when she saw me with my bag on the shoulder. "Done for the day already?"

"Aren't I getting fired?" I asked. "I should've told you my name and my details when I came to check in. I'm guessing you think I'm a terrorist or something and you want me out."

Mira kept a straight face and looked a second more than necessary. "Are you one?"

"I don't think so ma'am." I answered.

"Then there's no reason for you to go, unless you want to quit." She said taking me aback.

"Thank you." I said, releasing the breath I had held.

"Don't mind my daughter." Mira said a second later. "She's overprotective of me. She thinks that I'm too old to run my coffee shop. She was terrified when I told her I'm hiring for help."

"I'm glad I could help." I smiled.

Another customer who was sitting alone with his coffee, left and I went the table to fetch the glass and to wipe the table. After cleaning the table, I came back to Mira's kitchen giving her the glass for cleaning.

"So, tell me dear, where are you from?" Mira asked, as she scrubbed.

"I actually live a block away. My Dad got into... an accident and I had to find something to do." I said, holding the scrubbed plate to the water. "The bills are growing and hence, I'm here."

"Oh, I'm sorry." She said, soothingly. "I've lost a son too, I know the feeling."

I laughed nervously. "Dad hasn't died; he just got into an accident."

"Well dear, that's how they usually start."

---

I tossed the bread on the pan applying butter on either side of it. I had promised bread toast to Dad, but the toaster had some lose connection and it wasn't working at all. On top of all that that's happening, I didn't have the time and patience to check it out.

"Sandwiches today?" Dad asked as he pushed himself from his room to the kitchen. He smiled brightly as he wheeled his chair to the empty spot that I had introduced for him at the dining table.

"It's bread toast." I said. "I can make sandwich if you want. But that might take another ten minutes."

He waved his hand in the air. "Nah, that's okay." He said. "You can make that tomorrow. But the toast smells amazing. Is that a new toaster?"

I laughed. "The toaster's broken, Dad." I put the toast on the plate and plated it in front of him. "I used the pan. It has the same effect though."

"That was how your mom used to do when she broke the toaster." Dad smiled. "You are more like her." He shifted his eyes to the pan and added, "And sometimes that fact alone scares me."

My face fell at the mention of my mother.

"These are great though. Your mother never prepared them this tasty." He continued, as he chewed on the bread.

My Dad sucked at changing the topics. He knew what I felt whenever my mother's topic came up. I knew he was being lonely and wanted someone to be on his side all the time. If mum was here, with us now, she would have sat with him, day and night just so that he felt okay.

"Kiddo, don't put your chin down." He said, noticing how my face fell. "So, tell me, how's school going on?"

"I wanted to tell you something." I said, clearing my throat. "I got a job in a coffee shop."

"What?"

"It's nearby, a block's walk to be exact." I supplied. "I have to be there on weekends, three days a week."

"So, that cuts your party activities?" Dad chuckled.

So he wasn't angry or hating himself? There was something different in Dad that I couldn't point my fingers at.

"Yeah, pretty much." I said. "You are in good mood, I presume?"

"Of course, I will be." He beamed. "My friends from the tracks are coming over today to spend some time with me. They said we could go out if I wanted to or spend some time here at home."

"Oh"

"Dad, no drinking or smoking." I warned. Most of the guys from the track were heavy smokers and drinkers when they played poker. "And I want the house to be in the exact same way as I'm leaving it here. Okay?"

"I sometimes wonder who's the parent here." Dad chuckled, making me laugh. "But I'm probably going out rather than staying here."

I grabbed a bite and put the remaining into a box for lunch. "I'm serious. If you are going out, then make sure you have all your medications to be taken on time. I don't want to run to hospital anytime soon now."

"Yes, ma'am." He saluted like a military solider making me laugh at him.

It had been a month since Dad left the house. He always spent his time at the tracks, sometimes not bothering to come home at all. The garage, the motors, the grease, the racing - all had an effect on him that kept him away from home. Well, that's what he always said when I asked him where he was the other night.

But I knew him better than that. It was all because of mom and her absence. He wanted to forget that she wasn't there at home when he returned. So, eventually he stopped coming home every day. But I always wondered, if the tracks didn't bring memories of her.

I had been trying to giving him the space that he needed, agreeing to almost everything that he wanted to do, just so that I could see the smile on his face. But it was not the same.

I could only hope that it will be. One day.

---

A/N: I have always wanted to work on a cafe shop. How about you? What do you think of Mira and her daughter? What do you think happened to Scarlet's mom?