PUNCH THE COLOUR CARD

Samantha was behind the counter, as usual, stocking the counter with coffee take-out containers and straws. The window behind her was slightly open and a sudden gust of wind that came out of nowhere, shut it with a speed that startled Samantha. 

“What did you drop this time?” asked her manager from the store room.

“Nothing, it was the wind,” said Samantha, in a faint voice, just above a whisper. 

“Ok, get done fast. We open in ten.” Her boss disappeared and closed into the warm little room again.

Samantha, in her mind, was in that room, looking at all the boxes strewn around the place. The old neon sign stating ‘Cups and Brews’ lay on the ground. Cleaning the now useless sign was her boss. She did not care if it was in use anymore or not, she just wanted it clean, and her boss had to be servile about it. She stood there, mighty and tall, watching her scrub the old sign clean, though it had been replaced with a new one. 

The first thing that caught a person’s attention was the new sign. 

She clutched a Styrofoam cup tightly in her palm and it was crushed beyond repair. She saw the damaged cup before her boss could see it and find another reason to yell at her.

If only she didn’t have to pay for her own gas. Her parents had told her that if she wanted to own a car, she also had to take care of it. She had taken up dog walking until one day she needed a new shot after the smallest of the lot bit her. She had then taken up a job at the library. But the constant sound of her munching crackers at the table had made sure that she was a blacklist at the place. The only other place she could think of was the coffee shop. There were tips involved and after all, how hard could it be to make a cup of coffee? 

Apparently, a lot harder than Samantha had imagined. The first day of her job, she had broken a mug, a plate and the coffee container. After a lot of begging, pleading and apologizing, her boss had let her keep her job. 

She had broken another mug the following week, but had paid for the broken mug. 

On the fourth week, of her job, new autumn drinks were introduced. She now stood behind the counter, dreaming about being her boss’s boss when there was a knock on the glass door. She snapped back to reality to notice a young man pointing at his watch. She turned the sign to open before unlocking the door for the first customer of the day. 

The young man, accompanied by a pretty young woman, walked into the store, probably for an early cup of coffee before going on a leisurely weekend hike. They were dressed for it and carried a large enough bag to fit a bonsai. 

There were many different types of coffee seeds, bottled and kept on the counter, all for aesthetics. Behind the big jar of arabica seeds, Samantha tightened her pony tail and wished to her stars that they didn’t order the new autumn drinks. She had been tutored and given the recipe for each drink but she was still under confident. She did not want to mess up anything else for herself. 

Before she had unlocked the door, she had seen the woman staring at the board that had been set up outside, informing the customers about the new arrivals. 

The couple walked up to the counter.

“I’ll have a large cappuccino,” said the man.

Samantha quickly smiled to herself and typed in the order. She could make that.

“And I’ll have the pink punch. The new one that has been advertised outside,” said the woman. 

Samantha stared at the woman for a long time then typed in her order. The couple settled on a couch that was set up on one corner of the coffee shop.

Who orders punch at a coffee shop, Samantha cursed under her breath.

She started to make the cappuccino. She noticed that the two of them would be there till the end of their drinks and would probably tell the manager how bad the punch was. She was certain, she was losing her job that day. 

She snatched the ingredients for the punch, from the closet above her head and started to put in the ice cubes into the large glass cup. She pulled out a fine straw and set it next to the glass. She took out a bottle of lemon squash from the refrigerator and poured a little into the glass. She put in all the other ingredients, in the order that the tissue paper, where she had copied the recipe mentioned.   

She finally added the pink colouring and set the drinks on the tray for the two of her first customers for the day, to pick up.

She noticed that they had been reading the menu and hoped that they didn’t want anything else. Just to tip her and tip her big. She turned to the tissue paper and stopped in her tracks. She saw the slight blue colour, that must have made its way onto the paper during her trial session, stare back at her from the corner of the paper, which was now upside down. She could not believe what she had just done. She had made the blue drink instead of the pink one and had just added the colour pink instead. The pink one was not made of lemon and was certainly not a citrus drink. She knew she had messed up big time, but how will that woman ever know. She had after all, merely mentioned the colour of the drink. She had been given what she wanted, just not exactly. She saw the man taking small sips of the drink while the lady stared at her drink. 

Samantha’s heart started to beat fast. She had been reading the new menu and had figured that her drink did not contain what it had promised to. She was certainly going to lose her job. The lady stood up and walked over to the counter. At the same time, the store room door opened and her boss walked out. Samantha wanted to cry. She could not hold a single job. 

“Can I have an extra tissue paper?” asked the lady.

“What?” asked Samantha, a little too astonished. 

“An extra tissue paper,” said the lady, looking at Samantha like she needed to get help soon.

“Sure,” said Samantha and turned around, picked two and handed them over to the lady.

She sat back down but still drank her drink in slow sips. She offered the drink to the man and he tried it too.  

This time she had definitely found out. I know, I messed up, I’m sorry, Samantha wanted to scream out. But they didn’t budge from the seat. Finally, after finishing their drinks, the two of them got up. The man made his way to the door.

The lady made her way to the counter and pulled out her purse from the back pack she had on. 

She pulled out some notes and handed them over to Samantha.

“Keep the change, you deserve it. That drink you prepared for me, really made my morning. Now I am truly energized for my hike. Thanks,” she said.

“Thank you,” said Samantha staring at the notes in her hand. 

Her boss watched her from a distance. Once the couple left the shop, she walked over to Samantha and said, “Good job kid. You are finally learning the tricks of the game. Keep doing work like that.” She patted her on the back and headed back to the store room. Samantha stared idly at the tissue paper that was flying away from the counter. 

She could not believe what had just happened. She didn’t even know if it had been a joke and the lady had been sarcastic. But the notes, she still clutched in her hand, led her to the right conclusion.