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Volume 2 Number 2 • Fall - Winter 2010-2011

C. Michael Cox

No Soup Until Fall

was written in black font on 8x11 white paper and taped to the chalkboard menu. It's the middle of summer he said. Thank you, I haven't seen a calendar for some time and I had lost track of the seasons she said. I don't understand…did you run out of potatoes? No, the cook went fishing. For three months? he asked. He likes to fish. Don't you have someone else who knows how to make soup? Now why didn't we think of that? she asked. He doesn't share the recipe? he asked. Would you? No. Then why do you think he would? Because I really wanted soup. Come back in the fall she said.

She looked at the line that was forming behind him:

1.

A woman wearing black, stussy-naomi glasses and a pinstriped business suit.

2.

A girl in a yellow shirt, black skirt, and holding a beige handbag.

3.

Two guys –

a.

One wearing a checkered fedora and a white t-shirt,

b.

The other wearing a black-and-white shirt with a fish-and-tackle vest and dark grey cap.

4.

A brunette wearing a black spaghetti strap holding a cigarette to her mouth.

5.

An older man of Asian descent holding his wallet and wearing a white t-shirt lined in brown at the collar and sleeves

6.

A young girl wearing black pants and a rainbow striped shirt — skinny and hugging herself.

I was here last summer he said, you guys had soup then. The cook didn't go fishing last summer she said. Do you guys have another location? he asked. Look mister, I don't know what to tell you…if you want soup so bad why don't you get a can from the grocery store. He looked up at the menu. I'll take the sandwich he said. We're all out she said. You don't have sandwiches? No soup and no sandwiches she said. But you're a café. What kind of café doesn't have soup and sandwiches? We have coffee — you want coffee? I don't drink coffee he said.

Behind him the line continued to form.

C. Michael Cox is a writer and photographer freely exploring perspective, philosophy, and history. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Splash of Red, Prick of the Spindle, Iowa Summer Writing Festival Anthology, and The Des Moines Register, and he is a winner of the annual Café Diem writing contest. He lives in the Midwest with his wife and three children. He can be contacted via email at CMichaelCox@q.com.

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