Boston Coffeehouse

On the day of the 30th International SketchCrawl, Terry and I wandered the streets of Deland as the sun set. The temperature plummeted and I was happy to even shop just so I could go inside and get warm. We ran across a quirky little comics shop and went inside. The store had two narrow isles packed floor to ceiling with science fiction pulp novels, comics, figurines and even quality literary books by authors like Hermann Hess and Harper Lee. At the front of the store I was tempted to buy a book about sketching on location. As I was flipping through the pages Terry was talking to the store owner.

Terry asked if he had any Zorro Books and he showed her an entire drawer filled with Zorro comics. She squealed with delight. She wanted to know if I had money in my pocket so she could buy them all. Now, she isn’t a comic book collector, this went back to some childhood impulse that I don’t quite understand. On an upper shelf there was a sculptural figurine bust of Zorro still in it’s original packaging. The bust was $60. She said she couldn’t afford it but she just had to see it. The store owner delicately unwrapped the paper from around the bust and removed it from it’s snug Styrofoam inner casing. She turned to me and said she had to have it. I didn’t have that much money. She asked the store owner if there was an ATM nearby. He said there was one behind the bank across the street. I stayed behind searching through the books while she rushed across the street to get money for her fix. She couldn’t find the cash machine but he accepted a personal check.

After dropping off her stash in my truck, we went to this cozy coffee shop to relax. We were planning to go to a heroes and Villains party in Longwood but that was not starting for two more hours. Terry read her book and I started to sketch. She got some caramel infused foamy coffee and I got a Mountain Dew. I also ordered an apple fritter which was delicious. In the back of the coffee shop a storytellers meeting was taking place. There was a constant stream of customers ordering coffee and then leaving. As I was finishing up the sketch my stomach started to rumble. It had been a long day of sketching and worrying about sketch opportunities lost. My body was starting to revolt. I gave Terry my keys and asked her to drive me home. She got behind the wheel already dressed up as Zorro for the party we would have to miss.