Something very interesting just happened…

I walk into the coffee shop and walk straight up to the counter.  The barista was off to the side making a drink.  I take one step back so as not to seem like an impatient customer and wait there for two or three minutes for her to finish.  No one rushes or even hurries here.  She is nearing the completion of her drink when the front door opens.  A twenty-something girl, cute, pseudo-hippie, walks in, walks right in front of me, straight to the counter right as the barista approaches the register, they say “hello” to each other and the barista takes the girl’s order.

Neither had noticed I was there.

This new customer placing her order, even once looked back to her left to make sure there was no one behind her, looked right past me as if I were not there.  She doesn’t see me.  Which made me then immediately think:

Am I really not here right now?  Did I skip out of dimension for a few moments?  This all feels real enough.

Then I ask the lucid mantra:

Is this a dream?  Am I awake?

This pseudo in front of me turned back to the barista and paid for her beverage, but I am now looking around.  There are almost no seats empty here, and no one noticed.  No one was even wondering why I am turning to stare at them.  Could they see me?

There is an older guy that the girl is now talking to, someone occupying one of these precious seats in this café.  When I walked into the shop a few minutes ago, I think I made eye contact with him.  But, when she stepped away from the counter and began talking with him, he didn’t even hesitate in their correspondence to acknowledge the behavior upon her entrance.  When I arrived, was he actually acknowledging someone else who happened to be in my path and I am actually invisible to him as well?

I step up to the counter, wondering if I actually physically just did so or if my approach is also a part of this hologram.  I stand there.  The barista stands there, reshuffling her money.  I stand there some more and she finally hesitates, feeling the presence of something.

It is below freezing outside on the Mississippi in New Orleans, there is a power blackout in the neighborhood I am staying in and all I want is a hot coffee before I spend my day thinking about if I exist.

But how do I order?

 

 

 

 

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