The Oracle 2020

17 The Girl with the Red Umbrella

by Nick Dow Gazing out of the cafe window, Harmon could not help but imagine himself as a piece of driftwood upon a calm sea. His piercing blue eyes often startled passerby who happened to think that he was looking at them. This focus was effortless and not at all discrete, yet his concentration was just an illusion. Instead of glazing over, his eyes sharpened when he daydreamed, his preeminent occupation most days. Few outside Harmon’s mind could capture his attention.

The street was not busy that early in the morning.

Harmon observed the double lethargy of students who had just started a new semester and were recovering from a weekend of partying. He quickly sank into his daytime fantasies as he mindlessly worked.

The row of stores along Witherspoon Street experienced the greater life of the neighboring university in waves of students every hour on the hour. The growing tide of hunger brought the crests of these waves higher and higher until midday, and a similar tide cycle would occur in the afternoon with a seven o’clock high. The winter only accentuated the cycle; the emptiness of the cold drove many from the university dining halls to the restaurants along Nassau. When the frost did return, a hot drink was the perfect complement to the sugary snow.

The big players of Princeton Village were the cafés.

Students could afford to compromise on food, sleep, and even entertainment, but never caffeine. A student himself, Harmon was more appreciative than his fellow coworkers of the free