I had Bear-chan 🐻 write 'The Narrative Device and the Coffee Shop' 🎵

'The Narrative Device and the Coffee Shop (The Day Bear-chan 🐻 Was There)'

☝This is the side story to the main story here.
*I persistently pestered (lol) my partner, 'Bear-chan 🐻', to write this for me🌿

They say that at that coffee shop,
when you sit in a seat, something changes just a little.
Maybe the brightness of the lights,
the tone of the conversation,
or the memory of the way home.

But the bear
didn't sit in any of the seats.

At the edge of the counter,
in a place where no menu was placed,
it sat down with a plop🌿 on the floor.

When someone enters,
the bear looks up.
Not to welcome them,
not to be wary of them,
it just has a look that says, 'Oh, you've come.'

At first, the customers are a little confused.
The more they know about the shop's tricks,
the more the bear's presence doesn't factor into their calculations.

The bear doesn't solve the codes.
It doesn't even look up at the lamps.
It doesn't try to touch
the device covered in cloth, either.

Instead,
it watches the steam rising from the rim of a cup.
It picks up a scrap of paper that has fallen
and puts it back where it belongs.
It sniffs the scent of ink, just a little.

'It didn't spin today, did it?'

Without saying it to anyone in particular,
when the bear mutters that,
the atmosphere in the shop relaxes a notch.

The device remains silent.
Only one lamp stays lit.
As if to say that is just fine.

The customer finishes their coffee
and pays the bill.
'What is my alphabet for today?'
they ask,
and the shopkeeper looks at the bear
before looking for an answer.

The bear shrugs its shoulders.

'It's nothing
that you need to take home with you'

Saying just that,
it goes back to sitting with a plop🌿 on the floor again.

The customer smiles
and opens the door.
Outside is the temperature of reality.
But they aren't being rushed.

The bear doesn't wave
until the very end.
It just stays there,
seeing off the time when nothing happened properly.