Coffee Shop

Marie considered her options, and realized that there was only one other person with a key. After her embarrassing lockout, Marie had given her best friend a key to her house as a back-up plan. Gwen's house wasn't very far from her own, so it was reasonable to believe she could streak her way there since it was only residential neighborhoods between her house and Gwen's. Unfortunately, Marie quickly recalled Gwen telling her she had picked up an extra shift today at the same coffee shop she had been planning to go to. Marie gulped, realizing that the key could be at Gwen's house, or (the more daunting idea) Gwen had actually listened to Marie's request to strap it to her key ring. This left Marie faced with two options. She could choose to take the safe choice, and ask Gwen's roommates to let her inside, and look for the key. Or, she could run down the main drag in the city a few blocks, and ask Gwen for help while she was at work.

Reluctantly, Marie settled on the option of streaking down the main drag. She had a meeting to attend later in the afternoon over Skype, and it was one of VERY few she had to attend. Marie had decided to invest some of her assets in local businesses, and planned to discuss some options with a few owners who had responded. Missing out on the meeting wasn't an option. She had taken so much time to arrange it online (especially when they all wanted to meet her in person), and it had been tedious and required months of planning and communication. As much as she didn't like going face to face with strangers, Marie knew that the meeting was more important than her dignity. "I have to get back inside. My computer is in there, so I don't have time to waste on a 'Maybe'." Marie thought to herself, as she stood from the bushes, and began slowly creeping along towards the trashcan she had rolled to the curb the night before. After several glances all around while she tip-toed her way towards the can, Marie confirmed that aside from the squirrels and a wasp on her front porch, not a single living thing was in sight.

So began Marie's awkward, and embarrassing sneak towards the Cafe. Her initial start was tame, and easy enough to avoid being seen. Several times, Marie had to dive behind a trash can and wait a few minutes for a car to roll out of sight. Despite several close calls, Marie reasoned to herself that she hadn't been seen. But with each step along the half-mile stretch to the highway, it seemed traffic only amplified. Instead of minutes between cars, it became seconds. Marie was dodging, and ducking between places which offered covering from both sides. A front door two houses ahead slammed, reminding Marie that she also had to watch a third and fourth side, which made finding cover almost impossible. She had to settle for ducking down between two parallel parked cars, while staring ahead at the main drag which was only four more houses away. Beyond that, a quarter mile stretch where she would have to pass through the most commercially compact, and highly trafficked road in the county. Several hundreds of people flocked to the small city every day (because it was the only relative civilization in the mountains for several miles), even in the mid-morning. Which meant the coffee shop was bound to be just as crowded as the street.