The Cosmic Café
Grantor: Monty, C.
Grantee: Feng, Lanying
Property Description: Café/bar located on Main Street in Lennebunk, Maine, with accompanying two-bedroom apartment above.
~~
I take the sheet from her and keep reading.
“This can’t be real,” I say.
“It is!” Nai Nai says with a laugh. “And it’s perfect. Our little getaway.”
“Elder Feng, this isn’t a vacation,” I say, moving in closer. “I’ve promised information to the police, and it could put us in a lot of trouble with Zhao Shang.”
She waves me off. “I know the risks. And I know the rewards.”
I heave out a sigh. Woman’s never been wrong before.
All right, Nai Nai. I guess we’re going to Maine…
three
The Café
Iwas outvoted on the decision to pack the three-foot rubber plant. The damn thing mocks me for six hours straight, sending its haughty energy my way until I nearly pull over on the highway to dump it. Finally, after hours of it blocking my entire rearview, we make it to Lennebunk. It’s dark, like creepily dark. I’m so used to streetlights—flickering or not—and there are none here.
“Are we even in the city?” I ask.
Ace’s face lights up in the passenger seat. “Says we’re in the city limits. We’re coming up on the exit in like a mile.”
A mile…shouldn’t there be lights?
We cross over a bridge with train tracks running underneath and I see the sign for our turnoff illuminated by my dingy headlights. The turnoff is long and meandering, but finally there’s a light. The trailer on the back jostles as we pass a Dough Dome with its signature red roof.
“Could get a slice or two,” I suggest.
“Yeah, I’m starving!” Ace says.
“You wouldn’t be hungry if you’d eaten your sweet potato!” Nai Nai admonishes.
“I had three, Lao Feng,” he teases. “I need something more substantial. I’m a growing man!”
I pull into the Dough Dome and die a little inside when I see the “Open” sign is dark. I maneuver us around back to the main road.
Zixin gives a dramatic sigh.
“I suppose I’ll just waste away.”
Nai Nai chuckles. “I’ll get the rice cooker going as soon as we get there. You’ll see. We’ll have a meal before you’re done unpacking.”
There’s not much to unpack, but I don’t doubt her ability. I just hope the place is move-in ready because it’s way too late and dark to find a hotel. If the Dough Dome is closed, it’s a pretty bad sign for anything else in the city.
The streets are gray and quiet with the occasional splotch of orange streetlight. When we reach Main Street, I get a partial view of what the town looks like through the fog. It’s mostly three-story buildings that look like old Colonial houses, painted in white, blue, and yellow. It’s so quaint. The café has only two levels, and for that I’m grateful. We don’t need any upstairs neighbors stomping on us.
The building itself is in a bit of disrepair, in desperate need of a new paint job. The white siding has flaking paint and mossyconcrete at the base. But the bones themselves are great. Huge windows at the front are pasted over with newspapers, but none of them are broken. There’s beautiful trim design, and colorful shutters for the upstairs apartment. It’s nice.
