Opera Café
On a far-off island forgotten to those stateside, lies a café nestled into the marble walls of the city. The weather is always sunny, the sky always blue, and the clouds always like puffs of opaque smoke above.
The streets on this island are cobbled and winding, a peculiar shade of purple with hints of green speckled in. The alley where this cafe lies looks like any other on the island. Vases of flowers dot the roads and ivy creeps up the walls.
An oval sign hangs off the iron rod in the wall boasting its name in a rich purple, Opera Café with a painting of a superfluous cappuccino beneath it.
Embossed by the entrance lays its manifesto:
May all who enter feel their magic stir, each indispensable for the symphony to occur.
Outside, a couple tables lined with white cloth and iron chairs are laid for the patrons who prefer to dine under the sky, or when it gets a bit too crowded inside.
At night, there’s a single lamppost across the shop which glows a strong ember, set beneath a window of a lodging. There’s no need for hotels here for guests rarely visit, and if they do, it’s because they know someone who dwells on the isle that hosts them.
Those who live on the island don’t remember how they got there, and so we cannot say when the Opera Café was established. It was there as long as everyone else was, though.
It’s enchanted to operate with no people managing it. You sit at a table, think about what you want and it appears within minutes. The tables are always clean, no coffee stains on the cloth when the next person arrives, it flows seamlessly and efficiently.
In exchange for treats, you offer up a poem, a prayer, thanks, or something you’ve created. Not money. If you try to put coins on the table, it will just ricochet and hit you right back in the nose.
The café exists to nurture the creative in you. It doesn’t care for bronze, silver, or gold. Rather, it wants you to tap into your potential and share that.
The Opera Café is a place that invokes discovery and inspires invention.
It leads one to wonder, are those on the island there for a reason?
