The Daily Davis

A short story I wrote based on a prompt for NPR, I was originally going to send this in, but never got around to it. There’s always another writing challenge out there somewhere, so no harm.

…

My plan was simple. First, I would enter the cafe with a newspaper. Then I would get my coffee and loiter, like this was a regular thing for me. I don’t know why I cared so much. I guess I still don’t. Deep down, I wanted to prove I was a normal person. Normal people went to cafes, right?

I crept to the coffee-shop, wary to not seem too eager. I blew that when I pushed the door, rather than pulled. The loud rattling of the door in its frame turned all eyes to me, both inside and out of the shop. I flushed, realized my mistake, and then pulled with more force than I needed to. I was off to a good start.

There was a line to the counter and a small stage where a guitarist was getting ready to play that soft kind of music that I call background noise. The red tables stood out against the brown and green tones throughout the shop, like mushrooms on a forest floor. Even with all the attempts at atmosphere through color and music, I felt nothing for it. It felt all too artificial, like my presence.

At the end of the line, I gave myself a proper amount of distance from the person in front of me. My foot tried to tap while I was waiting, but I willed it into submission. I didn’t want to seem annoyed or impatient to others. In my head I rattled off what I was going to order.

“Sir, may I take your order?”

I nearly bolted to the counter and apologized. I was terrified some customers behind me were shooting dirty glares for wasting their time.

“No problem. How can I help you?”

I froze.

“I’d like a coffee, please.”

“Sure, what style?”

My eyes moved up to the menu and I glanced around at all the items, names I couldn’t understand and numbers in columns that grew in amount from left to right. I felt my eyes rattle in my head.

“Uh. Large black, please.”

I didn’t even like black coffee.

I paid my three dollars and sat glumly at one of the red eye-sores. I saw one of the big, comfortable chairs with the leather and padding, but I stayed away. I didn’t want to look like I was struggling to get out of it later.

My paper was open to a section I wasn’t really paying attention to; I was more interested in staring at a wall. I heard my name come from the counter and rose to get my drink. I didn’t realize my feet had been wrapped around one of the legs until I went stumbling across the floor, dragging the chair with me. The loud scraping caught everyone’s attention as my fingertips brushed the floor. I felt tears well up in my eyes as I untangled myself from my betrayer. I shuffled to the counter and grabbed my drink silently, terrified of being mocked. I sought sanctuary with the turn-coat chair.

I brought my paper cup to my lips, hesitant. I didn’t know what was worse: the taste, or the searing spears that had assaulted my tongue. I fought a yelp and swallowed my sip. I felt the hot dirt-water scald my throat and the gazes scald my skin.

I left the paper at the table for someone who would actually read it, and dumped my coffee in the trashcan as I made my way out. Maybe this was wasteful, but the bigger waste was my being there. I decided to go back to where I was comfortable.

Friends of mine should remember at some point of time a discussion with me where I sing the praises of Seikai, or, as it is better known in America as Crest of the Stars or Banner of the Stars. I first experienced Crest of the Stars back when TechTV was still TechTV. The channel had an anime block, and though I was out of my anime-phase of adolescence, something about Crest of the Stars really hooked me. For those who haven’t experienced the anime, manga, or novels, I will summarize the basic idea, courtesy of Wikipedia:

Crest of the Stars and Banner of the Stars (series I and II) follow Jinto Lynn, a young count whose world is taken over by the space-dwelling race of the Abh. When Jinto was a young boy, his father, Rock Lynn, under threat of invasion, handed over their world, Martine, to the Abh in exchange for a position within Abh society. Young Jinto is sent off to school to learn the ways of Abh nobility and the story of Crest of the Stars picks up as he meets the young Abh princess, Lafiel as they are about to travel to military school for Jinto’s further training.

However, in the midst of their travels, Lafiel and Jinto (along with the Abh ship Gothlauth, aka Gosroth) find themselves at the very beginnings of a war between the Abh Empire and the Four Nations Alliance of humankind—an anti-Abh alliance of the democratic nations of the United Mankind, the Federation of Hania, the Republic of Greater Alcont, and the People’s Sovereign Union of Planets.

That covers the first series, which the author of the original novels, Hiroyuki Morioka, did not consider the primary story.

The typical first impression I expect people to have after a first watch-through of the anime is “Wow. That’s slow”. Admittedly, Crest of the Stars does indeed feel slow for a space opera. Action is minimal and comes between long stretches of dialogue and character development. The show is definitely a space-opera, but with a very hard sci-fi backbone. As an action-fan, I was a bit surprised how taken I was by a minimal action sci-fi epic. I hope that speaks for the quality of the non-action elements.

Well, since seeing the show, and reading about the original novels, I’ve had a desire to one day spearhead a live-action adaptation of the series. Ideally, I would wanted to write and direct a film adaptation. I find myself oten thinking about the challenges in adapting such a layered and complex universe to fill a film, and I’ve devised some solutions. My hope is that one day, I might be able to tackle this project.

I could speak endlessly on why I love the series so much, or about how excited I am about shipping the English-translation of the first 3 books in the series (the rest have yet to be translated),  but that may be a post for another time. I really want to see Crest of the Stars brought over theatrically for American audiences. I only wish I knew the best place to start.

Every once in a while, I like to post a work in progress image to show you guys snippets of the process as I move through my pages.