Michael Sieburg

Even though I work downtown, I’m easily able to find the cafes I prefer best for an afternoon coffee when drinking alone. You know the routine. A woman sets up a couple little plastic chairs around a little plastic table and has oil thick coffee stored in a small plastic water bottle and a battered metal pot of tea. Two days ago, I found my new place snuggled between your basic Vietnamese rice stand restaurant and a Western restaurant serving the standard fare of burgers and ribs. I had eaten lunch at the rice stand and walked over to sit down for a coffee. The coffee woman looked at me funny, pointed to the burger restaurant, and said in Vietnamese, “That’s where the westerners eat.” I laughed and told her I preferred Vietnamese food. She shrugged but realizing I could handle a couple of phrases in Vietnamese began chatting to me. More than most, she was unwaveringly patient with me, correcting my pronunciation and offering me vocabulary words when I was stuck, which is pretty regularly. Halfway through my coffee, I looked down and realized she had set up her table on top of an old canon with an unused rocket strapped to the side. It’s rare to see any war remnant around and I think she made clever use of it as a coffee table. I’ll return daily for my post-lunch coffee to continue practicing my Vietnamese. I just hope I don’t blow up in the process.