Coffee has never been my go-to drink, but it's a good choice for a warm drink to sit down and relax over, especially if you like tea even less. The Coffee-A-Go-Go, surprisingly, looks pretty close to what little I remember from the comic books. A large bar takes up most of the back wall, lined with cups, glasses, coffee makers, and the large, glistening pipes of an espresso machine. Around it are round tables covered in white cloth, sparsely occupied by a crowd of whatever people decided they'd rather hang out here than at home. An empty stage overlooks the room, a few chairs meant for performers sitting unoccupied on it, alongside an abandoned guitar case.
"You sure this is a good idea? Everybody's staring..." Peter mutters next to me.
"Probably because it's below freezing outside and you're wearing tights? Come on, let's get you warmed up."
"You know, I do have an undersuit on under this thing, I'm not an idot..." Parker mutters, but follows me over towards the bar. A guy with round glasses and a white suit of all things is staring at us like he's never seen superheroes before, his hand laying on top of a well-worn notebook. Come on, this is New York, even in the 60's it's like a superhero showcase!
Hmm, don't I know some guy who wore white suits? Eh, probably nothing important.
The young woman behind the bar, a rather pretty girl with a tight-fitting sweater dress and brown hair tied in a pony tail, is slightly less shellshocked than her customers, and finally manages to choke out an "Um, hi? I mean, what can I get you? You two?"
I lean against the bar and glance over the menu written on a chalkboard hanging behind it. "Why yes, I'll have a double espresso, and my friend here will have a single, please!" The girl opens her mouth to say something, seems to think better of it, before turning around and walking towards the espresso maker... before quickly walking back again, realizing she forgot to grab the cups first.
"Never had espresso before, is it good?" Peter says as we watch the girl scramble around trying to put our orders together.
"Well, it's still coffee, so it tastes like a crime against tongues, but the sheer jolt you get from it is worth it, why do you think the people who hang out here are so hyped up?"
"...I heard Mr. Jameson yell about it once" he whispers, trying to keep anyone from overhearing "He said people who hang out at places like this are all reefer addicts..."
Oh, right, white kid raised in the suburbs, I doubt he's ever even heard of marijuana outside being forced to watch Reefer Madness in school. "...mental note, we need to have a little chat about drugs later. No, it's glorious caffeine! And stimulating conversation with other artistic minds! ...and yes, probably a bit of reefer when no one's looking. My point is, this stuff will have you crawling on the walls!"
He just stares at me, even through the lenses I can feel his flat look.
"I mean, even if you couldn't already do that... look, just try it."
Peter gives the cup the girl puts in front of him a distrustful look, but finally he shrugs, pushes the mask up over his nose, and takes a sip. The girl hands me my order in a bigger cup, and I nod gratefully, reaching inside my coat for some money.
"Thanks, how much do I owe you, Miss..?"
"Oh, um, Zelda" she stammers out "and that'll be-"
"Just put it on my tab, Zelda baby!" A voice suddenly butts in, and a man with brown hair and beard, wearing sunglasses and a jacket with so many clashing colors it almost hurts to look at it, slumps down into the seat next to us, almost unseating the man in the white jacket behind him. "The name's Bernard, and I just had to get a close-up look when some gen-u-ine superheroes comes waltzing through our doors!"
.....
He was a big man, made to look even bigger with the coat he was wearing, a rainbow shirt peeking out underneath like a ray of sunlight from behind a winter grey sky. Brown hair grew out in a scraggly, unkempt mess from his head, halfway to trying to grow it long. That's about all I could tell from Mr. Merry Sunshine, most of his face hidden away behind sunglasses and the good old Star-Spangled Banner wrapped around his face like a patriotic outlaw from some old Tom Mix flick down at the bijou.
Fitting, Bernard supposed. What else should be worn by a man who'd helped save The President of These United States? It was either this, or dress in the flag from head-to-toe, and that was just gauche, unless Captain America himself did it, that man pulled it off.
His companion was the Spider-Dude of Queens himself, lanky and wiry under his red and blue and webbed costume, the kid (and he was a kid, no doubt about it, how had no one noticed it before) followed the Sunshine Man around like a lost puppy, a pale-skinned, hairless jaw showing with his silver-eyed mask moved up to let him try some Coffee-A-Go-Go caffeine ambrosia.
Zelda gave Bernard an annoyed look and decided to ruin his magnanimity. "For the last time, Bernard, you dont' have a tab here, you've NEVER had a tab here because we don't offer tabs!" she turned and flashed the two heroes that million-dollar smiles that made all the college boys come running "It's on the house, boys. I'd apologize for Bernard here, but if I start now, we'll be here all night."
"Oh Zelda, how you wound me, my dear!" Bernard said, leaning backwards with his hand on his forehead in a mock faint "Why, as a chronicler of our era, it's my duty to speak with the great men that define it, and now we have two of them here, right in our humble coffee shop! Surely you won't deny a bard his bread?"
Next to him, Wolfe snorted derisively, and Bernard glared at him, preparing an acid comeback, when the Sunshine Man spoke. "Great Men? Laying it on a bit thick, aren't you? We're just here for a coffee break, man."
"Aha, but a break from what, Mr. Merry Sunshine? Out there in the bleak december night, protecting the fair people of New York City from malevolent masked men, of course! Stalwart sentinels of justice, standing up against the forces of evil! All color-coded in crazy costumes for viewer convenience!"
Sunshine merely stared at him for a moment, before looking over at Zelda "What exactly do you put in the coffee here? Because either I'm tripping, or that guy is having some sort of seizure."
Bernard could hear the Spider-Kid stifle a laugh, he didn't think it was THAT funny, while sweetly cruel Zelda simply smiled at him "Nothing in the drinks, I promise, Bernard is just like that."
"Oh, the suffering of an artist..." Bernard said, as melodramatically as he could "To be so misunderstood and unappreciated by his contemporaries." Wolfe was about to say something, but Bernard cut him off in time "And none of your remarks, Mr. Journo, this is my stage!" He turned back towards the two heroes to try again "As I was saying, yes, Great Men! Surely no one but a great man would battle the forces of evil, expecting nothing in return! Was it not you, sir, who walked these very streets on Halloween Night, fending off the ghouls and goolies that came crawling out of the unused corners of our minds?"
"Well, me and Thor, and he did the hard part, there weren't actually any monsters, there was just this one guy dressed like a scarecrow-"
Bernard didn't let him finish, instead jumping on top of his bar stool, wobbling precariously, as he felt the eyes of the bar on him "Ah yes, Nightmare In Greenwich Village, we're not likely to forget, are we? All of us here had to watch our greatest fears come to life, it's the curse of those with artistic minds, burdened by overactive imaginations, to grapple with the monsters of the subconscious, the things that aren't there! But that was also our blessing, it allowed us to spin the horrors we saw into prose and song and art! Why, I myself composed several poems based on that night, if you'd like to hear!"
"That's really not nece-" Bernard walked toward the stage, not waiting for an answer "...necessary..."
....
"Terror on feathered wings and nightmares in burlap
Boogeymen breaking a quiant world of synthetic fears and plastic screams
No treats for the kiddos that night, just tricks for all of us
And somehow, a cliche becomes scary again when it happens to you
There's nothing funny about a clown in the moonlight, not that there usually is
You've never known fear until you've seen it in the grin of a scarecrow"
Bernard snaps his fingers, and bows to some hesistant and scattered applause. "Thank you. I call this piece... Hallowicked!"
Well, that was certainly... something.
Spider-Man leans closer to me "You SURE that's not what happens if you get hooked on reefer?"586