»These are the people that you meet Pt VIII

Down at the café this morning, I saw familiar faces: Jacob cycled past, helmet-less as always and en route to shoot hoops; Francine hovered near the door, waiting for something; the smilingest mom in the world walked her fussy three-month-old at the corner; and two cyclists on what couldn't have been the first but was perhaps the second date talked, ostentatiously, about raw food and Blue Bottle coffee. The corner book-seller, absent these past several months, rolled a shopping cart past his former corner. The cart was empty save a ghetto blaster blaring reggae, and he himself wore a skewed Santa cap.

UPDATE: He returned a few hours later, and I picked up a handful of books, including interlinear translations of Livy and Ovid, and an Old-English grammar.