Today is no different.

5:45

I shower, dress, and leave for the cafe where I find my usual seat empty in the shadowy corner on the balcony.

Just the way I like it.

From where I sit, drinking my black coffee, I can view the entire avenue without being seen.

The avenue is lined with thick white oak trees. The cobstones are washed clean daily.

It is quiet in the early morning. Only the usual suspects appear.

The cafe owners bringing out the chairs and tables.

The workers whispering to each other as they sweep the front of their respective businesses: boutique, bakery, cafe, bookstore.

Little shops lining both sides of the avenue with the occasional lamp post and bench pairing.

At the end of the avenue sits an old fountain in the shape of a giant mossy rock.

I glance at my wrist watch.

6:00

As always, time is moving at a sluggish pace.

The bells chime thrice at a nearby University, the well-known school for the arts. Once prestige, now swarming with wealthy exchange students.

Speaking of exchange students, here comes one now, down the avenue so early in the morning.

158cm, 40kg, blood type most likely O. Her hair is neatly tied up in a ponytail, her clothes are cleanly pressed. Nothing messy about her appearance. She looks like a no-fun-girl.

She holds her camera up to take pictures of the fountain.

A rich lady walks by with her dog like she does every morning, dressed up to the nines.

She didn't keep my interest for long. Now this girl, the one with the camera, is doing unusual things.

She stands on the cement block at one of the lamp posts seemingly trying to aim her camera somewhere into the sky.

Is she capturing the thick oak foilage arch?

She leans back perhaps to catch the light seeping through the cracks in the leaves.

I feel my heart skip a beat as she loses her footing and slips.

To my surprise, the girl lands on her feet making me wonder if she was a cat in her past life.

My mind reminds me not to follow one subject for too long and that I should be looking at the whole scene. 

Observe from a third person point of view. 

But there is something wrong about this girl that keeps my eyes from wandering. 

I cannot grasp what it is exactly. She continued down the avenue. 

An old man is sitting on a bench reading the newspaper. 

She walks towards him and he says bonjour to her. She stops and checks his newspaper then smiles but says nothing.

No bonjour for the old man?

She nods her head about something.

I watch as she steps back from the old man and raises her camera.

The lens is pointing directly at me.

I feel as if I was caught with my hand in the cookie jar.

A few seconds pass, she lowers the camera and nods to the old man again before leaving him with his three days old newspaper.

She continues down the avenue and disappears out of sight.

The most interesting thing that ever happens to my morning.

I stare down at my wrist watch in disbelief.

6:31

How did time pass by so quickly?

I stand up and depart for my next task leaving behind an empty cup.