Marlow's
Saturday 21st November
Time: 18:00
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The wood frog can hold its pee for up to eight months.
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Time: 19:00
Cotton candy was invented by a dentist. Talk about ulterior motive!
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Time: 23:00
Lobsters taste with their feet.
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Sunday 22nd November 2020
Time 03:00
Strawberries aren’t berries
Time 09:30
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Time 18:00
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You just tried it didn’t you?
Who is this?
What a weird question to ask a definitely automated fact bot.
Seriously who is this?
Since I’m honestly impressed that you lasted this long before blocking me.
I won’t tell you my name, but I will tell you that your number is currently written
in stall 3 of the East View Starbucks women’s toilets. Congratulations! Someone really hates you.
That explains a lot of the calls and texts I’ve received recently.
Although yours have been the most interesting. Can I resubscribe?
Three Months Later
Monday 22th February
Time: 08:47
I’m heading to work now but I can’t wait to meet you tonight!
Have a good day, I’ll see you at Marlow’s
Time: 18:45
This place had seen better days. That is how people politely described it. That it just needed a fresh coat of paint, some new chairs and a decent cleaner. Well, those people are wrong. There is nothing in the world that could ever make Marlow's Chicken Shack appealing. Now don't let the name fool you: it doesn’t serve chicken. It doesn’t serve anything really apart from cheap wine and watered-down whiskey. It is not much to see, worn out red leather booths, a bar that seems to drag itself around the room and a rusty jukebox that sits in the corner and only plays music with a side of static. Now taking this into account you can imagine my confusion when the message read: “Let’s meet at Marlow’s”. A message you would expect to see from a friend who is wallowing in self-pity after a breakup that they just ‘never saw coming’ and really needs to drown themselves in cheap alcohol. Something that Marlow’s can so lovingly provide, along with the privacy of it being completely dead almost 24/7.
It was not a message you would expect to see from a girl proposing you meet for the first time. After months of talking and this is the first meeting? I didn’t question it at the time. God knows why, I think I was too busy thinking about the fact that I was meeting 'her'. So here I was, surrounded by cigarette smoke in a Chicken Shack with no chickens.
I'm here, Back booth.
Weak Signal unable to send
If I were to describe this place in one word it would be, homey. To everyone else it is probably just another barely hanging onto business dinner but to me? It was home. The only customers being regulars and the occasional tourist makes Marlow’s Coffee House a hidden gem to those who are lucky enough to find it. That is why I consider myself lucky to have Marlow’s as one of my favourite places in the world. Hidden in the twist and turns of the back streets of some little town, it is easier to stumble across than it is to intentionally get here. Unless you come every day, which I do. You can’t blame me! Not only does it satisfy my caffeine addiction, at a price that won't put a hole in my wallet, but its bright cherry coloured walls and cheery staff are the perfect contrast to the dark world of moaning zombies that wait outside its poster plastered doors.
There aren’t any real zombies, but the people outside sure do give of that impression since they rarely talk and seem to have forgotten how to lift their feet. So, the friendly atmosphere of Marlow's seemed like the perfect place to meet ‘him'. I have been waiting for this since I sent the message, I was more surprised that he knew the place than that he agreed, we had spoken about this before. Meeting. So here I am, surrounded by smiling faces and on my third cup of coffee this hour.
Hey! I’m here. By the counter. Let me know when you’re nearby.
UNABLE TO SEND
Time: 20:00
One hour. That is how long I have been here. One hour and no sign of ‘her’. I don’t want to be disappointed. I want to act like it doesn’t hurt but I had been looking forward to this. I thought Marlow's was a weird place to meet but maybe that was because it was just some prank. Maybe I’m being played.
I wonder who by? Maybe the tall, tanned and fully bearded man with sunglasses on indoors and leather the only material he seems to wear. Maybe it was the bartender, bored of his unexciting job and only hoping to give himself some entertainment. Maybe I had been wrong. Maybe she was not all that I had believed her to be.
Hello? Are you coming? Is this a joke?
Weak Signal unable to send
One hour, 14 minutes and 56 seconds. That is how long I have been waiting here. I am on my sixth cup of coffee and the sympathetic looks of fellow regulars have begun. They know what today was. Was. That seems wrong, maybe there is still a chance that he will show. Maybe.
I will not cry. I will not cry. That is what is running through my mind right now. Well, that and getting my older brother to use his status as chief of police to find out who ‘he’ is would be really helpful right now, so that I can go knocking on his door and show him what happens when you leave me hanging. Which is nothing because my short height and lack of muscles means that the only way I am hurting anyone is if they weigh almost nothing and are standing at the top of an extremely high flight of stairs.
I could just send my brother to do it. He would do a lot more damage than I could ever do. Maybe that is pointless. Maybe he is not worth it and maybe I should just go home.
Where are you? Do you need help finding Marlow’s?
UNABLE TO SEND
Time: 21:21
Two hours. I am done. I do not know how I lasted this long. The smell of smoke must have become engraved into my skin half an hour ago, yet I stayed. The taste of stale peanuts and questionable water will now be forever tainting my taste buds, yet I have stayed. The 'water' turned into whiskey fifteen minutes ago, maybe that is why I stayed. The conversations I had with ‘her’ have been on repeat in my head, maybe that is why I stayed. I’m still hanging on to my last hope that she is real, that she cares as much as I do, that she just got a little bit lost. This is why I have stayed.
Can you just tell me why you’re not here?
I’ll understand. I just need to know if something is wrong?
Weak Signal unable to send
Two hours, 36 minutes and 23 seconds. I do not have a single clue as to why I am still here. Why I even bothered to stay. When asked I will say that I started talking to the regulars. Like Big Sue, a woman on the plump side with crazy red curls and crazier clothes. I’ll say that Al and I got into a spirited debate, like always, that we started to talk about the coffee and next thing you know we were arguing over the best way to brew the beans. Maybe I should tell them about Raymond, about the stories he tells about the war and how tonight was an extra-long one reserved for special occasions - Like when the youngest regular in Marlow’s Coffee House is stood up by some guy, she had been messaging on some stupid dating app, and that she had somehow fooled herself into thinking that he cared as she did.
Are you just going to ignore me then? Was this a joke?
UNABLE TO SEND
Time: 22:00
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