The Story on the Napkin in the Coffee Shop

"This sweater is itchy!" said he "and man is the greatest song ever written." He hummed the tune to himself so as not to forget it; he sang and he itched. As alive as he was at that moment, his itchy sweater reminded him more of that. "I itch, therefore I am!" he said and moved a chess piece. He was ancient and the weave of man's story and song was caught up in his beard, white and thick. And he laughed! Repeated his joke quietly but with his eyes on the chess board. The boy wore a distressed pair of eyes and forehead, both fixated on the board. "Can you sing it? Have they taught it you yet? Your parents, your teachers, your friends?"

"What?" the boy said, after a few moments.

"Bah!" said he, "You are missing the song for the game!" he cried with his hands in the air. His hands became like spiders and he made them skittle across the sky, scramble back, and then scamper again. The boy laughed!

"There it is!" he cried again and itched once more. "There is the song!"

"Tell me, who was it? Who taught it to you?" He had a puff of an old cigarette and flicked it away.

"Taught me what?"

"Bah! The song of man! The itch of life! The mystery of music and dance, of bicycles and how they move upon the earth, of typewriters and the pictures they take! Of beautiful women and strong drink and old cigarettes and coffee and beast and the vastness of it all!"

The boy smiled, trying to move on, to ignore it. "I do not know."

"What do you mean you don't know? Where is it born? Don't tell me you don't know. One cannot learn the song without someone to teach it. It is not learned and it is a terrifying thing to get the notes wrong. It is art and artists and filth to get it wrong, to forget the tune, to not remember the tune."

His face was red and furiously he lit a cigarette and smoked half of it before the song came from his eyes and down his face. He blew the song form his nose, stood, looked out over the city and the park for a long while. Finally, he kicked over the table, snorted, and walked away scratching.