As they walked down the stairs to the lobby, Perry said, "I'm really not used to drinking like we did last night. I hope there's some coffee somewhere, and something to eat."
"It was fun, though," SarahBeth said. "I want to do it again sometime."
"Oh, me, too. As Pete said, though, maybe with less wine."
"Well, I agree about one thing. There'd better be some coffee somewhere."
They walked into the lobby and looked around. There were about ten or twelve people sitting on the various worn sofas and shaky chairs, but nobody they knew. Some of the people were eating with plates in their laps. SarahBeth went up to two girls and said, "Hi. I'm SarahBeth, and this is Perry. Where did you get the food?"
The girls were apparently somewhere between SarahBeth and Perry in age, and they said hello, but then they looked at Perry and froze, staring at him.
SarahBeth rolled her eyes. She stepped in front of Perry and waved her arms. "Hello?" she said. "Breakfast?"
"Oh, I'm sorry," one of the girls said. "There's food in the dining room." She gestured at a door in the corner of the room.
"Thanks," Perry said as SarahBeth dragged him in that direction.
They went through the door and looked around the large room, which had booths all around the outer walls and small tables in the center of the room. The floor around the outside of the room, under the booths, was raised a few inches, giving the impression that the central area of the room might have been a dance floor at some point.
The booths were all full, but some of the tables were empty.
SarahBeth sniffed the air and said, "Coffee! Come on."
She pulled him through another door, which led to the same kitchen she'd been in the day before. There were more people in it now, though again no familiar faces.
SarahBeth walked over to the coffee urn. "We can just take some, right?" she announced to no one in particular.
No one responded, so she filled two mugs and put them on a tray. Meanwhile, Perry was looking into a large pot on the stove.
"That's breakfast soup," a Black teenager with a shaved head explained. "We're in the process of inventing in, but you're welcome to try some."
SarahBeth got up on her tiptoes to peer into the pot. "What's in it?" she demanded.
"Water. A bunch of those little chicken broth cubes. Some eggs somebody brought last night. Some spices. Cabbage. A moderate amount of white wine."
Perry laughed and picked up a bowl. "Breakfast of champions. Sounds good to me." He grabbed the huge ladle and filled two bowls, squeezing them onto the tray with the coffee mugs.
confrontation is
inevitable