Coffee & Crypto

Part 3 

Olga might be reaching her limit. She stares at the ceiling of her bedroom in her studio apartment in Kensington. With the amount of land in Australia, she wonders how she's been confined to such a small space. There is no strength in her body right now and her fatigue has accumulated beyond reckoning. If she's to lose her job today, so be it. She wouldn't anyway. For coming in late? For not coming in at all? The Taxation Office will survive, she says to herself.

“Aargh!" shouts Olga.

And in one energetic burst, she flips her body up. She checks the time, having long turned off the alarm. Unable to sleep again because of the microscopic chance she'd go to work.

But she will go. Because she gets paid by the hour. Because she needs money. More money than she has now. It's 8:34am. Can I make it by 9? She stares straight at the wall in front of her and takes a second to decide her next step.

She runs to the bathroom, washes her face and brushes her teeth hurriedly, it's not enough, she knows that, but cannot justify spending any longer on her teeth, it's the state of your teeth after a long day on the road and the early morning sun is beginning to rise and you wish you could find a place to brush your teeth to feel a little less gross. She runs back for her phone and calls an Uber. She takes a small bag and packs all her moisturisers, creams, and brush, and throws her toothbrush and paste in there too. She looks around for anything vital.

Your Uber has arrived.

Olga enters the office and Mahdi's reaction is too obvious.

“I know okay, leave it alone. I'm having the worst morning!" barks Olga.

“Haven't had your coffee?" smiles Mahdi.

She stares at him like a zombie waiting for a life signal from an unknown organism before the faintest heartbeat provokes its wrath. She's not humoured by him at all.

She logs in just in time for her shift and stares at her screen for 10 minutes until she realises she cannot work like this.

“I'm going for my coffee."

Mahdi arrives at State Library Victoria after work. He decided to come just in case. He's not the type to bail on someone so he considers it a matter of pride and duty.

He searches for the book Animal Farm by George Orwell. A book he's been interested in reading for so long but has refused to purchase because of the pigs on the cover. He takes the book into a quiet area, dimmed, with small armchairs and sits in a corner, adjacent to another chair and a small coffee table.

The book is good, and a pang of regret rushes through him as he thinks about all the conversations he missed out on because he couldn't accept the cover art.

He reads for 20 minutes without distraction before he notices a man standing beside him.

Mahdi's glued to the book, on the second last page of the first paragraph too, and momentum is there. He decides the man can wait.

But he doesn't and the man leaves.

He finishes the first chapter, keeps his finger in the book and closes it. He looks up quickly but no one is around. He looks left and right, and peers into the distance but no one catches his eye.

He sits back in the small armchair and notices a piece of paper on the coffee table.

“Collingwood Bathhouse tomorrow 7PM"

Mahdi doesn't arrive at work for the next 2 days. Olga complains to her manager that he's not showing up to work and that her team's workload is too much. But really, nothing's changed.

Her manager advises her if Mahdi doesn't come to work for the next week without contacting them or providing a reason, they'll reshuffle the teams and add someone to Olga's team.

A week passes. There is no contact from Mahdi.

The next day a new worker is added to Olga's team.

Ravit appears like a ray of sunshine. A tall, handsome man. Nice Seiko watch, a clean, ironed white shirt and navy trousers, flamingo patterned socks, and polished brown shoes. Olga sees him from a mile away and smiles generously.

He's holding two cups of coffee.

“Olga I presume? This is for you," smiles Ravit.

“I only drink-"

“Almond latte double shot no sugar," interrupts Ravit. He winks at her, takes a seat in an empty chair, and crosses his legs.

“Who are you?" asks Olga, almost seductively. “I can't start my day without a coffee even if it costs $7!"

“I'm just like you. The place just downstairs?"

“Mhmm," moans Olga, grasping the warm cup with her two hands. “The worst part is this coffee just destroys my guts..."

“Oh..."

“No, no," she laughs, “I shouldn't be telling you that when we just met. What's your name?"

“Ravit.” 

“Ravit, Rav, don't mind me. I can be a bit, free-spoken sometimes," she laughs again. “Look, login, you already have your details right? Check your email... or something. Enjoy the coffee. We'll start soon, okay?"

“Do I need to change the computer?"

“No, no," she swallows the coffee in her mouth. “Someone was sitting there but he hasn't shown up for more than a week. Just take his computer. Who cares."

Ravit nods his head, places the coffee above his keyboard and begins logging into his new computer.

Olga has already logged in, her internet browser opens automatically.

She reads the news stories on her homepage, yawning, stretching her arms this way and that, waiting for her other applications to load.

Woman's body found after flash flood at Buchan campground subsides.

Police investigate theft of nine dogs in Victoria.

Man dies after being hit by falling tree branch in Victoria.

3 men electrocuted to death at public bathhouse in Victoria.

In the description of the last headline, it mentions that the youngest was 24 years old.

“Oh, God..."

“What's wrong?" asks Ravit.

He looks over at Olga's monitor and reads the headline. “The boy that sat there before said something about going to a bathhouse..."

“Could it be him?" asks Ravit.

“I'm not sure, it doesn't say." Olga opens the article in a new tab and scrolls down.

“I don't know what to say..." adds Ravit, anxiously.

“No, no, you're fine. I don't even know him well." Olga closes the tab with the story.

The applications Olga uses for work have loaded. There's a minute before her shift starts. She changes her status to Ready as the clock strikes 9. She closes the entire browser now, and she loads her first task for the day, but she's forgotten something.

She looks left and right, rummaging through the paper and pencils on her desk. Ravit's head twitches in her direction, noticing her hurried movements but he does his best to remain oblivious to her. She panics like a teenager who can't find the vape in his hand. She lifts the keyboard and can't believe it's not there.

“Oh, oh my God. There it is!" Olga relaxes.

She grabs the coffee hiding behind her handbag that she had placed on her desk and takes a sip.

Fin