It wasn't a fancy place.
One of those cafes people went to think, or use their laptop, or just sometimes sit and do nothing. It had soft music and those lights that made it feel like time was passing more slowly than it was.
Ada used to go there a lot.
Same seat. Same corner. Same routine.
One day he came.
He came in, like he was lost. He was dressed simply, a little bit old, not new, not fresh. He was carrying a black bag, old, worn, well used.
He stood outside for a while, looking about.
And then he sat down at Table Seven.
Alone.
It wasnt long before he noticed him.
The waiter approached cautiously.
“Good afternoon, sir. What would you like?”
The man hesitated before answering. “Just tea.”
Just tea.
That was enough to get some judgements started.
Ada overheard the girls at the next table to hers.
"He can't get anything else now, can he?"
“Or he might be waiting for someone to buy him.”
They laughed quietly.
Ada didn’t laugh.
She looked over again.
But he was there and he was quiet. Like he wasn't really there.
A couple of times the next few days he came back.
Same time. Same table. Same order.
Tea.
No phone. No laptop. No distractions.
Just silence.
He started attracting attention to himself but not for the right reasons.
"He just sits around" said a man one day.
"I think he should go, he takes up space," another said.
Even people like waitresses and checkers began to react to him differently; not rudely, but not so friendly as they were to others.
Ada observed all this.
It was all different that day.
It was just another day. He arrived, ordered his usual cup of tea and sat at Table Seven.
But on this day, just over 30 minutes later, a child walked in.
After looking about, he approached the man.
"Sir… I'm late sorry."
The man smiled.
It was the first time she had ever seen him smile.
"It's OK" he said. “Sit down.”
The boy took out a book from his bag and then laid it on the table.
And the man talked… to the boy.
It wasn't small talk.
It was teaching.
Careful explanations. Patient corrections. Encouragement.
At one moment, the boy wrinkled his nose at his book.
I don't understand this part," he said.
The man bent toward him.
“Try again" he said. "Try again you're close."
There was no frustration in his voice. No impatience.
Just calm.
A day later, two boys.
Then three.
A week later, Table Seven was not a table.
It was now a classroom.
Some students came at different times. Some stayed longer. Some left early. But they all came for the same reason.
To learn.
Ada eventually was overcome by curiosity.
One day as he was preparing to leave, she called out to him.
“Excuse me” she said.
He turned.
“Yes?”
She hesitated for a second.
“I have seen you here a couple of times…I was just wondering…”
She was struggling with the words.
He waited patiently.
"Why here?" she asked. “Why not teach somewhere else?”
He looked around the café.
“Because I was found here,” he replied.
Ada frowned slightly. “What do you mean?”
He began to play with the strap of his backpack.
“I used to work at a school, as a teacher,” he said. Until I got sacked.”
There was no malice in his voice. It was simply a matter of fact.
“For a while I wondered what to do. Then one of my students happened to see me here. We talked. He asked for my help in his studies.
He smiled slightly.
“So I helped him.”
Ada looked at the table behind him.
“And the others?”
"They knew I was here," he said.
Ada was in her corner that evening, but it was different.
She remembered the whispers.
The assumptions.
The inferences they made.
All from what they saw… or thought they saw.
An out-of-place-looking man.
A man who drank tea.
A man who sat at Table Seven.
But they didn't see the whole man.
They didn't see the teacher.
They didn't see the patience.
They didn't see the difference.
And so it dawned on her.
When we don't see anything from the outside…
…sometimes look closer.
When the man came back the next day Ada looked him in the eye.
She smiled at him.
And he smiled at her.
…truthfully all you need to know someone…
…is a little time to find out who they are.
Image gotten from Chatgpt
Aikay👾