Cold Coffee

Dear Delyara, There is a thin, translucent skin that forms on top of a mug of black coffee if you leave it sitting on a desk for more than twenty minutes. It catches the harsh overhead fluorescent light, turning a dull, smoky gray. Tonight, I spent five minutes just staring at it instead of looking at my phone. It’s a silent indicator of time passing in a room where absolutely nothing else moves. You realize that while you are holding your breath waiting for the next hour to clear, the physical world is just quietly cooling down around you, layer by layer.