1. Stepping into the building…

…people are flooded with the bright white lights and the intoxicating smell of snacks. Before making it to the desk you look around at the old posters around you. Walking up to the desk shoes squeak on the black and white tile and they make a purchase from the employee wearing a red short-sleeved polo and black pants. Patrons notice that all of the employee’s hats have  “WELCOME TO…” with the rest of the sentence twisted around the back. Look up and see the the high white ceiling, splattered with red arches, has been covered in “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” balloons from a child’s birthday party from earlier today. Walking past the white with patches of red and black walls patrons notice more posters, even older than the ones by the door.

After customers buy their tickets, they walk into a dark hallway with another red and black clad employee standing at a checkpoint. You hand her a slip of paper that is your “ticket to paradise” according to a poster you saw on the door walking into the building. The employee tells you, with a surprisingly kind voice given the fact that she is working on a Saturday night, which number room to look for.

Walking through the long hallway, dodging old cardboard cutouts and candy machines they find their desired room. Pushing open the surprisingly heavy doors the darkness and the music floods out into the hallway.They walk through a narrow hallway to get into the open space of the dark room. Sitting down all people will see are a couple and a teenager. After an hour and a half, they walk out. Squeaking through the mostly red and white lobby they finally reach the enormous parking lot, and drive home.

2. The room is mostly tidy…

…aside from the table littered with construction paper, markers, and boxes full of pictures developed in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The room doesn’t have a particular smell aside from the vague hint of laundry detergent that comes from the room beside it. The wall directly opposite the staircase is barely a wall at all, but mostly shelves of books and Cleveland Indian’s memorabilia, untouched since they were moved to the house. The part that is a wall is concealed by an electric fireplace, topped with dozens of movies organized carefully by sappiness on a scale of one to ten (ten being anything adapted from a Nicholas Sparks novel). Next to the chick flick collection rests a small collection of Doctor Who merchandise, along with a few pieces of a lunchbox collection.

The other walls are bare aside from one, lined with one long shelf of framed baseball pictures and plaques. On the floor along that wooden wall sits a leather sofa and chair, directly across from the TV, Xbox, and small karaoke machine. There is nothing on the carpeted floor other than the furniture: the four chairs, the couch, the coffee table, and the table on which the TV sits; a black yoga mat; and 3 pieces of exercise equipment. Without the machines on, the only sounds that can be heard in this room come from the laundry room right beside it or the kitchen right above it. You can often hear the laundry machines working or the vents blowing air, and when the family is home you can hear the dog barking and the coffee machine running and the microwave beeping and voices talking and music playing.

3. A man sitting in a corner…

… picking at acne on his face while typing furiously with his lefthand. He is sitting next to the counter where a server will be giving coffee to it’s next customer. In front of me, two women who look like they’re in their twenty’s gossip about their friends and family, each commenting on each others stories, while eating muffins. One of them will curse occasionally and then a mother from across the room will turn and look at her as if to say, “Stop I’m with my children!”. Two little girls at the biggest table in the middle of the room tell their grandmother about what Santa brought them for Christmas and how Santa ate the cookies they made him. She smiles and seems content with talking about their story. To the right of the man picking at his acne there are two men wearing suits talking about what seems to be some sort of business contract. They’re are both wearing suits and seem to have expensive glasses and watches.

Behind me there is a couple sharing food, they seem to be arguing quietly about money. New people are walking in almost every minute ordering coffee or food. There is a lesbian couple in line who are kissing and touching each other a lot which seems to have made the man in front of them uncomfortable because he just walked out. A man who knows the two girls who were gossiping just walked in to pick them up. The woman who is making coffee and food with a man name ‘Terron :)’, according to his name tag, are working hard to keep customers happy and talking about the latest news. For the people who aren’t in a very crappy mood it is working. The arguing behind me has subsided and has been replaced with conversation about their lovely Christmases. A woman wearing all black Nike running gear is talking on the phone loud enough for people to start looking at her. It’s like she thinks she’s in her living room. She buys her coffee and leaves at the same time the couple who were arguing behind me does.

At this time everyone leaves besides the man with the acne who was here before me, a woman working on her phone and a family who just occupied the table behind me. They seem very happy and they’re laughing as they walk in. The boy in the family seems to be home from college and is wearing a camo jacket, orange puma shoes and black jeans. The mom is wearing an all black fur jacket and fur pants while the father is wearing a jogging suit. They soon leave. Leading the way through the set of doors is a college girl with her mom. Next a construction worker who just comes in to use the bathroom. After him two women talking to each other and finally a woman wearing glasses and all black. I catch the door after them, whisper a thank-you and walk out.

4. The smell of ground coffee…

…beans hangs in the air, along with the sound of clinking cups, plates and utensils, indiscernible chattering, and the roar of the coffee machine. The walls are painted a warm reddish-orange color, and most of the talking comes from a large table in the back filled with a group of older women. In front of the table is a cluster of three couches surrounding a small, wooden coffee table where a few customers are planted, sipping coffee and reading or typing on laptops.

Nearby, there is a group of small tables. One of the tables has a large, old chess board on top of it, and a few, somewhat pedantic, guys in their twenties sit around it, playing chess and talking about authors. Every once and a while the noise of the coffee steamer at the front counter overcomes the chatter. The counter is surrounded by baked goods and coffee mugs for sale, and in front of it is a sign advertising an open mic night. There is a large span of windows all along the front of the room, through which you can see that it is dark outside, but streetlight lights illuminate the parking lot, and reflect against a cloud of quickly falling snow. Cold air fills the room every once and a while as new people hustle inside out of the frigid weather. But warmth fills the room again as they shuffle over to the counter to order food or coffee, and then find a place to settle down.

*Here are the answers*

1. Regal Cinemas

2. A Beachwood living room

3. Starbucks on Green Rd.

4. Coffee Fix on Mayfield Rd.