Milk and Honey in Surf City

I needed a boost and the  Milk and Honey coffee shop on Main was just  the ticket. Melvyn had resided at the Cliff Side Nursing Home-a large looking one story motel in back of my apartment on Florida Street for about a month and a half.  For new comers to my blog, Mel has been my brother for about 76 years, and my Mom before she left gave me her last message.."Take care of Mel...I love you." She died that night.
    Ever since Mel arrived at the large looking motel off of Florida Street, he had complained of a back ache, ear and a head that throbbed. Nothing happened. It seemed that there had been discharge papers even sent to the Sea Cliff by the Huntington Memorial Hospital. But it was eye who had asked and received a copy from a nurse.
     The discharge paper confirmed what a Dr. Gray had told me on the phone. Mel had been treated for a an eye and bladder infection, diabetes and an infected ear. The paper stressed going to Dr. Don in two weeks for the ear growth.
      I had been feeding Mel every night and even grilling a Trader Joe's hamburger in my apartment, located a long block from his Cliff Side rooms. I needed a break and I thought about downtown Huntington Beach and its closeness to the ocean as my break for the week.
   The hitched a ride on the 29 and took it to First in Huntington Beach where a short path to the Main Street Library took me to the Milk and Honey vintage coffee shop. The shop, on the shady side of the street, shared elbow space with a jewelry store, barber shop, and two eateries. The Main Library, a historical monument now opened at nine instead of ten.
   On patio of the Milk and Honey, I had to defer my taste buds until I had picked up my check. The rest and a magazine from my buddy Andrew, founder of the A.M.E. Aero-Mechanical Engineering founded in the 1974  had provided me with a magazine about dyes and how parts are made for the aircraft industry.
   With nobody to bother me, I felt at home and no longer did I need a boost as the coffee shop's patio did it for me. A few old people with their dogs walked on the sidewalk and greeted me, until the library opened its doors at nine.
    Unlike the zoo-like setting at the Talbert Library, it was quiet, just what I needed to think and edit my football story. My mind had found a new gear and I could now edit my story and make it everlasting -- of course I had already began to rid myself of the bullshit in my life. Why even one Senior Citizen  Samaritan confessed that my piano playing reminded him of Mozart.

Two hours later, a break at  Ruby's at he end of the Huntington Beach Pier offered me a needed rest.  Outside speakers played bands of the 20's. The sun on the south side rekindled my appetite for life, while I watched a fisherman throw a mackerel to an overhead seagull overhead. Like a fighter plane, it snared its fish and sailed to the roof of the 50's decor eatery.
   A young couple danced to the sounds of the big bands and I yearned to have a lady beside me.but not today. I needed to return to my apartment and assist my brother on a shuttle for an appointment with Dr. Charles Rosenberg at the Beach Medical building beside the Huntington Beach Hospital. Mel had not been looking forward to Dr. Pain -- as he called him from his first experience with him.
  The driver Ruel, Filipino transplant here when twenty years old made sure Mel was locked inside when we arrived at the building. I  found Ste. 427 and gave the clerk Mel's papers.
   "Where is his insurance papers...I don't see his name on any appointment...The shuttle driver told her the doctors name was Newman, across the hall. Since I had already confirmed the date with the good doctor, I knew that he probably did not wish to see Mel. Mel, already stressed out in his wheel chair,  threw out a few barbs that could not published in a dictionary."
    "Do you wish to make an appointment while here?"
    I told her that it had been the social worker job and not mine. I made sure to relax and told Mel to forget this experience. Shuttle driver Ruel, imitated Frank Sinatra and sang Witchcraft only fitting for a the day after Halloween.
    Why even at another office of a dermatologist, two weeks earlier their office manager also told me he needed insurance papers. Yet they did find his appointment. Dr. Do told me it was urgent he had his eye infection attended to, at once and I took his papers to the Sea Cliff Nursing Station.