"Bean of the Nation"

Douglas and Eugene left Christopher's household, leaving him alone with his wife. As the two were traversing the narrow streets towards the Place de la Nations, which Douglas wanted to visit earlier, he suddenly turned to Eugene and asked, "Hey, were not you actually planning to go to the cemetery with your brother?"

Eugene shook his head and replied with a smile, though his eyes were filled with faint sorrow, "That's fine, we still have tomorrow to do it. Right now, I would like to walk for a bit around Paris myself."

"Indeed, not every day you have an opportunity to feel the liveliness of a big city! I heard from… my acquaintance that there is one great café near the Place." smiled Douglas and nearly tripped over the beggar due to walking nearly with his back first. He swore a bit, as did the beggar, who appeared to be an old man in tainted clothes and a scar under an eye. Douglas frowned upon the sight of the old man, but threw a few centimes that he has found in his pocket. Despite that, the beggar did not seem too pleased, as one would be when a young brat nearly knocked you over. Luckily, the conflict did not spark out, and the two silently saw each other off.

Douglas took 2 cigarettes out of his pocket and offered one to Eugene, but he declined. This way one went back into the deep pocket of a man and another one right into his mouth, "This beggar was quite scary, did you see his scar?"

"Might be a veteran." proposed Eugene.

"Or some criminal that lost everything with age!" grinned Douglas, but soon after his smile went off, "Crap, I forgot the lighter!"

Douglas clicked with his tongue and then saw yet another beggar, a middle-aged man with a skinny labrador by his side. Douglas then threw the cigarette to him, making the feeling threatened, and as a result it began barking. The beggar, though, just smiled at the sight of a cigarette.

"Jesus Christ, there certainly are much more beggars than in our town. The city of opportunity, they say." mumbled Douglas and glanced over to Eugene who nodded in agreement and added, "With more opportunities there are more risks as well. Though some might have moved here in expectation of change, but simply moving to a bigger place would not suddenly make you richer…"

Year after year, tons of people from small provinces migrate to capitals, because there is indeed a variety of ways to earn money, but foremost you need to actually make your dream come true is an idea. Person's own creativity you will likely end up on a job that is slightly more profitable than the same place in your hometown, or even lose everything and end up on begging for a fortune from those who succeeded. But one's own prosperity is not always dictated by the own will, the Great Depression has shaken even those who were smart enough to consider all the risks prior to the financial catastrophe. And of course, war, which does not spare anyone's well-being over the ferocity of mankind's greatest sin.

You can't blame those one who gave in to mediocrity after life itself did everything in its power to shatter one's soul and will to grow. But you are free to be happy over those who stood up and achieved or simply regained the success of the past. One of those fortunate people was Arnold, who went through war, plague and crisis, but his café withstood all the challenges and now his name is known across France as one of the best baristas.

Upon the thought of hardships, his not so beloved employer went through sent shivers of admiration down Eugene's spine, but at the same time he felt the heartache from the simple notion of Arnold on these beggars place. That was the reason why he put coins into these beggars hats without looking at them.

After a while, the two finally reached the Place de la Nation and from afar it did not look as impressive, but upon closer examination both were impressed by details of the statue. The place used to have the most active guillotines during the bloody period of French Revolution.

"Have you ever wondered how would it feel, your head being sliced off?" wondered Eugene, making Douglas's eyes widen up.

"Quit being creepy, Jesus!"

Eugene giggled a little, but then added, "It is quite a pretty monument, but why did you want to visit it so badly?"

"Maman told me once that our ancestor used to be… an executioner. And he was actually working at this place. My relatives don't like to talk about it, and they even warned me to not visit this place. As they said, it will awaken my genes of a murderer!" cackled Douglas and mysteriously said, "Well, the number of people I would like to kill remained as it was before, superstition crap, as I expected."

"Talking of creepy…" muttered Eugene and wondered again, "And who would you like to kill if it's not a secret?"

"My boss and German chancellor, of course!"

"As one would say."

"Anyway, I am quite thirsty, let's go find this café." energetically proposed Douglas and Eugene agreed to his idea, "I would surely love to try their coffee."

Unfortunately, Douglas forgot the name of the café, and there were quite a few around the Place. So they asked for recommendations from the passerbyers who did not seem to enjoy talking with them, until one old lady gave a full on review of each place and the one that left the best impression with not only the taste of the drinks, but also the decorations and educated guests who were visiting this place quite often and held quiet but heated debates over psychology. And the name of the café was "Bean of the Nation".

They followed the instructions of the old lady, but still spent some time to actually find a sign of the café amongst many other institutions near the Place de la Nation. And upon finally noticing the sign, they opened the front door and were met with a fragrant smell of fresh coffee along with the buttery aroma of pastries. They were not yet peckish due to having a whole meal made by Vera, so the two settled for a cup of coffee.

The first thing they noticed or rather heard upon entering the café is the mumbling of quite a few gentlemen who were sitting in the corner, yet it did not help them to be less noticeable. But neither guests nor employees mind the aggressive speeches, the opposite, many were carefully listening to their talk and some younger men even taking notes.

"Welcome to "Bean of the Nation" may I take your order?" suddenly spread the voice from the counter. It was yet another employee who was looking directly at the 2. Eugene was taken aback for a moment, due to the situation being reversed from the usual, but then he confidently said, "Thank you, I would like one cup of pressed coffee with no cream nor sugar."

"One cappuccino, please." followed Douglas, and the employee wrote both orders down. Afterwards, the 2 went to the nearest table that stood across the room from the arguing group.

The barista did not make them wait for way too long and soon enough 2 cups were set on their table, but the worker was not in a hurry to leave. He stood beside them for a while, looking straight into Eugene's eyes. At first the man shrugged it off, but after mere seconds felt uncomfortable.

"Excuse me?"

"I think I remember you from somewhere." finally the employee broke the silence. He was well-dressed and quite older than all the other employees, his appearance though did not ring any bells for Eugene until he said, "Were not you an employee of "Monso Rooster"?"

At that moment, Eugene stood up and exclaimed, "Monsieur Garland! So it is your café!?"

Garland was a friend of Arnold who had visited "Monso Rooster" a year ago, usually it was Arnold who drove all the way to Paris to meet up with him. Garland smiled and further said, "Thank god, I was not wrong! It would have been quite embarrassing if I was wrong. What brought you here today?"

Eugene explained why and how he ended up at "Bean of the Nation" and they both were in ave from the machinations of the fate. Garland was aware of Eugene's skills at making coffee, even though he tried his work when Eugene was in training, he was still impressed by its mastery.

This man noticed the potential of the boy, but also was discerning enough to see the amount of work he still needs to further improve his craft, thus he made a proposal, "Would you like to have a look at our kitchen and brewing process? You might learn a thing or 2. Or considering your fresh experience, I might as well learn something."

"Why of course! Though I would like to finish my coffee first, and…" Eugene turned to Douglas and asked, "Is it alright, if I will go off for a minute?"

Douglas shook his head and sighed, "Do not worry about me, I will just sit here. Do as you please."