Could You Imagine?

“Hey, waitress,” Frank said.  He looked up from his newspaper to find Patty raising her eyebrow.  “You know I kid.”  She chuckled.

“What can I get for you, Frank?”

“Just my usual, bacon and eggs with coffee Americano.”  Patty winked, closed her waiter pad, and sauntered back over to the kitchen.  Had she, a fellow reader of this particular newspaper publication, stayed for just a few more seconds, she would have realized that Frank was reading an issue that had been thrown onto his wet lawn three days ago.  He was always up to date on the latest news, often being the first to bring up various events and topics at work or even at this diner, to Patty or any of the other kind employees he had become acquainted with.

Today was one of those rare days in which Frank rereads a section, never a news report but always a topic that keeps his eyes open just a while longer when he lies in bed at night.  Instead of using his pen to work on today’s crossword puzzle, Frank was underlining and circling little bundles of text.  Not a single word was glanced over, as he remained so focused on the section that he hardly even noticed the only other customer that morning leave, with a tip on her table and the ring of a doorbell.

Patty returned minutes later with Frank’s order on a platter.  “Here you are,” she said while setting down his plate and cup of coffee.  “Enjoy your breakfast, as always.”

“Wait, Patty,” he stopped her.  He motioned her to come closer and read the section with him.  Unlike the other employees, Patty was often eager to actually spend a good deal of time talking with Frank.  She stood by his seat and bent down to read.

“What’s caught your eye this time?”

“Popular science.”  Frank pointed at the section, where he had already marked key ideas and numerical data.  He circled one more number in scientific notation, near the end of the section, and stuck his pen behind his ear.  “This was published Friday.  Could you imagine just how small we are compared to the rest of the universe?  The calories I’ll get from this plate of bacon and eggs, for example?  The sun releases somewhere in the ballpark of three with twenty zeros times that amount of energy in one second!”

“That’s hard to say,” she remarked, moving to the opposite side of the table to take a seat, “three with twenty zeros times.”

“Yeah, but that’s not all.  The core of the sun is almost a hundred and seventy times—.  Excuse me, it’s a hundred and seventy thousand times the temperature of this cup of coffee right here.  Don’t even get me started on how big the universe is.  Some of these scientists think it’s actually expanding!”

“Yeah, I read that somewhere.  I think my cousin at JPL actually said something about it.  Crazy world, huh?”

“Yeah, no kidding.  Crazy universe.  Kinda gets you thinking about our own lives, you know what I mean?  If we’re so small, then what purpose have we got in this universe?  What kind of change can we possibly make?”

“I mean, you have any idea on how to read a number with twenty zeros?”

“Can’t say I do.”

“Then I suppose it doesn’t really matter that the sun will release more energy in a second than what you’ll total up with your breakfast every morning, right?  I guess we’re small compared to the universe, but hey, wanna know what else is small?  Atoms.  My son’s learning about them right now, he told me.  Great kid, he loves talking about science.  I think there’s gotta be at least…some number, I forgot, and twenty-six zeros of atoms in that cup of coffee.  And shoot, if one little atom thinks that coffee is big, they’re in for a real shocker when they hear that there’s…I don’t know, a ton of ‘em in our bodies.”

“Well damn.  We’re big to them.  We’re small to the universe.  Heh, but as far as we know, we’re the only ones who are conscious of the human race.”

“Yep, so in the end, who cares how small or big we are but us?”  Patty stood up and showed Frank her ring.  “There’s probably a billion times this much gold in just the world, never mind the whole darn universe.  But what does that matter when this teensy bit of it reminds me that I got a loving husband?”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right.”  Frank lifted his cup of coffee and carefully began to sip it.  “Can’t say I’m bothered very much when the coffee’s good too.”  He and Patty exchanged smiles before they both carried on with their morning.