Lorraine

Lorraine works at the Starbucks cafe inside of the Barnes & Noble in Eagan that I frequent on my lunch breaks. She's a few inches shorter than me, probably in her 40's or early 50's, with chin-length white/gray hair. Lorraine is angry all the time.
I've never had a real conversation with Lorraine... aside from your normal customer/employee transaction. She makes my tall skim chai and heats up the occasional sandwich when I order.

It's possible that Lorraine has one of those faces that always looks angry, no matter her real mood... but I don't think so.
I try to smile and be very polite every time I see her (which is a lot... I'm seriously there almost every day). She never smiles back. She sighs at me when I ask her to punch in my phone number so I can get my B&N membership discount, and today she gave me a pretty strong glare when I gave her a large bill to pay for my small purchase (I apologized - it was all I had).

I wish Lorraine could be happier. I wonder what's got her down. I wonder if she doesn't have anywhere to spend Christmas... or maybe she's in an unhappy marriage... or maybe she's not married at all. Maybe she has a chronic disease. Maybe she doesn't like young people. Who knows.

Barnes & Noble is such a wonderful place, and bookstore cafes are so much fun. I want to tell Lorraine that she should be happy about where she is... surrounded by all those great books. I want to tell Lorraine that life really isn't so bad, and that she'd better start making an effort to smile at me... or I'll throw my chai in her face.