It was late afternoon at the coffee shop. If this was a regular year it would’ve been March 1^st. But this was a leap year and the February 29^th sun started to hang low on the horizon. All the elaborate objects in Mitch’s favorite coffee shop were illuminated. The tiny rectangular stained-glass windows above other clear windows were alive with a spectrum of colors. It reminded Mitch when he was a kid in the morning hours attending Catholic Mass. Whenever the priest would give a long sermon Mitch’s mind wandered. He’d look up at the beautiful stained-glass images of the Virgin Mary and stages of the cross. Somehow, the morning sun penetrating through those windows said more than a scripted sermon from an old priest.

“I used to be a soldier,” the old man said with a somber look. “It was a long time ago when the entire world was at war.” The entire world, Mitch thought. He didn’t say World War Two, he said, the entire world was at war. Mitch had only heard it a few times in his life. He knew what it meant—a lot of men died.