The smell of brewing coffee permeated the air as the dark liquid slowly trickled out of the machine. It needed to be either fixed or replaced, but no one had gotten around to it yet. Not that they really had the time to do that with how busy they’d been recently.
She set her now-full mug on the kitchen table and stirred a spoonful of sugar into it. Normally, she’d add a little bit of coffee creamer, but that was another thing they had run out of last week.
It was only a matter of time before they ran out of coffee grounds and sugar as well, but for now this could be a routine that she could rely on. Something steady amidst the turmoil of the world.
And boy, was there a lot of turmoil in the world these days. Sure, things had settled down some lately because of the ominous approach of winter, but people were still struggling to cope with what had happened.
Just the other day the neighbors had finally given up on trying to break past their defenses, because the snow was coming and it wasn’t worth continuing to try when it was time to prepare for the inevitable blizzard that was on its way.
She sighed and took a deep breath, letting the steam swirl slowly around the edge of her mug before bringing it up to her lips.
Thank goodness for coffee.