Edward Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks’

Nighthawks, by Edward Hopper 1942

An Ekphrastic (based on art) Story by JKForward

The two coffees would have cost just a coin or two, so why the folded bill in her hand? She had been about to palm it silently to the man at her side when it was surprised into view by the static-filled words from the radio.

The server behind the bar froze after bending to change the station from jitterbug music to news, a request from the man sitting by himself at the end of the bar, staring sullenly into the oily swirl of whisky he had poured from his pocket flask into his cold coffee.

A few months earlier, the same frantic voice had announced the attack on ‘the Gibraltar of the Pacific’, Pearl Harbour.

Now anti-aircraft fire and torpedo attacks were being reported on Midway.  Was December ‘41 repeating itself?

The man at the end of bar hid a smile and using a fountain pen that bled ink into the paper napkin in front of him, scrawled the initials 'AF'.