Latte by Miranda Altice

This is about a two feet tall man, named Latte. All he has ever dreamed of is growing, and he is one fortunate man because one day his dream came true. But it was not a growth spurt!

                  This is the story about a two feet tall man named Latte. Latte is a handsome, muscular man that has lived in a Starbuck’s storage closet located in Roanoke, Virginia all of his life. All he has ever dreamed about is fitting in with everyone else. Since Latte is only two feet tall this was hard for him. Until one day a picture of him and a female customer would change his life forever.

                   Latte has lived in a Starbucks storage closet all of his life. His mother gave birth to him behind Starbucks. Since he was only the size of her hand, she put him in her empty Grande Latte cup and stuck him beside the dumpsters and left. As Tony, a member of the Starbucks cleaning crew, was taking out the trash he heard something, and as he looked down he saw the cup moving. He picked up the cup, and lifted the lid. Tony then saw what looked like a living little doll. He immediately took him into the Starbucks storage closet. You see, Tony was homeless and the store manager let him stay in the storage closet. Since Tony found him in a Grande Latte cup, he named him Latte.

                He became rather attached to Latte. Whenever someone came into the Starbuck’s storage closet Tony would make sure to hide him. Eventually, Latte learned to hide on his own. Tony loved Latte; there was never a day Tony wasn’t with him. The day came when Tony had to move out of the storage closet. He had to leave Latte behind because he was moving in with his parents. By this time, Latte was one year old. Tony had promised to come see Latte every day, but he broke that promise; Latte never saw Tony again.

                Although Latte was only a year old he knew how to survive on his own; he was one intelligent child. At night, the workers would store food and drinks in the storage room. Latte would get into the food and drinks every night. The workers always thought it was a rodent; never would anyone think it was a human being.

                     There was a hole about as large as a toilet seat in the Starbucks storage room. Whenever Latte had to use the bathroom, he would squat and use the bathroom in the hole. He was never really sure where the hole led to; he just remembers Tony using the bathroom in that hole. The workers at Starbucks stored napkins in the storage room, and Latte would use them whenever he had to use the bathroom.

                        Latte was rather small, by the time he was five he had doubled in size; he was 10 inches tall. As time passed, physically his growth was very slow, but he had the mind of a grown man. By the time he reached the age of 18, he had reached two feet tall and he thought he would never get any bigger.

                    After his 18^th birthday, he had finally realized how lonely he really was. He decided it was time to venture out into the world. To Latte, this meant going into Starbucks while they were open. This was the only world he has ever known.

                  Throughout the years he had been stashing away every nickel, dime, quarter, and penny that he had found on his nightly excursions; he had no need for money. After all of these years of saving up money, it had finally come in handy. Latte gathered up some of his money and snuck out of the storage room, making sure he didn’t get caught. He made it into the Starbucks lobby and as Latte walked into Starbucks, everyone stopped to stare at him.

                  Latte could tell that people were not accepting him. He ordered a cappuccino and slowly walked over to a chair in the farthest corner of the Starbucks lobby. As Latte sat down, he looked around noticing everyone who was staring at him. “Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea”, he thought. He was very surprised as to how different people were from him. He did not fit in and he knew this. He thought about just slipping back into the storage closet and hiding forever.

                    A beautiful, polite, young girl noticed Latte sitting alone in the corner. She also noticed all of the people staring and talking about him. She walked over to speak to Latte. He was not expecting anyone to talk to him, let alone someone so beautiful.

                 Karil Smith was a tall, beautiful, 21 year old who had just moved to Roanoke a couple of months prior. She was raised in a small town in Pennsylvania by both of her parents. Her parents have always taught her to be kind to others. She moved to Roanoke to take care of her ailing grandmother. When Karil saw how people were treating Latte, she felt compelled to talk to him.

           “Hi, my name is Karil Smith; but you can just call me Karil. What is your name?” She said smiling.

            “Hi, my name is Latte,” Latte said nervously.

             “Nice to meet you Latte. Do you mind if I sit with you?” Karil said as she grabbed the chair.

            “Nice to meet you, too and sure!” Latte was happy someone was being polite to him.

      As Karil sat down, she grabbed her cell phone out of her back pocket.

           “What is that?” Latte said eyes wide as can be.

           “You have never seen a cell phone before? It is one of the greatest inventions ever!” Karil said in shock.

        Latte began to tell Karil about his life. As they were talking, Karil noticed Latte glancing at her phone, so she asked if he would like to see it. He got a big smile, and held his hands out. She then started showing him the things her phone was capable of. As Latte got to the camera, the flash went off, and startled him. She giggled and began to tell him all about cameras. She scooted over next to him and snapped a picture of him and her.

                  Right then, her phone rang; she had to leave. She asked Latte if she would see him again, he said yes, and off she went. As she left, Latte snuck back into the Starbucks closet. This time it was a little harder because of how happy he was. This was the first person he felt close to in years.

                The next day when Latte woke up he felt different. At first he couldn’t quite figure it out, but when he noticed his clothes were shorter on him he knew he had grew. He rushed to get into the Starbucks lobby after gathering change for a cappuccino. As he entered the lobby, just like the day before, it was the same. People stopped to stare at Latte but he did not mind because he grew the night before. He ordered his coffee, and once again sat at the farthest table in the Starbucks lobby. He was staring at the Starbucks door waiting for Karil to arrive.

                     When Karil arrived, she went up to the counter to order her coffee. She looked around, and saw Latte sitting in the same place as the day before. She got her drink and made her way over to his table. When she got to the table, she noticed something different about him, so she asked, “Is there something different about you?” He was so excited to tell her what happened he could hardly get the words out. He quickly blurts out “I grew last night, I grew last night!” “This is the first time I’ve grown in over 10 years!” he said. They thought maybe he hit a growth spurt.

                They sat and chatted for a while as she finished her drink. When she was done she told Latte she would see him the next day. Latte made his way home even happier than the day before.

                 When he woke up the next day he was back to two feet tall. He made his way to the Starbucks lobby, and ordered his coffee. Today, all of the people talking and staring at him made him sad. He was very upset to be back to two feet tall. He sat on the same table in the farthest corner of the lobby and waited for Karil. Today it felt like it took forever for her to get there although he had only been waiting 5 minutes.

                When she arrived and made her way to the table, Latte immediately began to tell Karil about how he had shrunk. As they were talking, they began to talk about what they had done differently in the past two days. Just as they had begun to give up on what was done differently, a flash went off behind them. “That’s it!” said Karil. “That has to be the only difference!”

                 She pulled out her cell phone, and pulled up her camera. They took a photo together and immediately Latte wanted to get home to go to sleep. Karil told Latte to meet him tomorrow so she knew if it worked. Latte snuck into the storage closet and immediately laid down. It was very hard for him to fall asleep because of how excited he was. After laying in his bed for three hours, he finally fell asleep.

                He woke up the next day and realized he had grown once again. “Karil was right”, he thought as he gathered his change, happy once again. He snuck into the lobby and ordered a cappuccino. He quickly made his way to the table he had now claimed as his own. He could not wait for Karil to get there.

               Karil arrived a minute later; she seemed to be as excited as Latte. She did not even order a coffee today as she headed straight for her table. When she heard the news, Karil was so excited that she and Latte decided that they would begin to experiment. They figured out that

every picture they took together, after a goodnight’s sleep, Latte would grow. They repeated this experiment until Latte was up to what he considered a normal man’s height.

                 This was the greatest thing to ever happen to Latte. Once he grew to his desired height, he went out and got an apartment, a job, and began attending college. He made sure he bought a cell phone to take his picture every other night to maintain his height. Karil and Latte remained friends forever and met at the same Starbucks every day.

Author's Note

This is the first short story I wrote in my creative writing class, and I am currently working on my second story. Please give me your opinions! Ignore grammar errors; the story has already been graded so they are fixed.

Reviews

[Nikki]

Very cute! ><
25 characters

[LBL18]

this is awesome! great job!

[Coyote Poetry]

A very entertaining story. Very good characters and situation. I like the use of the cell phone. You made the character Latte come alive and have purpose. Thank you for sharing the excellent story.
Coyote