HELLO COLUMBUS
By Mark Crimmins
You sit here in Potbelly’s across from the Statehouse, eating a fine Potbelly’s breakfast sandwich of bacon, egg, and American cheese. You occupy a window seat across an alley from Einstein’s Bagels. On the wall behind you are beautiful old photographs of musicians, back in the day, performing right here at Potbelly’s. The monochrome snap of a four-piece jazz band on the sidewalk patio of the restaurant is as good an ad as the establishment could hope for.
Before you settled here, you noticed a large crowd of down-and-out people in the stairway of the Statehouse’s underground parking garage. Two retired couples drifting across the parking lot assured you that this was the first freezing day in Columbus this year. They reminded you to turn your headlights off and—with laughs that were a nod to the inhospitable weather—chanted a mock greeting:
“Welcome to Columbus!”
A woman who looks like Janis Joplin’s sensible sister (in her prime) smiles at you in your nook as she takes a table facing the street. Potbelly’s streetside window seats are actually old church pews. Next to the window, just ahead of the dancing snowflakes outside, hangs a sign that reminds you how to respond to a young lady who smiles at you in Potbelly’s:
GENTLEMEN WILL BEHAVE—Others Must!
Across the street, on Capital Square, those waiting for buses are freezing. They shift from foot to foot to keep warm. Some blow little clouds of breath into their cupped hands.
Near the cash register and facing you as you came into the café, there stood an old, nicely preserved, black iron potbelly stove. For some uncomfortable moments—until the waitress appeared—you thought you had to extract your coffee from that contraption.
The waitress laughed when she realized why you were so puzzled.
When you set sail from Columbia Missouri this morning, you saw a sign by the freeway entrance: Mark’s Mobile Glass. You thought—with a nod of recognition—that the sign described your consciousness: mind, in movement, reflects the turning world.
Wherever you go, you train the binoculars of perception on the phenomena.
Here in Columbus, you peer at a new microworld through stereoscopic glances.
Columbus discovered America.
Now you are discovering Columbus.
Mark Crimmins’s first book, psychogeographical travel memoir Sydneyside Reflections, was published by Everytime Press in 2020. His short stories have been nominated three times for Pushcart Prizes and twice for Best of the Net awards. They have appeared in numerous literary journals, including Columbia Journal, Tampa Review, Confrontation, Permafrost, Eclectica, Kyoto Journal, Queen’s Quarterly, Reed Magazine, Apalachee Review, Atticus Review, and Chicago Quarterly Review.
Jill E. T. Bemis is an aspiring photographer, landscape painter, and writer. In addition to being the family genealogist, she is the author of the “Gotcha Games” series and co-authors “A Different Path” with Daniel Quirós Delgado. Her photography may be viewed at https://jetbemis.com. A career public servant, she lives in Minnesota with her husband Michael, son Nate, daughter-in-law Julia, Dana the dog, and Tiger the cat.