Page 24 of Possibly Texas

Levi Lee immediately fell out of the robot routine, looking excited as a puppy dog at the opportunity to help out someone else. I was just glad he had on normal pants that weren’t tight like the green-screen suit I’d seen him in the first few days I’d been in town.

“I’m at your service, my good man.” Levi Lee bowed his head.

“Awesome.” I tried not to wince at his weirdness. “Do you know anything about the barn? Ya’ know? Further down the creek and just two streets over?”

“Well, sure.” Levi Lee grinned. “You can’t really miss a big red barn in Possibly, after all.”

“Right,” I said. “But I was wondering if you could tell me what goes on in there?”

“How do you mean?”

“Well, like, late at night I see lights coming from there,” I explained. “Lasers one night and then something that looked like the glow of Christmas lights. I just wanted to know what that’s all about?”

“Hmmmm.” Levi Lee reached up to scratch his chin.

“Jack said that Auguste Anderson lives there, and—”

“They do,” Levi Lee agreed.

“—I don’t understand why there’s a light show every night?” I continued. “Everywhere else in town is pitch black at night. Except the barn. Well, I think the lights always go off at midnight, but…well…what’s going on there?”

Levi Lee thought about this for a few moments. A few more customers went in and out of Starbuck’s. The smells coming out of the place each time the door opened were heavenly.

“They’re an artist,” Levi Lee explained. “So, maybe they have the lights on so they can see whatever they’re creating?”

“Yeah,” I said, “that sounds reasonable. But lasers?”

Levi Lee chuckled.

“I didn’t see the lasers,” he said. “That is odd.”

“So…no idea?”

“Not really,” he said. “I’m sure that if the lights are keeping you up at night that—”

“Oh! No!” I stopped him. “Nothing like that. I’m not complaining at all. Just curious about the barn and the lights.”

Levi Lee just smiled, glad that there wasn’t a problem.

“I guess I’m just nosy,” I said.

“Well,” he said, “if I see them, I’ll let you know. Maybe you can meet them. Are you going to stick around and have a coffee? We have Nutella Lattes today.”

He leaned in to wink at me when he said the coffee name, as though anything about Nutella or a latte was all that revolutionary. Putting coffee, milk, and chocolate together—no matter what type of chocolate, coffee, and milk it was—was not all that unique. I liked Nutella all right, and coffee was good, but putting the two together didn’t make me squeal with joy.

“Do they have anything to eat in there?” I asked, glancing over at the door. “I’m kind of hungry, actually.”

“Cookies, biscotti, scones, muffins—a sweet for every tooth, my good man,” Levi Lee announced. “Just tell Starbuck you’re hungry. He’ll tell you what’s good.”

“Uh, Starbuck?”

“Starbuck.” He nodded. “He’s the owner. Of Starbuck’s.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” I snorted. “I thought maybe the owner kind of plagiarized the name or something.”

“Of course not!” Levi Lee stood erect defiantly. “Starbuck was the first mate of the Pequod! Starbuck—who owns this coffee shop—was named after a great fictional character from American literature!”

“Oh,” I said as I looked up at the pirate ship. “Um, but wasn’t the Pequod a whaling ship from Moby Dick?”