I was minding my own business at Starbucks yesterday morning, hiding away in a little niche near the pick-up counter, working on my latest writing project, and it was going well. Earphones in, Calm app drowning out distracting conversations with the soundscape of “Snow White’s Gem Mine.” (Don’t judge. I know I’m a grown woman, but there’s nothing like the soft blend of white noise, random magic chimes, and the pings and pongs of dwarfs’ pick-axes to make me heigh-ho, it’s off to work I go.)

And then he caught my attention.

He was standing close to me, waiting on his coffee, snapping his fingers to himself. Hmm. Interesting. There was no music playing.

He was kind of a giant. Big and tall, with a baby face and curly black hair, his hat on backwards, He stood there, half-smiling at no one in particular. Something was sticking out of the back pocket of his frayed camouflage pants. I looked closer. It was a tag–a flap of fabric with Low-Rise printed on it–the kind you rip off when you get home from a store. Aww. Poor guy. He’s been walking around for months like that.

Stop staring at strangers, I told myself. Heigh-ho, heigh-ho. Get back to work.

But then he rubbed his back against the corner, like a bear against a tree. Todd does that sometimes, so maybe I smiled to myself. People are so funny with their idiosyncrasies.

But then he started talking to me. Well, not just me, to me and the lady beside me. I hadn’t expected that.

It was hard to hear with the mining dwarfs, but it was something like “What are y’all doing?”

“Pardon?” I took out an earbud.

“Sorry.” He smiled at me and the lady at the next table, his eyes hopeful. “I’m just curious. What are y’all working on?”

She ignored him, scrolling on her phone.

He smiled again and blinked.

“I’m just working on a story,” I said.

“Oh!” he said with a grin. “Okay! I hope you do good on that!”

“Thanks!” I said.

His drink was ready so he took it and walked off.

I returned to the dwarfs, and to Penn, my ten year-old protagonist, feeling light, my heart happy. How nice to have met a friendly giant, one as curious about me, an old-ish lady typing away at a coffee shop, as I was about him.

Then I got back to work, trying my best to do good on that!