Capuchin monkeys are named after the monks who are named after the drink or something like that, could be the other way around, so when Sam says that Olivia’s voice is like cappuccino we nod but we don’t really know what it means because none of us have tasted cappuccino, it’s just something from TV and Ben says don’t you mean chocolate? and Sam says something about him being unoriginal but the next time Olivia sings in assembly we all just get it and it’s like we can taste it, rich and strong and beautiful with a something sweet sprinkled on top, and even though it’s Olivia with her red hair looking ordinary but not ordinary in the hall, and though it’s this little light of mine and not whatever Lola wants, we could be sipping at it in the early hours as a smoky Gatsby-style jazz club is drawing to a close and Olivia there not in a grey skirt but in tassels or sequins or liquid gold, and we boys fold our hands in our laps just in case and the girls cross their legs and even Mr. Lamington who does the music is looking at her and not the piano and Olivia is looking somewhere else, beyond a draughty school hall that is too small to hold her ambition or notes sprinkled with cocoa sugar.
Later, in years where a cappuccino is just something to be grabbed from Costa, yes in the keep cup please, and we don’t even taste it because thoughts are punctuated by the clack of fingers tap tap dancing over a keyboard while we race through deadline, meeting, team share, it’s just something hot and wet to get us through, and grey Thursdays in Basingstoke are nothing more than that, and there she is in the street, Olivia, in a green coat clutching a keep cup and she’s there all ordinary but not ordinary, hi Olivia, and she tilts her head ah hi! How are you? and the relief that she remembers when most of us have almost forgotten who we are and she says I’m a singer now, and she’s lit up like she’s got a spotlight inside, well of course, you were always so talented, and she nods at the keep cup, cappuccino? she asks, nod, yes, cappuccino and she says cheers, chinks the cups together, haha cheers, and walking on, back to the office, take a sip and taste it again, that first thought of cappuccino, that first almost-taste of coffee laced with stars.
Inspired by the voice of Robyn Adele Anderson