Last Monday I went into my favorite little coffee shop to pick up my favorites breakfast food: Quiche and Lemon Flavored ( on a good day there’s Mango flavored ) Greek Style Yogurt.

Something pretty interesting was happening.

They were filming a commercial- at least I think it was a commercial.

They had the equipment set up around a table and in the middle of the table was a coffee cup.

The table top had been polished and shined- it was beautiful, like something out of a picture.

I went up to the counter and as I waited my turn in line ( because the normal staff wasn’t there and the people working behind the counter, though competent and pleasant they fumbled around a bit )  I had time to look around the crowded room.

I noticed that not only had the table under the lights been shined and made beautiful ( it wasn’t the regular table ) so had the customers.

Each table had a very earnest looking millennial wearing white or gray with a lap top opened in front of them. Need I mention they were attractive too?

One young woman in a knee length gray dress stood at a table in a classic model’s pose- slightly bent arm, hip out, chin up. She didn’t move a muscle the entire time.

None of the people I would normally see were there that morning, it was like they had all been replaced with perfect versions of what a person on their way to work in the morning looks like.

Gone were the bus drivers, the street cleaners, the office workers, the warehouse workers ( ahem ) the dog walkers- in our places were for the most part the vision what a Seattle resident on their way to work looks like- under 30, white and perfectly groomed.

I get it, this film was telling a story- but I think the real story didn’t need repair. For the most part it’s a nice blue collar place. That’s why I like it so much.

After a minute of looking around I got nervous. I didn’t care when the cashier mangled my quiche a bit because he didn’t seem to be comfortable with handling the tongs when he tried to pick it up from the tray.

I was busy being creeped out because I knew, in that exact moment that imperfect people like me, the ones who participate everyday in life are consider poor ‘representations’ when the story, no matter how small of a story is being told.

I felt like the young woman in the Twilight Zone Episode ” Number  12 Looks Just Like You.” In her world, everyone looks the same and everyone thinks the same and they are all beautiful.

It’s a shame that I didn’t stick around to see how they filmed  their story, because it’s an interesting process.

I just couldn’t shake the feeling that I had been been plucked out of existence,  that the people I know had been erased because in the story being told that morning- a story about energetic people starting their morning with a coffee and their laptops and their beautiful clothes and nicely styled hair- we  did not exist.

Daily Post Prompt: Pluck