Fat Cats.

"Uncle Salah, uncle Salah, wake up man!"
"I'm awake!"
"I mean really wake up, we got work to do"
"Mounir, get him a strong coffee of yours"
"Coming right up!"

Mounir scooped a couple of spoons of coffee and put them in the small pot, turned the heat up and got busy preparing other orders. At six am, it was quite early, but these weren't his usual customers. These were the ones who were up at six and went to sleep at three. These were the ones on their daily grind.
"Uncle" Salah was a man in his late thirties, his companion, Essam, was in his early twenties. Essam was usually the one who was fired up in the morning, Salah the one able to keep himself together at three in the morning. These people didn't age normally.

From the other end of the small cafe a group of three men huddled together with notebooks, several empty tea mugs and with clouds of smoke drifting over their heads.

"No, no, no. That man tricked us!" said one of them.
"He didn't trick us, your records are just bad. Take a breath brother." said the second.
"I'm sure he didn't trick us; I doubled checked the records before we left his store." said the third.
"I'm telling you, the man tricked us!" said the first stubbornly.
"Mounir, do you have anything back there that puts some sense in this man?" said the second.
"I have my grandfather's old rifle if you'd like." replied Mounir, pouring the coffee in a small cup for Salah.
"You're going to kill your own brother Mohammed?" said the first.
"Perhaps if you don't shut up!" said the second, busy reading his notebook, pen in hand.

Bringing the coffee to Salah, Mounir said, "come on uncle Salah, pray to God and get yourself together, work is waiting."

"That's what we do everyday Mounir, nothing new. Bless your soul, great coffee!" said Salah, taking a sip from the cup Mounir brought him.

"Look at them!" said Mina, Mounir's busboy. He was pointing to some point outside the cafe.
 "Who?" asked Essam.
"Them. Them. Up at noon everyday, don't they need to earn a living?" said Mina, voice ringing with anger.
"Not all people have early jobs like we do Mina." replied Essam.
"Work doesn't know early or late." said Mina, a gleam of pride in his eyes.
"And they don't know blasphemy from belief. Go easy on them, they pay us at the end of the day." said Salah.
"Uncle Mounir, back me up!" said Mina.
"Ask the Lord for patience Mina and hold your horses." replied Mounir.

Dissatisfied with the conversation, Mina took out a cigarette and lit it furiously.

"The boy is right Mounir. We break our backs everyday and for what? For them to sleep till noon everyday in the comfort of their expensive beds next to their fat women?" said the first man of the trio; his name was Maged.
"You're breaking your back, I'm not." replied Mounir.
"You're on your feet making drinks and waterpipes for us every day and night, you don't sleep!" replied Maged.
"Yes, but I'm not a whining aging man" said Mounir.

Maged's companions, his brothers, burst in laughter.

"I'm not a whining aging man. I'm barely forty!" said Maged, his face going red.
"Well you sound like my late grandmother. May she rest in peace" replied Mounir. Murmurs asking forgiveness for his grandmother sounded from everyone in the cafe.

"Let me tell you something you may or may not know. See that cat over there?" said Mounir, pointing to a cat sleeping near Salah's legs. "That cat sleeps in this cafe as much as I work in it. Its friends however, they only come in here every afternoon seeking some shade and the bits of food I throw to them. Now, this cat is the prettiest of all of them, and it's also the best fed since I always feed him, but its friends bite and scratch it more than they do any other cat, they also never let it sleep near them when they do. Last Eid, when I closed the cafe for a couple of days, I came back the next day and found it sitting in front of the cafe in the early morning sun, moaning sadly. I had to give him more food than I usually do."

Mounir then fell silent and went back to cleaning the dirty mugs that never get clean.

"And?" asked Maged.

"If you didn't understand that, then go home uncle Maged, go home and sleep. Come on Essam, it's a new day." said Salah, setting his coffee cup down and ushering Essam to follow him.

"Thanks for the coffee uncle Mounir!" said Salah, grabbing Essam and leaving the cafe to a new day.