Breadcrumbs on his empty breakfast plate were attracting sparrows who were darting noisily between the tables of La Esquinita bar.

La Esquinita, The Corner, bar was indeed a bar on the corner, and his favorite table, usually free on a weekday morning, was the corner table of the corner bar. Four seniors three tables to his left were having a jolly conversation which to an ear unaccustomed to hearing Spaniards talk could sound like a heated argument. Three of them were smoking, but the air was still and the heavy smoke hung around their table. Their conversation, however, was not governed by the same laws of physics. It congested the air around the tables of the terraza as well as the thoughts of their temporary possessors. Noise, he thought, was the most overlooked air pollutant of Spain.