A woman who was my wife and I were standing at the refreshment counter in the lobby of a movie theater. She was probably in her early 20s and had short black hair. She was being served by a tall, thin man with black hair (probably in his early 40s). She had ordered a coke, and the man had set a glass of coke on the counter for her. Then the trouble began.

My wife complained the coke which she had been given had been made with tap water and therefore it wasn't the kind of coke she wanted. To prove her point, she had a liter bottle of Coca Cola with her, and she was reading from the label the description of the water which had been used in the bottled coke.

Both I and the man behind the counter were set adrift by my wife's complaints, neither of us having any idea what she was talking about. However she insisted the coke the man was serving, being made of syrup formula and ordinary tap water, was unsatisfactory. Finally I walked over to her and asked her to show me her bottle. She did so, and pointed out the part of the ingredients about which she was talking. Describing the kind of water used in the bottled coke, the label said, "Fire fresh ...."

Well maybe she did have a point after all. Maybe some kind of special water was used in the bottled coke. But I was still unsure and I couldn't completely agree with her, mainly because I didn't know what "fire fresh" meant. If the label had said something like "made with pure artesian spring water," then I would have had to agree with her. But "fire fresh" made little sense to me.

The man behind the counter, however, apparently to simply end the problem, agreed she was right. But it also appeared he agreed with her for another reason. It turned out that he actually produced the coke himself which he sold there at the counter, and therefore his coke couldn't be like the coke in the bottle of Coca Cola which my wife had.

In fact it turned out that part of the theater was actually used as a plant to produce the coke. And I soon learned something even stranger: the man was actually the father of my wife, and therefore, my father-in-law. This new knowledge was particularly interesting to me. It occurred to me that since he was my father-in-law, it might be possible for me to invent a new formula for coke, or even some other product, and use his factory to whip up a batch. I knew successful formulas were extremely valuable. Take the formula for Coca Cola for instance. I had heard that it was locked away in a vault somewhere, and that only a few people knew what it was. I wondered how all the Coca Cola plants were able to use the formula.

At any rate, perhaps I could come up with a new and successful formula for something. It wouldn't have to be coke; it could be something else. I might also encourage people working in the plant to come up with an idea which we might try. It seemed strange having found a new father-in-law, but I thought I would learn to like the idea.