The cache should serve the files (in the example above).
How long a file will persist in the OpenAFS cache manager depends on how the client is configured, variables include the configured size of the cache, whether or not the memcache feature is enabled, and how "busy" the client is.
If OpenAFS memcache (cache chunks stored in RAM) is enabled, then the cache is cleared upon reboot. With the more traditional disk cache, the cache can persist across reboots. Aside from that key difference files persist in the cache following the same basic rules. The cache is a fixed size stack, recently accessed files stay in the cache and older files are purged as needed when newer files are requested.
More details are available in the OpenAFS wiki:
http://www.dementia.org/twiki/bin/view/AFSLore/