The sound of the click the kettle makes when it is boiled awoke Mary from her reverie. Although the usual chaos of morning was playing out around her, she was lost in her inner world.
“Mom, could you make me my special breakfast?” her son called from the living room.
“Mom, I can’t get the shower to the right temperature!” her daughter complained from the top of the stairs.
She just smiled at the baby in the high chair who had adorned herself with wet cereal that had found its way into her hair, ears and nose.
“Tea” she thought. “I’ll be there in a minute both of you” she called back to her two older offspring.
The dog had been out and was presently sniffing around for food. The cat was on the table trying to catch her by the arm.
“Tea first” she said stroking the feline all the way down to the tip of his tail.
The steaming water was poured into the teapot and splashed around to heat it up, then emptied and two tea bags were deposited before the pot was filled to the brim and left to brew in a very flowery tea cosy.
“I hate that ugly thing but it works”, she said to the baby who was throwing food on the floor while clicking her tongue to summon her best friend.
“Dog!” she exclaimed.
With the satisfaction of having accomplished the task of preparing her morning life line, she poured food and water into the animals’ bowls, ran to set the temperature for her daughter, prepared yogurt with fruits and cereal for her son and then sat down with her tea, her refuge.
The hot liquid entered her empty thirsty body. The warmth spread through her comforting her physically and emotionally. She sighed audibly with pleasure.
“Haaah.” The baby imitated her mother’s vocalisation. “Tup-a-tea. Tup-a-tea” she chirped.
“I can’t find my agenda” her son declared.
“Can I help with the lunches, Mom?” her daughter proposed.
“Oh shit, I forgot the lunches, what time is it?”
The clock gave her another 30 minutes.
“It’s okay, just one more cup of tea and then we’ll do it.”
“Your agenda is on the piano, my love” she informed her son ruffling his hair.
She huddled over her tea cup and sought in it a change that could lift her mood, energise her day.
She saw herself on the balcony of a fancy French hotel in a white bathrobe with the name of the hotel embroidered on it in gold, sipping good coffee and eating fresh croissants. The day ahead of her consisted of meetings with the press for the promotion of her latest bestseller, “The Tea Drinker’s Revenge”. How good it would feel to soak in all that admiration!
She could go back to Crete and restore her soul. A vision of herself on a pier, looking out at the green and blue sea with an electric wind tossing her hair and clothes, came to her. Then she could ride a moped around the island to visit the places of the Gods. How empowering that would be!
Next, she thought about her lifelong dream to visit Spain that she had never gotten around to. She could hear the music playing, the people speaking that passionate language as she danced around in a cobblestoned square in Barcelona, romance filling the air.
The sound of her children’s chatter and laughter brought her back to reality and she smiled lovingly. I t was her favourite sound in the world. Suddenly, she wanted to kiss each of them on the head and hold them, feeling the mass of their warm soft hair in her face, taking in their scents.
She gulped down her last sip, knocked the teacup on the table and declared, “today, my darlings, Mommy is going to buy herself a new tea cosy!”
