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FIVE CUPS OF TEA
What do you do when you have nothing to do?
THE CUP OF Tea
“Bonzo, do you know who is coming today?” Mrs. P patted her dog lovingly. “Rahul, Radhika and the two naughty little ones”.
“It won’t be just you and me, okay?”
She threw her head back and laughed.
Finally there will be some noise in this house. People talking in real time. The house will once again burst with the giggles of the little ones.
The curtains waved light heartedly.
Bonzo gave her his skewed look.
“Come on. Let’s boil some water for tea”.
The house smelled of cinnamon bread and chocolate muffins.
She put the kettle on…
For six cups of tea.
Then she picked up the phone-
“Mom, we can’t make it today. Radhi’s parents suddenly planned a staycation. Sorry mom”.
Silence settled like dust in the folds of her dress.
She sat quietly for a while.
The kettle started whistling. As if in a trance she added sugar and more sugar and more sugar.
Then poured the tea into six cups.
Drank one cup hastily. And then placed the other five, still hot, in their cups in the fridge. Then she set the table for breakfast, with cinnamon bread and chocolate muffin.
She got up and went to the gate.
People were passing, in cars, two wheelers, on foot.
She tried to stop them.
“Come and have breakfast with me”, she implored.
But nobody stopped.
She stood there in the sun.
Determined.
Then she saw an old man coming from far.
“Hi, Why don’t you come inside? We can have breakfast together”.
He came home, had a sumptuous breakfast, had 5 cups of tea and left.
The next day, he came again.
“You must like my tea,” Mrs. P laughed, placing a plate of cinnamon bread and 5 cups of tea before him.
“I do,” he smiled. “But I shouldn't be having all this. My sugar levels are already high.
He came the next day, the next day, five days in a row.
At his funeral, she overheard someone murmuring, “High sugar levels…”
Back home, Bonzo looked up at her.
“Don't look at me like that,” she whispered.
She put the kettle on.
Six cups this time.
Someone would come again!!!
Bonzo barked and went sniffing at the cut telephone wire under the table.