Tea for Two

/ roughwighting

Cup Tee Porcelain - Free photo on Pixabay/congerdesignThe first time Leezy appeared, I admonished her. Days after, I berated myself for my behavior.

I hadn’t seen Leezy in over 25 years. I’d decided that she’d forgotten me, despite her promises. Until . . .           

“There you are!” I exclaimed out loud, sitting alone at the tiny café I frequent. I’m a writer, and although I have a quiet room in my home office, my words don’t come to me there. Instead, I bring pen and paper to Sadie’s Sanctuary (yes, sappy, but Sadie is a sweetie, and she takes us all in like stray pets).

The majority of the patrons at Sadie’s are artists: writers, poets, actors, so we’re used to odd behavior. But I think my outburst while staring at the empty chair in front of me worried a few. I ignored them and confronted the white-haired woman invisible to all but me. Her skin was characteristically pale, her eyes that owlish grey that had mesmerized me for years.

“How could you wait so long?” I continued, vexed more than bewildered. “You died in 1994. I did all the tricks you taught me. I meditated, I called for you in my dreams, I took long walks holding your red scarf, and still, you never contacted me. Why?”

Leezy’s enigmatic smile infuriated me even further.

“I missed you. And you promised,” I continued with a whine. I sounded more like a 10-year-old than a woman past middle age. But Leezy had taken me under her psychic wing when I was 10, knowing of my mystical talents before I did.

“What is time?” she finally answered in her soft, soothing voice. She wore the same red lipstick, stark and startling for an 80-year-old. That’s how she appeared now, in her last physical form before cancer killed her.

“I don’t know!” I nearly shouted. “That’s what you said you’d tell me. From the other side. What is time? What is existence? Is there another side?” I could have continued, but Leezy placed her hand up in front of her. Stop, it commanded.

“In time,” she responded. “All will be revealed in time.”

That nearly did me in. “Are you speaking in puzzles, purposely?” I growled.

Leezy laughed. No, that’s not the correct word. In the 30 years I knew Leezy, she rarely laughed, but she chuckled often.

I sat back and inhaled. She smelled like Leezy – lavender and mint with a touch of her backyard oak tree. I leaned toward her and touched her scaly, wrinkled hand, which sat placidly on the tabletop. “Tea?” I asked. “Your usual?”

“I thought you’d never ask,” she responded, cheeks turning rosier.

A curious Sadie sidled up seconds later, pretending she hadn’t been eavesdropping.

Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/ds_30-1795490/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=4907217">Dmitriy</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com//?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=4907217">Pixabay</a>“May we have a cup of English Breakfast, with two slices of lemon on the side?” I asked.

“For one?” Sadie asked. She peered in my face, as if waiting to see if I’d approached crazy, or already reached it.

“For two, obviously,” I replied.

98 thoughts on “Tea for Two”

    • Oh how I would like to write an entire book with Leezy as one of the main characters. This fictional piece was written with a good friend in mind; she is no longer with us in body, but always with me in Spirit. 🙏

      Liked by 2 people

    • Sometime I’d like to write this story from the perspective of another person in the same café drinking tea and watching the goings-on. Perhaps that person DOES see the ghost but choses to remain silent. Hmmmm. Here’s to “sightings” now and then. 🙏

      Liked by 1 person

    • So glad you enjoy this Patricia. I have a feeling the separation
      didn’t seem as long to Leezy as it did to the “me” character in this story. I suppose we all should work on our patience. 😄

      Like

    • You may have had the same experience as I did as a child, Balroop. Everyone always rolled their eyes and said “ Pammy, that’s just your imagination.” Well guess what? Thank goodness for my imagination! 😁 xo

      Liked by 1 person

  23. “All will be revealed in time.” A great piece because many of us have wondered what the future will hold. Thanks for a marvelous piece, Pam!

    Liked by 1 person

    • I’m so glad you enjoyed the story about ghost time and a cup of tea. Lots of truth in here. I’m just not sure Leezy will really tell me what the future holds, though. But the good news is that of course the Spirit is always alive.

      Liked by 1 person

    • There may be a “rest of the story” some other time. I’ve been encouraged to publish a book with my flash fiction stories (different from the one I published with my non-fiction stories- Flashes of Life). Suddenly I thought of the potential book’s title: “And then what happened?” What do you think- should I pursue this idea? 🤔🤓

      Like

  34. Nice post and it is very engaging , it is like reading a novel and learning about the two characters here who are Leezy and Sadie. At least both characters shared tea together with a lemon on the side, how much I love tea and biscuits😋☕🍪

    Liked by 1 person

  40. Love this. If there were time/space I’d share the full story of the request my girlfriend and I made for service for 3 when we had dinner out to share with my recently lost loved one. The waiter cooperated at each course, cleared the empty dishes, but had his doubts. Even though only two meals were served, we tipped him gratefully and generously.

    Liked by 1 person

  42. Obviously!! Loved the story and sometimes our “guides” are only apparent to us. I have 3 and one of them is my grandmother. I admit I haven’t talked to them in a while…
    I miss my dad terribly some days and I was sure he would visit, but so far I haven’t felt his presence. My daughter has, my husband has… maybe he thinks I’m no ready or he doesn’t have anything to say, yet. We’ll see….

    Liked by 1 person

    • How I love your honesty Kim. I feel my spiritual guides sometimes but I don’t feel them as much as you do. I keep hoping. I go to an Energy Medicine practitioner and she says she talks to hers all the time. And they answer her! Perhaps I should start trying! I miss my dad as you do yours and I haven’t seen him as a spiritual guide but when I ask, he comes in my dreams. You might want to try that! 💙

      Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.