Tea With Mrs Saunders

by Kit Duncan

  After we had walked a little ways, Mrs Saunders said, "Ada knows a thing or two about losing."

  "Yes, she does," I agreed.

  "Do you seem any closer to being home?" she asked.

  I stopped and wondered for a few minutes. I closed my eyes, and I put my hands on my hips, and I wondered, and I thought, and I felt, and then I wondered again.

  "I don't know," I finally said.

  "Well, then," Mrs Saunders replied. "Perhaps we can talk with someone else who might be able to help."

  And we began walking some more.

  Chapter 5

  After we had been walking for a short time we came upon a thin little woman. She was nearly half as tall I was, and I am not that tall. She was wearing a little yellow dress, her hair was pulled back very tightly, and her ears were quite pointed. From a distance we could see her squatting down, and when she heard us behind her, she jumped up with a frightened jerk and twirled around. She was holding a small bouquet of blue and pink flowers, and she sighed a great relief and smiled when she saw Mrs Saunders and me.

  "Hi, Ursula!" Mrs Saunders waved as we approached the little man. They hugged one another warmly, the way old friends who love one another do.

  Ursula asked how we were doing on this beautiful day, and her voice had a high pitch and a nasal tone. She spoke quickly and though she seemed anxious and timid she was very pleasant.

  We walked along, the three of us, and Ursula told us about her morning. She had already had several adventures, which she enjoyed having, she said, though they often scared her. Being afraid, though, Ursula told me, was nothing to keep one from an adventure. Still, she frowned a frightened little frown and said she sometimes wished she could have an adventure without being afraid.

  "There, there," Mrs Saunders said, and she patted the little woman on her shoulder, and we all three smiled and kept walking.

  "Where are you going?" Ursula finally asked.

  "Why," Mrs Saunders furrowed her brows again. "You know, I have just about forgotten!"

  "I'm lost, remember?" I said as politely as I could.

  "Lost?" Mrs Saunders looked at me quizzically. "Lost? Oh, what a bother! But see, we're back here, so let's just have a little snack."

  "Back here," I discovered right away, was at Mrs Saunders' house. The three of us walked past the mailbox, up the stoop, and into the little house. Mrs Saunders took Ursula's flowers and put them in a small cup of water and placed them in the window sill.

  "Nothing brightens up a room like fresh flowers!" she announced.

  The house looked much larger inside than it did from the outside, though it was very cozy nonetheless. There was a little bed by one of the windows, and a small nightstand next to it. A large upholstered chair with a few worn out patches sat near the fireplace, and the mantle had a small collection of various types and sizes of jars, and they were each yellow in color.

  A tall upright clock stood in one of the corners and it ticked very loudly, but the hands never moved. When we walked into Mrs Saunders' house it was 10:48, and when I walked out later that day it still said 10:48.

  Along one entire wall were three planks of brightly painted blue pine. In the middle of the bottom plank were a few chipped dishes, a few chipped cups, and some bowls, and they were also chipped. On each side of the chipped dishes and cups and bowls, and all across the top two planks, was an assortment of small wide mouthed jars lined next to each other very neatly.

  A little wood table with four little wood chairs sat not too far from the middle of the room. They were all very knobby but they looked sturdy. A crisp white linen cloth with little purple flowers was draped over the top of the table.

  The room was clean and airy, and there was a great freshness about it.

  Ursula sat down in one of the little wood chairs, and I sat next to her. Mrs Saunders gathered together three sets of dishes and cups, set them on the table before us, and she asked us if we would like some tea.

  "Oh, yes!" Ursula squealed with delight. "Tea would be lovely, tea would be very, very lovely!"

  "Excellent!" Mrs Saunders sang, and looking at me, she asked, "And you'll be wanting some as well?"

  "I don't like tea," I answered apologetically.

  Mrs Saunders looked at me quizzically, and Ursula's face suddenly went quite pale.

  "Don't like tea?" Mrs Saunders seemed stunned, as if I might as well have said I didn't enjoy jumping into piles of leaves in the autumn, or making angels in freshly fallen snow, or playing in the rain. "Don't like tea?"

  I shook my head no.

  "Why," she smiled suddenly and said, "Perhaps you just haven't found the right tea!" She walked to the planks of little jars and, with her back to me, said, "I've got every tea you can imagine. Let's see, I've got Lapsang souchong black tea, keemun black tea, Dian Hong black tea, Ying De Hong black tea, broken black tea, and I've got Congou black tea. I've got tea from China, India, Nepal, Vietnam, and Turkey, and Georgia, and I have tea from some other places, too. And over here," Mrs Saunder pushed a couple of jars to the side a little, turned a label around, and kept speaking. "We have Silver Needle tea, Longevity Eyebrow tea, and White Peony tea."

  Mrs Saunders counted the next group of jars, and added, "I've got sixteen kinds of oolong tea," and she counted some more jars and added, "and I have twenty-one kinds of green tea. I've got teas seasoned with orange, cinnamon, and lemon. I have teas in pouches and teas in bags, and," she turned around and looked at me, and she said, "I have a great deal of tea. Why, I've even got teas that haven't been invented yet!"

  She seemed to want me to drink some tea very badly, and Ursula's eyes were wide with anticipation as well.

  "I really don't like tea," I repeated, but the conviction in my voice was waning.

  Mrs Saunders reached for a kettle. She poured in some water and set it on the stove, turned the little black knob to the right, and sat down at the table with Ursula and me.

  "It'll take a few minutes to simmer," she smiled at us.

  Chapter 6

  "Now, then," Mrs Saunders said with a bright little sigh in her voice. "What shall we discuss while the water's heating?"

  Ursula squirmed excitedly in her chair, and Mrs Saunders asked her if she had something to say. Ursula said yes, she did, and she told us a wonderful little story about how she had walked down by the creek yesterday and found some very pretty pebbles. She had gathered some together and taken them home, and, oh yes, she suddenly remembered as she stood up and reached into her left dress pocket. She had brought some pebbles to give to Mrs Saunders, and she handed me a couple as well.

  They were lovely pebbles. Smooth and flat, with little flakes of color. Mrs Saunders remarked that pebbles were her favorite kinds of rocks because you can set them on a mantle or a table, or a shelf, or you can carry them with you if you like, and just rubbing one's fingers across them felt good. She said it was important to Feel Very Good, and then she lined her new pebbles in a neat little circle in the middle of the table, and we all three admired them very much. Ursula seemed quite delighted that Mrs Saunders was enjoying the pebbles, and she asked me how I liked mine.

  "They are lovely," I said, and Ursula's face radiated with pleasure, Mrs Saunders smiled approvingly, and for a little while I forgot how lost I was.

  The kettle steam was whistling, and Mrs Saunders took it off the stove. Ursula asked if she needed any help, and Mrs Saunders pointed toward a tin faced pantry and asked her to get the cake.

  A moment later we each had a slice of jam cake with German chocolate icing on our plates, and the steaming hot kettle was sitting on the pebbles in the middle of the wood table. We ate our cake, and Ursula and I both complimented Mrs Saunders on how tasty it was. But she corrected us gently, saying that Mrs Rook and her little boy had brought her the cake yesterday, and wasn't it nice that we were both here to help her eat it.

  "Now, then," Mrs Saunders said as she looked at me and dusted the crumbs from her hands onto her empty plate. "What, if no
t tea, do you like to drink?"

  "I like lemonade," I told her, and she stood up and walked to the planked wall, and when she returned she had an armful of little jars, which she set carefully onto the table. Then she walked to her pantry and brought back a larger jar, and on the side of it was the picture of a lemon.

  Mrs Saunders poured a little hot water into my cup, and then, studying the smaller jars, she selected one, opened it, and scooped up a little of the tea leaves and emptied them into the simmering cup. She gently swished the leaves about in the tea with a crooked spoon, and after we had waited a little while for the leaves and water to blend together, she invited me to take a swig.

  "But I don't like tea," I said again, but she asked me take a sip anyway, and so, melted by her great kindness, I took a sip. I made a terrible face, and I set the cup on the table.

  Mrs Saunders said nothing. She took another spoon and dipped it into the jar of lemonade, and sprinkled a little of it into the tea, and she stirred it up again. She pushed the cup back toward me. Ursula leaned forward in her chair, and Mrs Saunders leaned forward in her chair, and I picked up the cup.

  I took as little a sip as I could, and I made another face, but my face was not as terrible as it had been the first time. Still, I set it back on the table.

  Mrs Saunders pulled the cup toward her again, sprinkled just a little more lemonade into the cup, stirred again, and with great care she pushed it back to me. She and Ursula looked at me with hope and excitement as I put the cup against my lips and swallowed a little.

  I did not make a terrible face, and when I placed the cup back on the table, I said, "Now, that's not half bad!"

  Ursula smiled and sat back in her chair, and Mrs Saunders sighed a happy little sigh, and said, "The trick with a thing that tastes bad is to sprinkle it with something that tastes good. If you put in enough of something good, anything will go down easier, and after a little while you may discover you like it after all. Would you like some more cake?"

  Chapter 7

  Mrs Saunders and Ursula each sampled the tea she had made me, and when the cup was nearly empty, Mrs Saunders set it aside, and poured a little bit of hot water into another cup. She opened another little jar, and in a minute, without adding the lemonade, she set the second cup in front of me. I didn't care for it much more than I had the first cup, and so she added a little lemonade to it, and I tried it, still didn't like it so well, and she added a little more lemonade, and then I liked it very much.

  Ursula sipped my tea after I had set the cup back on the table, and she said it was quite tasty. And then Mrs Saunders took the last sip, and as she wiped her lips off with the back of her hand she said, "Mmmm!" the way people do when they are enjoying the taste of something very much. And then she set the cup aside.

  And so, all afternoon, we sipped the lemonade-laced teas, and we ate Mrs Rook's cake, and we enjoyed ourselves a very great deal.

  And for a while, I still forgot how lost I was. Ursula, patting her full stomach and leaning way, way back in her chair, wondered if I was moving into the neighborhood. And then I remembered that I had lost my way.

  Mrs Saunders explained my situation to our friend. She told Ursula how we had talked to Ollie, and Ollie told me how important it was to learn many, many things. She told Ursula how we had talked to Emma, and Emma advised me to simply stay put until help arrived. She told Ursula how we had talked to Ada, and Ada suggested that I laugh and dance and hoot and holler, and to just make the most of wherever I happened to be.

  Ursula perked her large ears very erect, and she listened as Mrs Saunders spoke. When Mrs Saunders finished speaking, Ursula slumped in her chair a little and said, "Losing is a very bad business, a very, very bad business indeed! How frightened you must be to have lost yourself."

  "And have you never done so?" I asked, very curious.

  "Oh, no!" Ursula exclaimed. "I have never been so far away that I could not call out, 'Mrs Saunders, please help me get untangled from these briars!' or "Ada, help me down from this tree!' or "Someone, Anyone, can I walk about the woods with you for a little while?' And Someone, Anyone, usually replies, 'Certainly, let's walk together a little ways.'"

  Mrs Saunders was nodding silently as Ursula spoke, and when Ursula had said everything she was going to say just now, Mrs Saunders looked at me and said, "We have all lost things in these woods from time to time. But we have never lost one another. And when you know where one another is, you have a pretty good idea where you are, and you're not so likely to lose yourself. At least, that's what I think, but I'm not a very good thinker, so I don't know for certain, but if I did, I would. I think."

  The clock still said 10:48, and I felt it was time for me to go. I could not quite explain how I knew that I was ready to leave, and I wasn't sure how I would know which way to go, but somewhere, deep within me, I knew I was not so lost as I had imagined.

  Mrs Saunders walked me to her stoop, and Ursula hugged me real close and then stepped beside Mrs Saunders. I waved as I walked away from the little house, and they both waved goodbye, too. Mrs Saunders called out, "Come back any time! We're always home! Or thereabouts!" We waved to one another one last time, and I was soon clear of the clearing and back in the woods in the general direction from which I had come.

  And after a very short while I came to the edge of the woods, and just after that, around the curve in the road and over the second little hill I saw my home, and I smiled and waved to the people I loved. And the people who loved me were waiting on our porch for my return, and they smiled and waved back as I grew nearer.

  ###