THERE IS A LITTLE DUCK IN MY CUP OF TEA

THERE IS A LITTLE DUCK IN MY CUP OF TEA

Alice removed the paper and put the tea  bag into the cup, while she waited for the water to boil. Of course she too knew that tea, a real tea should be prepared with the leaves of tea dried to the right point, on which to pour water at first boiling, without the presence of the filter, yes, very thin, but that however it was not tea. In tea bags  the paper bag, even if very thin and very permeable to water, inevitably takes something away from the tea, from its most authentic taste  (flavor). Oh, but after all it was just one cup of tea to be prepared for herself, so (then) it could be fine to prepare it with tea bags. Especially since Alice was enthusiastic about a quality ( packaging ) of tea bags that she had only recently discovered. It was a quality of tea produced, that is packaged, by a renowned , historical brand of tea, which had launched it with the name of TEMPTATIONS. And, besides the inviting name that tea had really something special. It was written on the ( its) packaging that it was tea in sachets ( tea bags) contained both tea bags with the aroma of tangerine, and others with the aroma of berries, and still others with the aroma of quince…. When you drank it, that tea did not taste of tangerine, berries or quince at all. But the thing that was really amazing was that, of those promised ( announced) aromas ( tastes) it had the perfume ( the scent), perceptible already in the tea bag, before boiling water was poured on it. And once the tea was prepared, that scent ( aroma) was exalted. Tea obtained with those tea bags ___TEMPATIONS___scented very much, it filled the whole room with its delicious perfume..  Moreover a delicious, captivating perfume of honey was added to the scent  of tangerine, of orange, of berries which that tea released

Alice poured the boiling water into the cup where she had put a bag of tangerine flavored tea. Immediately the all pervading scent of tangerine and honey spread out , filling the room. Alice placed the steaming cup of tea on the table and went to the window. It was autumn. The trees were a riot of golden leaves. Those jewel leaves , falling from the trees, they fluttered, danced, flight in the humid, a little misty, a bit jagged air. Alice opened the window. She seemed that even the air entering the room ( from outside) smelled of honey. The sun light appeared to her as a cascade of golden drops, drops of honey.

In the few steps she had to do to come back from the window to the table Alice heard a faint meow. Oh, but it could not be her cat, who had come away, never to return , one evening of the last spring. Alice sat down in front of the cup of tea and took it in her hands, feeling the comforting warmth. The surface of the tea into the cup, on which a very thin amber sheet had formed, looked like a very small lake , where tiny gold flakes glittered and shimmered just for a moment, to disappear soon after. It was when she picked up the cup to bring it to her mouth and start drinking tea that she saw….that little thing ( into the cup of tea). At a first glance it seemed to her a thing, but she soon after had to realize that it was instead a living being. Sure, it was a tiny little duck, indeed a miniature duck. The miniature duck, with dazzling yellow plumage and an orange beak, was swimming (floating) in that little lake which was the tea in her cup. “Oh, this then!” Alice exclaimed, standing up. “ What’s a little duck doing in my cup of tea?” she asked to herself.  “PEPPERE’! PEPPERE’ This  not I have to tell you! You should know this for yourself!” The very little duck squeaked, with a little crackling voice. Oh, incredible! Not only the miniature duck into her teacup was able to speak, but it seemed even to understand perfectly well what she said!

Alice did not have time to recover from the surprise that a very little child, indeed a miniature child, crawled into the room on a scooter. “ PIPPI/E –PIPPI/E, don’t you recognize me?” That miniature child cried, as he was going around the table on the scooter. Alice was completely disconcerted. After observing him the most attentively she could, it seemed at her that the miniature child looked a lot like her neighbor’s child. But Rick, that was his name, was a little boy of six years, and he had the stature of a child of six years. “ RICK!?! Could it be that you are Rick, the child of Marion?” Alice asked, trembling. “ Sure! That is me!” the miniature child shouted.

“ And how…why….oh, what do you…” Alice couldn’t bring herself to ask him WHY he was reduced to that minimum size. And she would also have liked to ask him WHY he had broken into her house on the scooter, what he had come to do. She wanted to ask him , but couldn’t. “Ah, my dear Alice, do you want to know why I came to you with (on) my scooter? Well ,you must know that I came here, to you, to dive into your cup of tea! “ the very little Rick screamed. “ Oh, but there is a duck in my cup of tea” Alice said. “ Ah, wait…I know that Pippy is already into your teacup, yeah. But you don’t have to worry!  Oh, there is no difficulty at all, since Pippy, who is my friend, will get out of your cup of tea to make room for me! Well, while I’m diving into the tea of your cup, he, Pippy can ride my scooter!” The miniature Rick said, getting off the scooter.

Alice was abruptly awakened by the ringing of the phone , which arrived just when the miniature Rick was diving into the (her) cup of tea____from which the tiny Donald Duck had sprinted off  to jump on the scooter- Her cup of tea was still on the table, in front of her. Now it was cold. Alice could not help but look into the cup, without thinking to answer the phone. (without worrying in the slightest about answering the phone). There was only tea into the cup, there was neither the tiny duck nor Rick in miniature. Oh, but then it had all been just a dream….

But what was that scooter doing there, next to the table? How could it have ended up there? Someone had to have brought it there, since she did not have a scooter, there were no scooters in her house. WHO had brought it there?  Soon ( after a while) the phone rang again. It was her neighbor Marion who, crying, told her that her child Rick had drowned in the bathtub. Alice gasped, thinking about the dream she had just had. After a few hours three policemen went to search Alice’s house. The scooter next to the table, in her kitchen was of Rick. So she, Alice, was suspected of being somewhat involved in Rick’s death.  Only some weeks later it was discovered that ( found out that) Rick’s scooter had been brought into Alice’s kitchen by the person who had really killed the child, drowning him in the bathtub. It was his mother who had killed Rick.(Rick had been killed by his mother)