An Earl Grey Allegory

Content Warning: This work contains mentions of sex, self harm/suicide, and death. It is not an explicit work by any means but it does refer to sensitive topics so please engage accordingly.

The piercing squeal of a tea kettle disrupts the peaceful silence of the morning. Kate rises reluctantly and removes it from the burner. It’s an Earl Grey kind of day.  The rain falls in relentless sheets outside the window as she pours the scalding water over the tea bag. Once her ivory mug is filled to the brim, she settles at the large dining room table. The steam signals that her tea is much too hot to drink, so she sets it aside to steep and cool and resumes her people watching. 

From her third floor apartment window, Kate can see the entire world. Through the 48 by 64 inches of glass, she watches the faces of strangers and creates her own stories for them. What started as a silly little game for entertainment has turned into Kate’s primary pastime.

A young man rushes by her building holding a beautifully wrapped parcel in one hand and an umbrella in the other. He struggles to keep the wrapping from getting ruined by the downpour. His excessive caution is to no avail, as the rain blows in from all sides. The gift is for his fiance, April, who just got promoted from her receptionist job to an executive assistant. Tonight, he will make her dinner and tell her how proud he is of her hard work and how thrilled he is to see it finally paying off. He will apologize for the ruined wrapping paper and she will laugh as she tears through it. The necklace inside is expensive and beautiful. For the next few weeks, she will stay late at the office and celebrate her promotion with the CEO’s hand up her skirt. He will remove her clothes but the necklace will stay on.

A smiling couple dashes under the cover of a flower shop’s pastel awning. Hazel laughs as Carol attempts to wring out her long blonde hair and points at Hazel’s bright yellow coat accusingly. Carol makes a point to tug her hood down over her natural curls and makes a joke about how she warned her about the forecast before they left the house. Carol rolls her eyes with affection and catches Hazel’s hand as she lowers it from her face. Their smiles fade and they share a deep kiss. To pass the time until the rain lets up, they stroll nonchalantly through the small aisles of the flower store. When they emerge the rain has stopped and they’ve both purchased one for the other. Hazel presents Carol with a rose as radiant as her smile. Carol offers a sunflower as bright as Hazel’s eyes. A year from now Hazel will buy flowers from this same shop to adorn Carol’s grave.

Kate often exhausts herself by constructing these stories, by indulging in her desire to know people without actually having to meet them, by hiding behind the one-sided glass of her apartment window. But, it is much safer to be in the comfort of her home than it is to be on the little town street below, where the world is real and bad things happen. On a bad day for Kate, she runs out of canned soup and she has to order food instead. Her only tragedy is the creaky floorboard in the hallway. The great loss of her life was the ugly yellow Tabby she had that died of old age. Oh no, it is much more appealing to remove herself from reality and spectate from a distance. The loneliness was bad at first until Kate discovered the wonderful window people. Since then, she hasn’t spent a day alone. 

A mother and son walk hand in hand below her. The bump in the woman’s belly hints at another one on the way. The boy splashes in the small stream flowing beside the curb. “Raymond!” she scolds and tugs him back onto the sidewalk firmly. He is still smiling. Not the smug smile you’d expect from a young boy who’d done something wrong, a smile of enjoyment and giddy fun. His socks and shoes are soaked and yet he’s as happy as any child could be. Ten years later, the happy child is nowhere to be seen and an angry teenager jumps into the river behind his house, socks, shoes, and all. Later, his mom will drag his lifeless body from the water and wonder where she went wrong.

The passing faces simultaneously mean nothing and everything to Kate. Without them, she’d have nobody, but they have no real effect on her life. She is a witness to the world and nothing more. The four walls around her have created a haven where nothing is expected of her. Sometimes she wonders what she’d see if it was herself walking by. What kind of narrative would she invent for herself if she, too, was just a nameless face on the street? 

As the weather worsens the passersby lessen. Kate is about to retreat to her room for a nap, tired from her long morning, when she remembers her tea. What a shame, Kate lived so many lives today she forgot about her own. Oh well, as much of an inconvenience it is, she’ll just have to microwave it. Really, it’s a miracle she manages with such difficulties being thrown at her all of the time. A minute should do the trick. 

She returns to the window and watches an old woman struggle with her umbrella in the heavy wind. How funny! The rain is coming down so violently now that Kate can barely see through it, another hardship she must face, unfortunately. The woman loses her battle with the wind, and her umbrella goes flying into the road. Just then, a car comes speeding down the otherwise empty street. Unaware, the old woman goes for the umbrella. 

The microwave beeps. Her tea is done. Kate makes her way back to the microwave. She pulls out the mug. It’s too hot to drink. She brings it over to the window and sets the mug on the sill. Well, at least she has something to do while she waits for it to cool.