TeaTime With Grandma

“If you leave that tea to brew any longer you won’t be able to drink it! You will have to add half that jar of sugar for it to be any good!”,said a very familiar voice behind me.

I chuckled and shook my head. “I like my tea on the stronger side, and you don’t even drink tea....we have this conversation every time.”

“And you would be wrong every time...I may not drink tea but I know how to make it properly.” she snickers.

I turned around and smiled at the little old woman who now sat at my kitchen table. She was removing her oversized white hat and then it simply disappeared. She smoothed out her dress. She looked around the room taking in all that she could and when she was satisfied her eyes settled on me and she smiled. It’s been a few weeks since we last had tea together. I placed her cup of boiled water in front of her and she eyed it suspiciously, then looked up at me.

“You boiled the water in the kettle? Not just poured me hot water from the tap or sadly microwaved it?...I know the difference.I can smell the difference.”

I held back a giggle and rolled my eyes, this too was the routine question at tea time. “Grandma, I did that once when I was a teenager, you said you wanted hot water I gave you hot water.”

Then I pointed to the still steaming red kettle and her smile beamed as she nodded. She looked impatiently around the room again and then towards the door.

“Where’s your mother? Is she running late?”

I knew she would ask. I told mom she would ask. And I started to smirk, my grandmother sighed and rolled her eyes at me. She sat back in her chair and slowly shook her head pretending to be exhausted with the whole idea.

“ She’s still mad at me....your mother really needs to let her sense of humour out more, it’s very freeing. I guess I will have to speak with her about it.”

I couldn’t control the laughter inside me anymore as it broke loose. “You popped out of the oven, scaring her half to death, as she was pulling out her banana bread. She dropped the whole pan and you almost had her join you.”

Grandma laughed hysterically at the memory as I was talking, her whole body shaking. “I said I was sorry...” she gasped.

Bringing myself under control and doing my best to pretend to scold her, “Saying you are sorry as you roll around on the floor laughing and gasping for breath as she is clutching her chest and trying to yell at you, can not be taken very seriously.”

Grandma, still laughing softly, straightened herself up and tried to take a deep breath. With a little mischievous smirk she lowered her voice, and tilted her head towards me, “Your father and grandfather were not too pleased with me either. We got into it when I got back....”

I raised my hand to stop her. “You know our rules, you can’t bring your squabbling with dad or grandpa down here. We don’t want to get involved, if you can’t get along up there you need to stay away from each other for a while.”

She glared at me for a second and crossed her arms. I looked back at her unwavering. Rules were rules and it was the only way to keep the peace. Realizing I wasn’t going to buckle, she sighed and waved her hand in the air as to signal, let’s move on.

“So I talked with the family up there, and we all agree on something.... you need a vacation. Your Bookstore is doing very well and it’s been too long since you and your husband have been away. You need to let your mother and her friends take over for a few weeks.”

I sat up straight and set my tea cup down. I eyed her suspiciously and she quickly looked away, suddenly interested in a spot on the ceiling. “My mother put you up to this...”

Grandma slowly looked me in the eye, or tried too anyway. “It was a tiny mistake, and they did sell all the books they accidentally ordered. She promised she wouldn’t do it again, but she did say she had more suggestions......”

I shook my head slowly, it wasn’t a big mistake, mom ordered three times the romance novels I wanted and canceled the Mystery order I had. The books were mostly all sold before I returned and no loss was actually found. It has been a long time since we’ve been away from everything.

“See I knew you would see reason, and as you thought no real harm done!” She exclaimed, clapping her hands, very happy with herself.

I frowned, “I told you to stay out of my thoughts, you agreed to not go where you aren’t welcome.”

She pouted, “I know.... but sometimes I just need to break those rules.” She then smiled and continued, “Besides, if they misbehave I could just pop in on you and let you know. Kinda like a spy...”

“Ummmmm no, we talked about that too remember, no popping in without notice. Especially if we are on vacation. There are just some things I don’t want my grandma seeing...” I smirked.

That started grandma laughing again and I blushed and couldn’t help but giggle. This tea time was going off the rails fast. I looked at the clock and a small frown formed across my lips and she followed my gaze. She stopped laughing too and sighed. Our time was coming to an end soon. Our visits were always too short, but it wouldn’t be long before the next one.

Her oversized white hat appeared again, signalling our time was up. We agreed the next tea was at moms house. As I stood and reached for her cup of now cold water, the air was different and she was gone. I smiled as I poured the cup of water out and set our cups in the sink until the next time.