Magical Tea Party

“Tea?” The annoyance is clear in my voice. Better to appear annoyed than show my true feelings, right?

“Tea.” Grandma’s one word response means she’s distracted. I shouldn’t be surprised.

“Tea, Gran?” I try again. Maybe in her distraction she’ll accidentally allow me to skip it.

“Of course, dear.” She’s setting out cups and saucers and napkins and I don’t even know what else. Whatever goes on a table for a tea party, I guess.

I know she won’t see me roll my eyes so I go for an exaggerated sigh, hoping she gets the picture. “But I don’t drink tea.”

“Of course you do, dear.” Gran still doesn’t look my way - fixing and straightening and perfecting the table.

“No, Gran, I’m twelve.”

“What does that have to do with anything, dear?” The way my gran talks doesn’t match the way she acts. She talks like she’s about 10 years older than she is but acts about 20 years younger. She’s all “dear” when she talks but dresses in the latest styles, has a hip haircut and owns a Peloton. “I started drinking tea when I was nine.”

“Ok, yeah, but things were different for you, Gran.” The annoyance is fading from my voice. I scrunch up my forehead and try to get worked up about this tea party - to feel angry instead of nervous.

“Different how, dear?” 

I’m ready for Gran to be less distracted now. I can’t ignore my feelings anymore. I plop down at the table right in front of her. “You know what I mean. You had… you didn’t have…” We never talk about this in my family. I mean, we do, but hardly ever. 

Gran sits down across from me. She sighs and looks me straight in the eyes. “Of course I did, dear,” she says with complete sincerity.

“What?” She must not know what I’m talking about. “No, Gran. I mean you don’t have what I have. The… the…” I can’t bring myself to say it. I break her stare and look down at my hands.

“I did. I do.” She pauses and waits for me to look up. When I do, she has a gentle smile waiting for me. Then she shows me she does know what I’m talking about. She closes her eyes and slowly her skin turns blue. A beautiful blue like the sky on a clear day, soft but also strong.

I’m stunned to silence. I’ve never seen Gran’s magic before, I thought she didn’t have it. It skips some people, so it was perfectly possible. And we hardly ever talk about it, which led to some big assumptions on my part.

“I do,” she repeats. “You can learn to control it too, if you want to.” My magic is different from Gran’s. I don’t know what she can do - what power she really has when her skin turns blue. I’m not sure if I should ask. 

But she answers my question for me. “I can fly.”

“Shut up!” I slap my hand over my mouth, immediately realizing I’ve forgotten my manners in front of Gran which is one of the highest offenses in her book.

“Sondra,” she snaps sternly.

“Sorry, I’m sorry,” I throw the words out quickly, but I do mean them. “But seriously? You can fly? Why would you never tell me about it?”

“We don’t talk much about our magic, do we?” Anytime the subject comes up, everyone in my family dodges it like this.

I sigh again. My power is nothing cool like flying. And of course you can control flying. She still doesn’t get it.

“You can learn to control your magic, Sondra,” Gran repeats. “I had to learn.” She pauses and looks off toward the yard, clearly thinking back on her younger days. “I used to just start to float away. There was a stretch where my parents refused to let me outside because they were afraid I’d float off and not know how to get back.”

“So what did you do? How did you learn?” So many questions. So. Many Questions. I had to try to fit them all in while Gran was willing to talk. But the tea party guests were set to arrive any minute. Surely our conversation couldn’t continue once they arrived. And there’d be no picking up where we left off once the party ended.

“I had an excellent teacher. So patient, so understanding. Really knew just the right things to say to help me.”

“But, my magic is different from yours. How will I learn? Who will show me?”

Gran was about to answer when the doorbell rang. She peeked at the app popping up on her phone, showing her who was at the door, and smiled. “Right on time.”

Gran stood and went to the door. I stayed at the table, sulking, knowing my time to talk magic with Gran had ended. How was I going to figure this out? Gran couldn’t leave me hanging, could she?

I heard footsteps approaching. I remembered my manners and stood beside my chair, didn’t want to embarrass Gran afterall.

“Sondra, I’d like you to meet my dear friend, Wayne” Gran said. “And his grandson Rob.” Wayne and Rob smiled and nodded at Gran, at me. “Rob, you’re just a few years older than my Sondra, isn’t that right, dear?”

Rob nodded again. “Sixteen, ma’am.”

“Such manners,” Gran was charmed and not afraid to show it. “Do you like tea, dear?” 

Rob’s face faltered. He looked to Wayne, a bit confused.

Wayne and Gran started laughing, leaving me and Rob to guess what was going on, what was so funny all of the sudden.

“As it turns out, Sondra and I were just having the perfect conversation to lead into our get together. Which, don’t worry Sondra, is not really a tea party.”

“No?” I asked. I was still confused but Wayne was grinning at Gran and a knowing smile was creeping onto Rob’s face.

“Let’s show her,” Gran said, closing her eyes, turning her skin blue and floating up to the ceiling.

“Gran, no!” I shouted. What was she doing showing her magic in front of others?

But then Wayne did a slow blink and his face changed to look like a famous actor from old westerns. Another slow blink and his face changed again to look like the President. Wayne held out his hand and Rob jumped up, but as he did, he shrank down so small that he landed on Wayne’s palm.

I marveled. Three magical people in one place. All safe together, to be our true selves.

“Wayne was my teacher, Sondra,” Gran said from the ceiling. “He showed me how to control my magic and use it only when I need it. We’d like Rob to be your teacher.”

Rob jumped out of Wayne’s hand and landed on the floor, back at his regular size. He smiles right at me. I couldn’t help but blush.

“Go ahead, Sondra,” Gran floated gently down from the ceiling, her skin returning to its usual rosy color.

I closed my eyes and focused. And I turned myself invisible.