Conclave at the Tea Table
by Randal Eldon Greene
Lucy hugs me close. I am Lucy’s favourite friend. We go everywhere together. She takes me to the store, I attend church with her, and we love to go to parties together. Parties are our favourite.
Lucy is hugging me because Lucy’s mommy and daddy are yelling at each other again. Her bedroom door is closed, but pieces of the argument still come through clear enough to understand: Money. Waste of time. She’s special! Divorce? Freak! Yours! Jesus Christ! Shut up! We don’t understand a lot of the words, but we don’t like them. The Clown wonders if Lucy would like to have a tea party. The Clown really enjoys his tea parties. Lucy asks me, “Teddy Bear, do you want to have a tea party?” I love tea parties, so I say yes.
Lucy and I are exactly the same age. We’re four years old. The tea set is old—older than even Lucy’s mommy. That’s why we have to be careful with all the pieces: tea cups, saucers, plates, and little, fragile teaspoons. Lucy’s daddy says she is too little and might break something. But she has never broken anything, so Lucy’s mommy lets her play with the tea set. Lucy is such a good girl.
I sit on one side of Lucy, the Clown on the other, and Mr. Frog sits across from Lucy. Lucy wears her most elegant party dress and hat. She is the prettiest girl in the world with golden locks of hair and bright blue eyes. I’m really lucky to be her best friend.
Lucy offers all the guests more tea. The Clown and Mr. Frog take their tea plain. We take ours with sugar so we can be even sweeter. I ask the Clown what the occasion is. He tells us that it’s his birthday. “Now don’t be silly,” the Teacup says. “We know very well you had your birthday last week.” The Teacup is very smart about things like that. Lucy says it's because she is so very old . . . and big. The Teacup is older and bigger than all the things in Mommy's tea set. The Teacup is Lucy’s special teacup. Lucy found her in an antique shop when she was with Mommy. Mommy bought Lucy the Teacup. Because she is Lucy’s special teacup, she gets to sit in the center of the blanket.
“Then why are you having a tea party?” Lucy and I ask the Clown.
The words You’re impossible snake underneath the door.
“That’s why,” says the Teacup. "Clown just wanted to get Lucy's mind off of Mommy and Daddy's argument."
The Clown nods in agreement.
“You know they don’t have to fight like that,” the Teacup tells us.
“Nonsense,” Mr. Frog croaks, “mommies and daddies have to fight.”
“Oh no they don’t,” the Teacup argues. “Not Lucy’s mommy and daddy. She’s such a good little girl that she can make them stop fighting.”
Lucy’s mommy comes in and tells Lucy to get ready for bed. The next day is church day.
#
We think church is okay. Mostly we play with crayons. There is lots of singing and the preacher talks for a very long time. Lucy and I have to stay quiet. Lucy always stays very, very quiet. She always does what she’s told; even when she eats crunchy snacks at church, she chews so very quietly that no one can hear her. She is the perfect little girl.
Today the preacher is talking about baby Jesus. We like baby Jesus. He was a perfect little baby, just like Lucy.
After church we take a nap, but her mommy and daddy are yelling again. They wake us up. Lucy hugs me close. I tell her we should play a game.
“What kind of game, Teddy Bear?” Lucy asks me.
“It’s your turn to decide. You let me pick the game last time,” I say.
“Let’s play on the Rocking Horse. Rocking Horse, do you want to play?” Lucy asks.
“Of course,” the Rocking Horse replies. “Climb on and I’ll take you both on a ride far, far from here.”
The Rocking Horse takes us over hills and mountains. We see waterfalls below us and rainbows above us. Eventually we reach a place where we gallop through fields of golden corn, corn that makes everybody who lives there rich and happy, and they don’t have to worry about doctor bills or anything. At this place Lucy is a farm girl and has lots of horses.
Lucy had a horse once, but we couldn’t keep it. Lucy wanted so badly to have a horse for her birthday. She was really good all year long. She was exactly like baby Jesus and never did anything bad. Then, just as Lucy was blowing out her candles, a beautiful horse jumped over the fence in the backyard. It was golden-brown, like a perfectly toasted marshmallow, and had blue eyes just like Lucy’s.
We were so excited that Lucy had her very own horse. Then Uncle Nathan came over the same day and said he had to take the horse to his farm. Lucy was super angry. She had been extremely good all year long. It wasn’t fair that Uncle Nathan came over to take away Lucy’s brand new horse. Uncle Nathan told us we could come and visit, which wasn’t fair. We didn’t get to see Uncle Nathan very often, and Lucy wanted to ride her horse whenever she wanted.
Lucy never said anything. Lucy didn’t cry. Lucy never cries. She’s such a big girl.
We never got to see Lucy’s horse again. Uncle Nathan died in an accident with the horse, and they had to put the horse asleep forever. After that, we started seeing Dr. Daniel. I go too because I’m Lucy’s best friend and she takes me everywhere with her.
Sometimes her mommy, daddy, and us sit and talk about things with Dr. Daniel. He’ll ask about Lucy’s birthday party, about her Uncle Nathan, about her mommy and daddy, about her friends, and about her toys—including me! We talk a lot about feelings. Lucy always tells exactly what she feels. Lucy never lies.
Sometimes just Lucy and I talk to Dr. Daniel alone. He asks a lot of the same questions but tells us that we can tell him anything. He’ll whisper it like it’s a secret. Lucy always tells him everything. Sometimes he gives us candy while we talk. We like the chocolate candies the best.
Sometimes we even get to play games. Sometimes they’re easy games. Like guessing what black pictures are. It’s a lot like seeing things in the clouds, except clouds are prettier. There’s also the game where we fit blocks into the right holes and a counting game and an alphabet matching game. There are some games though that are really fun. Like the pretend games. In one of those games we stand on the couch with our eyes closed and pretend to be flying in the sky. We pretend we can feel the wind and the fluffy clouds. We always fall off the couch when we open our eyes, and that makes us laugh. For one of the games, we pretend to be different animals. Like this one time Dr. Daniel had us crawl on the ground and roar like a lion. Sometimes we like to pretend we’re kitties. Dr. Daniel just sits or stands, watching and writing. He smiles a lot, but he doesn’t like to play pretend with us.
There is this other game where we sit at a desk and draw pictures of different things. Like people or grass or, like the last time, snakes. We draw a picture then we close our eyes and pretend that what we drew is there in the room. Last time we pretended the snakes were slithering around our feet. It felt so real that I wanted to open my eyes and look down. But Lucy didn’t let me, saying, “That would be breaking the rules of the game.” Lucy never breaks the rules.
#
Today isn’t the day we go to see Dr. Daniel. So we decide to have the Rocking Horse take us to a dark jungle full of snakes. We get to the jungle, and the snakes slither around us and the Rocking Horse. They are all whispering with their snaky ssssss voices about how beautiful and wonderful Lucy is. There are tons of them—thousands of them—slithering up from the ground and down from the trees. Soon we aren’t riding on the ground anymore because they are carrying us on top of them, like a boat floating down a river, and they’re all hissing in their soothing snake-talk. They lead us to a tea party deep in the jungle and then slither away quietly into the trees above us. Naturally, the Lion is the host of this tea party. Mr. Frog and the Teacup are there too. Even though the Clown really likes tea parties, he wasn’t invited. He’s much too silly for the Lion.
The Lion offers us some tea and we say, “You’ve thrown a surprise tea party for us. How very thoughtful.”
“We’ve brought you here for a reason,” the Teacup says before the Lion can reply.
Mr. Frog clears his throat with a croak and says, “Lucy, what the Teacup means—”
“Quiet,” interrupts the Lion.
Lucy’s mommy and daddy are fighting again. A long shriek drills through her closed bedroom door. All of us jump when we hear glass shatter on the floor.
“Something must be done,” the Lion finally says.
Just keep pretending it’s all okay!
“What can we do?” I ask.
“What can Lucy do?” Mr. Frog croaks.
“You can fix it,” the Teacup says to Lucy.
Who do you think I am?
“How can I?” Lucy asks. “I’m good as good can be. But that’s not enough.”
The Teacup tells her, “You have to want it enough.”
Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!
“But I do want it,” Lucy says.
“You have to want it like you wanted that horse for your last birthday,” the Teacup says.
“But I do want them to be happy again,” she protests. “I’ve been extra, extra good. As good as baby Jesus.”
Why don’t you just listen to me?
“Then think about it, Lucy,” the Lion says, “and it will happen. Really concentrate. Really wish.”
“But I’m not like baby Jesus. I can’t make anything better.”
“But you can,” croaks Mr. Frog.
“Lucy,” I say, “you’re the most perfect, best little girl in the world. You are so wonderful, Lucy, that you can make anything you want in the whole world happen. Nobody has ever been as good as you are—not even baby Jesus.”
“But...but that would mean—”
The Teacup looks her seriously in the eye and says, “You are.”
ABOUT THE CREATOR
Randal Eldon Greene is the author of Descriptions of Heaven (Harvard Square Editions), a novella revolving around a linguist, a lake monster, and the looming shadow of death. His collection Blabber, Chat, Shouting Match: 50 Dialogue-Only Stories is forthcoming (Coronz\Samizdat). Greene interviews writers for the Hello, Author Substack. He lives in western Iowa with his wife and young daughter.
Substack: helloauthor.substack.com
Website: authorgreene.com
Instagram: randaleldongreene