- Lisa
- Lizzie
- Richard
- Serendipidy
- Tom
- Norval Joe
- Planet Z
LISA
Thirsty
The cup was plastic
The cup was white
The cup was just out of reach.
She attempted to lean
She tried a shuffle
Her thirst grew but still the little cup just sat on her table
A nurse passed the end of her bed and she tried to talk, tried to nod, to groan but the nurse was reading some notes so didn’t notice and left the ward.
A cough tickled at her parched throat and lurched her body forward, knocking the cup over. Spilling the contents. The empty cup lay on the hospital floor, waiting to be thrown away.
LIZZIE
The café was still closed. “The clients are outside.” The stress. Let them wait, said the manager. Wait?! The clients will leave. The manager, furious, slammed the door open, letting a flood of people in. “Line up, ladies and gentlemen.” Some of the clients left. And like so, day after day, the café went bankrupt. “Now we’re unemployed.” The manager sneered. “I’ve got a job for you.” The staff looked surprised. “I have a… parallel business in the basement.” Six people were counting bills. Millions. “Where is this money coming from?!” The manager smiled. “No one knows.” And he winked.
RICHARD
Unpredictable
The old woman stared into the empty cup before looking up at me curiously.
“Young man,” she said – I liked that – “I have never seen a pattern like this before. It is hard to know exactly what the tea leaves are saying.
On the one hand, I see them spell success, wealth and power, on the other… well, shall we just say the future doesn’t look quite so bright?”
I was annoyed. I hadn’t crossed her palm with silver for that.
I grabbed the cup and looked inside.
I saw exactly what the leaves were saying.
My teabag had split!
SERENDIPIDY
An empty cup.
A dead body.
I know what you’re thinking. I poisoned him, right?
You’re wrong, that was the last thing on my mind when he woke me this morning with a cup of tea.
It was a thoughtful gesture.
But, he didn’t really think it through.
I don’t drink tea first thing in the morning; and if I did, believe me, it wouldn’t be black, with two sugars.
I drink coffee.
And without my morning coffee, I get very grumpy indeed.
He knew that, and still he gave me tea. Black, with two sugars.
So, I strangled him.
TOM
And left the cup unreconciled.
The empty tea cup sits to my left. Victorian blue edged in gold-leaf, hell 30% of the thing in gold-leaf. The handle done in a Greek revile manner that is known as Colonial. Echoing the silver work of Revere I found it at the back of Diann’s China cabinet. A tiny item in the mass of object that must not find new homes. It screams of drawing room pretension, so unlike the woman who last owned it. More Tupperware than China, more dairy queen than Hight tea. It is doubtful I will ever have cause to fill it with tea.
NORVAL JOE
“Why are we at Bobby’s house?” Sabrina asked Billbert’s mother as they navigated through the trash in the front yard.
Mrs. Weinerheimer kicked an empty paper cup with her toe. “Look at this mess. Children’s protective service is coming here in the morning. If we don’t get their house straightened up, Bobby and Patrick will be removed from the home before they’re able to verify our story.”
Surprised to find them on her porch this late, Bobby still invited them in.
“Do you need something?” she asked.
“Yes,” Joan said. “But first we need to get your house cleaned up.”
PLANET Z
Ollie, the owner of the company, would put a cup on the floor and practice his golf putting in his office. His son, Richard, had the whole back wall of his office taken out and he would practice like he was on the driving range. The factory floor was pretty large, but the ball tended to ricochet off the machinery and the employees. They’ve got hard hats, said, Richard, teeing up another ball. Ollie, ever the diplomat, offered hazard pay to anybody who took a golf ball to the head. It’s not like Richard isn’t shouting fore, right? He said.