A Fable of Tea

How about a fable :

There was a man named Jack Straw who was obsessed with tea. Not happy
with just the ordinary teas you can buy in the grocery store, Jack
wanted to know everything about all teas. He traveled the world in
search of exotic and rare teas, which is why he was in the house of one
Jill Traber who claimed on the internet that she had several teas that
Jack had never seen or tasted before. She had just sold several pounds
of Kwanzaa Tea to Jack.
"Quite a nice flavor." said Jack. "I would like to know what it is
made of."
"It is a special brew that comes only from Kenya during the Kwanzaa
season in the USA. I am afraid it never became popular despite its good
flavor." said Jill. "I bought a lot of it and I am quite afraid to say
that I have so much that I might never drink it all."
"Well, I say," said Jack because he was English and English people say
that alot. "I think I'll take some of it off your hands. It is quite
good."
So as I said before Jack bought several pounds of this tea and as he
was paying for them he noticed a small bag of tea hidden in the corner
of the room.
"I say, what tea is in this bag," asked Jack.
"That is my rarest tea of all." replied Jill. "It was given to me by
an aboriginal shaman while I was in Australia. I have had only one cup
since then. It is quite strong. I'll share a cup with you right now if
you like." Jack agreed simply because here was another tea he had never
tasted before and for a man obsessed with tea the idea of finding a
rare tea was, well, a slice of heaven.
Jill warmed some water and placed a very small amount of the tea
leaves in a cup.
"Its very strong." she said as filled the cup with the hot water.
Jack smelled the brew and was surprised to smell the odor of fur, wet
fur.
"Oh, how astute," squealed Jill, "you see this tea is made from leaves
the Koala bear uses to make its hiberative bed. The shaman told me that
Koala bears are such rich dreamers that this tea can make you see
things you have never seen before. I've only had this tea once before.
But I assure you its effects are wonderful."
A meeker man might have had some trepidation about drinking this rare
strange brew but Jack Straw was not an ordinary man. He was a tea
adventurer. This was his life.
He drank a small sip but not because he was a mousey man. The tea was
simply too hot to drink anymore than that without burning one's
tastebuds. The taste seemed strangely attractive to his mind rather
than his tastebuds although the taste was not unpleasant. It was as if
he was having a mental aftertaste, and this aftertaste was quite good.
Well, better than good, it was becoming sensational.
Suddenly, Jack's mind began to open up. He saw his whole life in front
of him. Everything he had done so far had led him up to this point. He
was meant to be here. He was meant to taste this tea. He was meant to
meet this woman. This lovely woman whom he could not take his eyes off
of. He knew she was the woman he would happily spend the rest of his
life with. He looked into her sparkling eyes (her eyes were sparkling
because she too had taken a sip of the tea) and fell into a prolonged
embrace of her body.
Well, not too long after that, the two of them went down the hill
(because you see Jill lived on a hill) to fetch a marrying minister.
Jack, you see, had fallen down, deep in love, and Jill had come
tumbling, head over heels in love, happily after.
And they did live happily ever after.

The moral of this story is - that although having a lot of Kwanzaa tea
is good,
having a little Koala tea is better.
"You're telling me," said Jill, "I was almost single at forty-three."

Frank Coughlin Feb. 6th 2008