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#128 Tea Time

Did you know that January is National Hot Tea Month? Tea is a wonderfully diverse beverage that’s enjoyed in many different ways all over the world. It can be a soothing drink, a social drink, and has even sparked conflicts (think the Boston Tea Party, or the First Opium War). 


Inspired by the history and cultural significance of this beverage, here are the prompts for this week’s contest: 

This week's prompts

Start your story with someone making a cup of tea — either for themself or for someone else.

– 168 stories

Set your story in a tea house.

– 36 stories

Write a story about a tea party that your character is reluctant to go to.

– 43 stories

Write about a character who’s dying to “spill the tea” (gossip) about something.

– 21 stories

Write a story about a conflict that breaks out over something ordinary (like tea, perhaps).

– 26 stories

Stories

Shadowy Garnet

Weekly Contest #128

Oolong…Earl Grey…Black…the tea selection was daunting in the cabinet. Grandma Charlie always had boxes of tea although I never saw her drink any. Now, as I was sifting through her belongings it only seemed right to make myself a cup of tea. That and there was no coffee pot in the house and the nearest Starbucks was a twenty-minute drive into town. I had been the only visitor to Grandma Charlie’s since she refused to move into the nursing home last year. She threw my mother out of the house and never liked my father, so he didn’t e...

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Three For Tea- The Disappearance of Tiffany Rogers

Weekly Contest #128

“Don’t go there,” I told my sister, shaking my head. “Don’t take us.”The driver (aka- my sister, Kia) met my plea with a steely silence. I tried again. “They don’t want me there anyway. I’m bad news, right?” I shook my head. “We should turn around.”Kia, eyes forward, both hands on her steering wheel, sighed. “You’re still moving forward, sis.”“I can’t slam on the breaks or make a U-turn on the damn highway, now can I?” “Maybe not, but could you at least acknowledge my request?” “You mean the part where you keep running aw...

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Tea time in Boston

Weekly Contest #128

 Tea Time in Boston  “Just another day in Boston.” David said himself.”  The same people walking by, same old stores and taverns.  Nothing ever changed.  He let out a sigh as he watched the soldiers patrol the streets.  He stood outside his house for a moment and watched a bit longer.  He was greeted by his wife as soon as he entered. “What’s wrong dear? You look sad.” “Anna, I hate the way it looks out there. People every where look so miserable.  Come to the new world they...

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Scout

Weekly Contest #128

 “Why do I have to drink the damn tea?” Anyone could tell that Scout was worked up. My grandma explained to him, for the umpteenth time, that he couldn’t have coffee anymore, on doctor's orders. Coffee, she explained, would get him too riled up because of all the caffeine. Scout furiously kicked his crossed leg while wringing his hands in his lap. He was muttering something to himself, but I couldn’t quite make it out. It was something like,”Leave me alone, no fire.” I tried not to stare. Scout was at least mid-30s when I firs...

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The Golden Teapot

Weekly Contest #128

Egret and Heron sat at opposite sides of the small table in the parlor of their castle. In the center of the table sat a gleaming silver tea set consisting of a pot with more curves than their mother, two cups with fancy scrolled handles, saucers, a creamer with tiny lion’s feet, and a sugar bowl. The noon sun’s rays plunged through the tall, multi-paned windows and dazzling white reflections from every shiny surface buffeted round the room like a light-filled kaleidoscope.The handle of the sugar spoon was an eagle with a garnet eye. Th...

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The Many Ways of Collapsing on Icy Pavements

Weekly Contest #128

David Vallejo woke up and checked the time on his phone. 6:43 am. January 1. He got up from the couch where he was sleeping and went over to his friend Pavel, who was resting on an air mattress on the floor. “You up?” he whispered to Pavel. Pavel responded with a sound that only vaguely resembled human speech. “Do you think I should start cooking breakfast for everyone?” David said. Pavel gave a response identical to the previous one. “Understood. I’ll go do that.” David said and then he went into the kitchen. He opened the refrigerator with...

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Oat milk

Weekly Contest #128

Goldie, 1955 Camberwell, London Alice was an easy baby. From her high chair, she watched me with her serious eyes as I set out breakfast. Always the same; it was better for everybody. Wipe the gingham tablecloth, damp-wipe with the cloth and shake out into the bin. Fill the glass jug from the tap; let it run clear and cold first. Set the cutlery; Alice’s own little set or she would not eat, that she did mind. The wooden-handled set, not from the best drawer. A napkin each, Alice’s choice from the drawer; I would hold them up to her. Flo...

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A long time brewing

Weekly Contest #128

“Tea, Kaapi?” she asked her cousin and her cousin’s husband. They responded with tea. All the better, her coffee grounds were running low. Radhika went into her stores and took out the large metal tin that held the roasted tea leaves. She got her plentiful supply from her employer, who rewarded the workers a half kilo bag once every few months. She probably picked some of these leaves herself and she knew her employer was not giving her anything close to the premium teas they exported to foreigners. That’s what the milk, sugar, ginger and ca...

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The Last Cuppa

Weekly Contest #128

      For some time, I’ve been reusing my tea leaves—waiting patiently until the spent remnants barely tinted or flavored the hot water before moving on to a fresh scoop. Sadly, this evening’s bedtime cup reached that woefully uncivilized nadir. While I knew these leaves were nearly exhausted, there was just enough taste to maintain the emotional comfort of my nightly ritual and temporarily ease the now persistent sharp pangs in my abdomen. Relaxed and burrowed under my puffy down duvet, I drifted off to sleep s...

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Chai Latte

Weekly Contest #128

Is tea all they had, here? Heaving a sigh, Jules stifled her longing for a nice cup of joe as she sifted through the boxes of assorted teas. Her cousin Samantha had invited her to England for the winter holidays, to a cozy cabin nestled in a lovely town surrounded by snow-capped mountains and pine trees. What she’d forgotten to mention (more likely Jules had been too occupied studying for her organic chemistry final to pay attention) was that there would be a congregation of Samantha’s friends, classmates, acquaintances, work-buddies, and f...

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An Unwanted Tea Party

Weekly Contest #128

I don’t know why my mother thinks that she should arrange my social life for me. I am a responsible adult after all. I have a good job, that pays well enough for me to have a nice apartment where I can live by myself and not with her. And I am thirty years old. Yet, she still thinks she should make social arrangements for me. A tea party of all things! She wants me to go to a tea party. Although my name is Alice, I don’t fancy drinking tea with some old queens, not unless I can be the one to say, “Off with their...

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The Yellow Box

Weekly Contest #128

                                        The Yellow Box The security lights were on at the elementary school across the street so I could make out the windows of the classrooms on the east side of the building. I remembered the floor plan inside as I’d spent my childhood there what seemed tonight like a hundred years ago.  This was the um...

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Through the Sliding Door

Weekly Contest #128

“The way to man’s heart is through a cup of tea” - anonymousThe sun glared down at Aaron and Tommy, who stood in the midst of tufts of unkempt grass, whispering. Their eyes held a glint of mischief, as the heat beat down on them. Their gestures were big, and their smiles even bigger. They looked and acted like kings, kings who owned the backyard at least, and I was curious. Curious to their minds, which often brought them trouble. They were often confined to the backyard by my parent’s or Tommy’s because of the incident last summer when they...

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For All the Tea in Texas

Weekly Contest #128

He placed his long, bony fingers on the edges of the lid. The container looked like an egg with its top and bottom lopped off. It shone like one of those Hercules beetles you find in rotting ash trees. If you caught one, you could turn it this way and that, and it changed colors in the sunlight. The container would probably do that too, with its streaks of gold in the black lacquer.Mr. Sasaki lifted the lid to reveal a green powder the color of the algae that spreads out on the water between the bald cypress trees in the lake. Setting down t...

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A mightea revenge

Weekly Contest #128

Did you know that lemon balm tea is good for you, and that strawberry yogi sips are bad for you? I know, because my lovely friends point it out to me all the time. Because of them I also know that even though Kusmi tea tastes like burned plastic, it’s full of probiotics and therefore very healthy. Bean pasta, also very healthy, definitely worth skipping a pizza for. Turmeric coffee, chia seeds and sumac soup, all very nutritious I’ve been told. My friends can hardly remember their life before wheatgrass tea and almond milk it seems. But are ...

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