The Offering
Aharon sat, entranced, meditating as he had been instructed. At least, that’s what he pretended to be doing. He had never paid much attention to meditation techniques, so all he could do was stay put and try to convince everyone else. Luckily for him, the others did indeed seem to be pondering the mysteries of the universe, because nobody noticed him cheating. How he had been chosen, he had no idea. But here he was, and he was decided to enjoy himself as much as he could.
He heard someone move close, and knew that opening his eyes was safe now. Others were opening theirs, and in turn rose. Aharon knew he could watch, but not move yet.
The Tea Ceremony. The greatest honour that could be bestowed upon a citizen.
Amazing.
One delicate woman approached the bush and stopped, humming a prayer behind closed lips. Another delicate woman (Aharon decided, suddenly, that all of them were delicate) approached with a silver trail, her steps graceful and small. The first woman took two objects from the tray, nodding at the second one, who nodded back and stepped away.
The first woman held a small basket and a pair of scissors. She moved closer to the bush and Aharon couldn’t help but think she was trimming it. It was as if she was a barber streamlining a customer’s beard. She took great pains to ensure the cut leaves fell on her basket.
The second woman approached again and the first one put her scissors on the tray, then turned to a third woman and gave her the basket, both silently nodding to each other. This third woman moved away, approaching what Aharon thought looked like a stove. Woman number three produced a tiny wok, and indeed lit a fire, placing the wok on it and the leaves in it. She then moved the wok with her hands, giving it an hypnotizing circular motion.
After a couple of minutes, she put the wok away from the fire. Aharon stared in fascination as she plucked each leave out of the wok and waved them in a complicated pattern, landing each in turn on a bamboo table.
A fourth woman (also delicate) then nodded to the third one and (also delicately) proceeded to roll each of the leaves. Aharon saw how, after long minutes, she went back to the third woman, exchanged nods, and retired. Aharon realized the third woman had never put out the stove, and now she was drying the rolled-up leaves in a second wok.
Soon she considered her work was done, and with ceremonious nods to the next woman, passed her the tea leaves, this time on a white china tray. Aharon expected her to do something, but a sixth woman approached with a jar of water, and placed a teapot on the stove (still on, Aharon realized) and filled it with water.
Everybody seemed to meditate until the teapot whistled. Aharon had lost count of the women, but the one with the smoking teapot approached the one who held the tea leaves. Tea was added to the water with more exchanged nods.
Two more women came in now with a smoking bucket, but the smoke looked different. Yet another woman inserted a dipper inside, and took it off full of crushed ice. Aharon fully expected by now to see another woman bring a glass, and he wasn’t disappointed; ice was poured into the glass until it reached the brim, and teas was then served on top, the hot and cold producing a pleasantly-looking mist over the glass.
Aharon rose. A spearmint leaf was placed on the glass with nods, and the tea was shoved in his hands.
“Mint?” Aharon asked, “will the God like this?”
“Oh yes,” said the last woman. “He loves it.”
Behind Aharon, the God licked his lips.
~~~~
This is my accompanying entry for the Weekly Writing Exercise: November 14–20, 2016 on the Writer’s Discussion Group in Google+. I am responsible for creating the prompts for the Exercise, so I don’t take part, but I still like to write a story each week.
Not much meta-story this week. I came across the idea for the story, then checked on how tea is processed as I wrote. The process is loosley based on green tea. And I took liberties as I saw fit, sorry about it.
