Tea Anybody?!

• Riley Baquie, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2011

I may never drink another cup of tea in my life. Ask anyone who
knows me, and they’ll tell you that I used to drink tea quite often.
That all changed when I was staying at my Auntie’s house for the
weekend...
“Riley, could you boil a cup of water so Michael can have some
coffee?” Michael, a family friend, was helping with my Aunt’s
renovations on her house.
“I’ll do that now, Auntie Bekah.” I replied.
I was the only one of five children that had clean feet and therefore
the only one allowed in the newly painted house.
I carefully wiped my feet before briskly walking in the back door and
to the snow white kitchen, where I was quick to notice a silver kettle. I
picked it up to fill it, but realized it was already full. In a flash, I had
the kettle plugged in and the switch turned on.
As the kettle boiled I went over to a window and plugged in a cord for
one of my cousins to charge his laptop. After that was done, I hurried
back to the kettle and got a mug ready.
‘Oh well.’ I thought, after seeing that the kettle wasn’t done boiling,
‘There’s steam so it must be close to done. Besides, Auntie Bekah’s
waiting.’
After pouring the water into the cup I noticed there were little black
things in it. I dumped out the water and a drop or two splashed onto
my arm. I yanked it back, nearly dropping the mug.
“Ouch!” Yep, it was definitely boiled.
After shaking one arm, I poured another cup of water. Again and
again I poured water and dumped it because of the pesky little black
dots.
Finally I realized that the ‘little black dots’ weren’t just dots. They
were ants! I peeked in to the kettle and saw a whitish thing stuck in
the spout.
‘That’s strange.’ I thought, ‘It must be a filter or something.’
Nevertheless I dumped out the old water and filled it up with enough
water for one cup. Before boiling again I checked the inside of the
kettle, just to be sure.
‘What!’ This was just weird. The filter was floating inside the kettle.
‘Wait a second!’
I looked closer, almost sticking my head into the kettle. It had one,
wait, two legs.
“Eeeeew!” I called out, jumping back from the kettle.
It was a frog! A dead and boiled frog!
I wondered what to do. There was no way I could bring water from
that kettle. And how could I tell them? They’re eating!
I finally decided that food or no food, they needed to know. I marched
back down the stairs to the picnic in the shade.
“Auntie Bekah. I’m sorry, but I’m afraid Michael can’t have any coffee.
There’s a dead frog in the kettle.”
Of course Michael didn’t have any coffee. I don’t think he minded,
because after I told them he said, “I don’t feel like coffee anyway.”