Another Cup of Tea: Teatime Tales, #2

By Debbie Manber Kupfer

There's always time for another cup.

Twenty-eight haiku, a cat named Miri, a ghost named Roger, a vampire named Vlad, and about a gallon of tea populate the pages of this second collection of poignancy and silliness from the author of P.A.W.S.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Debbie Manber Kupfer
• Release date: Apr 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393435082

Debbie Manber Kupfer

Debbie grew up in the UK in the East London suburb of Barking. She has lived in Israel, New York and North Carolina and somehow ended up in St. Louis, where she works as a writer and freelance puzzle constructor of word puzzles and logic problems. She lives with her husband, two children and a very opinionated feline. She believes that with enough tea and dark chocolate you can achieve anything!

Book preview

In memory of my parents, Shirley and Walter Manber.

there’s always time for another cup

––––––––

.

Another Cup of Tea

––––––––

I awake and stumble into the kitchen

Grabbing the kettle and setting it on the stove.

I wait, mug in hand.

The first sip is a memory.

Then the next and the next, and then it is gone.

Too soon.

I gaze at the bottom of the cup, forlorn.

Where did it go?

Guess I’m going to have to make another cup.

––––––––

Miri’s Tale

––––––––

Once upon a time I had a brother named Pumpkin, a little sister called Baby, and a human called Evelyn who took care of us. I had a different name back then. I was called Pudding. I never really liked that name. I mean I’m cream colored, I know, but do I really look like pudding?

Evelyn had a son called George and on weekends he’d bring his little humans by to play with us. I loved to play with the human kittens and was sad when they went home.

Still, we had our human to snuggle with. Then one day something happened. Evelyn started to get sick. She tried to take care of us and herself, but it was hard. And one morning George came by without his little ones and started packing her stuff. Evelyn bent down to pet me on the head. I could see it hurt her to bend. I purred and hoped she’d feel better soon, but there was sadness in her eyes, and wet drops fell on my fur.

My brother and sister and I stayed in the house on our own. Every day George would come by and feed us and clean our litter box. Then he’d take a few more things away with him. The house was getting more and more empty. It was sad, but I still had Pumpkin and Baby.

Then one day George came with a family, but not his family. This one had a small boy with ginger hair. He wasn’t fun to play with the same way as George’s human kittens. This boy was loud and scared me. So I ran away and hid. Later when I came out, my little sister, Baby, was gone. Pumpkin told me the family had taken her. I was sad, and I missed her and hoped the small boy with the ginger hair would be kind to her. At least I still had my brother.

The two of us hung about in the house that was getting emptier every day. George no longer just removed boxes of stuff, he started taking the furniture away too. One day they had a sale and many, many humans visited our house and bought the sofas, the beds, the chairs, and the tables, and even the kitchen clock that used to go tick tock. I missed the sound of the clock that night and snuggled close to Pumpkin, scared of the odd sounds in the almost empty house.

Still, Pumpkin and I played