Christmas Tea (Writephoto)

Inspired by and written for #Writephoto – thank you, KL

Christmas Tea
Form: Flash Fiction

A curious thing happened last Christmas Eve. We had received the invitation a few days before requesting the pleasure of our company at Old Mrs. Templeton’s Christmas Eve tea. Shel had jumped at the chance as an opportunity to meet some of our neighbours. She was right, of course, we had only moved into our cottage a few weeks ago, but it still felt odd to me.

So, there we were just before 3 o’clock, knocking on the door of the old cottage next to the post office. Like every other building in the village, it looked like it was stuck in the 19th century. I noted it was very quiet and thought perhaps we were the first to arrive.

Shel knocked a second and third time. Still, no one answered. “Perhaps they are all in the back parlour – let’s go a look,” she said, “if it is anything like ours you can barely hear the front door in there and if there are people chatting you wouldn’t stand a chance.”

So we followed the gravel path round to the back and peeked in. Through the old net curtains, we could clearly see a table all laid up for Christmas tea. There was nobody, not a single soul in the room. Shel being Shel went to the back door and rapped on the window. Nothing!

“Come on,” I said, “there is no one here. It’s all very odd”

As we walked back past the Post Office shop, Shel decided to pop in and ask if they knew anything.

“My dears,” said the old guy behind the counter, “Ma Templeton died in July.”

“But the table and everything is set for a Christmas tea,” I said.

“It can’t be the house is empty the clearance people removed everything in September.”

On that, we returned to the old cottage and took another look through the back parlour window. No curtains, no furniture, and no Christmas tea to be seen. “How bloody odd,” said Shel

She was right, of course

©JezzieG2022