The Tea Set

From the time I was very little I have always enjoyed reading, my mom said that from the time I could walk I was constantly bringing books to her wanting her to read to me. So it was no surprise that I became an advanced reader at an early age, I was about six years old when I discovered my all time favorite book Alice in Wonderland, it was still a bit advanced for me at the time so my mom would read a chapter or two to me before bed every night. The idea of being able to slip into another world where you can talk to animals and flowers going where ever You want whenever You wanted just sounded awesome. Later on when I saw the movie I was beyond hooked, one of my favorite scenes was the mad hatters tea party. They looked like they were having so much fun, I often imagined what it would be like to live in wonderland and wished that I could.

It was closing in on my birthday and my parents asked me what I would like for a present, I quickly said that I wanted a tea set so I could have my own tea parties just like the mad hatter's. A few weeks go by and it was finally my birthday, I remember how excited I was to play with my cousins and to have my first bakery made cake it was white with blue icing trimming, brightly colored flowers and my name in the middle I was over the moon! My parents always had to be really careful with money when my brother and I were growing up so this was a real treat. After we all finished eating our cake Mom brought out my two gifts. A medium size box and package, I quickly tore back the wrapping of the package and found a brand new Nancy drew book, I was so excited I squealed with excitement and thanked my granny over and over as I hugged her tight. I went back to my last gift opening it a bit more carefully hoping that it was my tea set, I didn't want to break it.

Just as I had hoped a beautiful white porcelain tea set with rose print was wrapped carefully in brightly colored gift tissue, I could not stop grinning and probably for the first time that day was speechless I felt like the luckiest girl in the world. The next day Mom helped me set up my tea set and had warned me that it was not a toy at all but was very fragile and she would trust me with the set in my room but only if I was extremely careful. I promised her that I would so we put the cups on tiny saucers with a fine gold colored trimming placing the final piece in the center of my small flower shaped table my teapot! I begged her to have a tea party with me but she said that she had cleaning to do and I knew my brother didn't want to play with my dolls so I sat my favorite stuffed animals around the table and the party commenced. I gently picked up my cup and sipped my tea (apple juice more like) and talked and laughed with my plush friends about how we had to go find the Cheshire cat and that the red queen needed to be nice to Alice and all the other animals as well.

An hour or so had come and gone and Mom called us to the kitchen to have lunch, so I excused myself from the table and promised my stuffed animals that I would be back soon. While we were eating lunch Mom went in the back bedroom to do something and I saw one of my bears fall out of the chair, I knew not to leave the table without asking so I quickly finished my spaghetti-O's so I could go see what happened.

When I went in our room the bear was still on the floor but nothing else was out of place, I noticed it felt chilly in there and I asked Mom if we could shut the air off to which she said it wasn't on. I told her it was cold in our room so she followed me in there to check, noticed it was but didn't know why. She told me to help her clean the tea set, put it away and then suggested we go outside to play.

A week or so goes by and I over heard my mom talking to dad about seeing a little girl sitting in front of the closet in they're room, in the middle of the night and when she sat up to check it out thinking it was me still feeling half asleep the little girl was gone. Dad reassured her that it was just a dream and not to worry about it. Though she was not convinced, my Mom has always been very in tune with spirits and she was certain that was what the little girl was. Later that day I asked my Mom if I could have a tea party and she hesitantly agreed and took it down from the closet shelf and helped me set it up. I had been playing for awhile but for some reason I felt nervous, I could sense that someone was watching me from my bedroom door. I looked across the way into the kitchen which I could see from my play table but nobody was in there, it was then that I saw a tall shadow pass by our room very quickly. I thought maybe our Dad had come home early so I went into the living room to see him but the only person in there was Mom and my brother Chris.

I asked Mom where Dad went and she told me that he hadn't come home yet, I was a little confused but I went back to our room to play with my tea set while I still could. As soon as I rounded the corner I froze, a little girl with long wavy blonde hair wearing a slightly Victorian style light pink dress with a high lacy collar was sitting at my table. Do not drink this she said pointing to my tea cup, You will get sick. I ran back into the living room and told Mom what I saw, She followed me into our room but the little girl was gone.

"Mamma,she was sitting right there," I said tears running down my face, "she really was!" Mom hugged me until I calmed down and asked me what she looked like and I told her, she looked startled and asked me if she said anything and I repeated it back to her. Mom stopped and thought about it for a minute and decided we should put it away for awhile. It was close to a month before Mom let me play with it again, So I was pretty excited while I was playing drinking my "tea" I felt a hand wrap around my arm and I once again saw the little girl. "I told You not to drink that, You will get sick," she said panic ringing heavy in her voice. I screamed for my Mom who came running into our room to see what was wrong. "She came back," I cried, " and she hurt my arm!" I held my arm out to my mom to show her but You really couldn't see anything.

So we put the Tea set up and didn't take it down for years When I was around fourteen years old and had a better understanding of the spirit world I asked her why she had put it away for so long. Mom explained that she was convinced that the little girl was tied to the tea set, that the little girl told her one night that She wasn't trying to be mean to me She just didn't want me to get sick like her because it hurt really bad. We both think that the little girl was poisoned with a drink of some sort and that the cup probably reminded her of the one she had used. Seeing that Mom had gotten the tea set from a nice antique shop there was no real way of knowing the history of where it came from.

I used the tea set as decoration in my room for the longest time, but unfortunately it broke during one of our moves because the box was dropped, I have not seen the little girl since then and neither has my Mom.