Sometimes sleeping is too wearisome, sometimes dreaming becomes too real!
At 5 am I woke and remembered the bit of Cadbury's that I'd left somewhere in the kitchen so I thought I'd go in search of it. Donning the blanket like a cloak I went barefooted so as to feel in good time, any errant blanket edge that might trip me.
I put the kettle on to make tea then searched for and found the chocolate, which was a smaller piece than I remember. I suspect pirates or pygmies might have eaten some of it. I filled the teapot and put its cosy on, put milk, mug and sugar on a tray. Then I went back to bed, quietly and put down the tray on little table.
It was getting light outside and the birds had begun to sing.
I ate the chocolate and poured out a mug of……plain hot water! Oh fuck! I'd forgotten to put the teabags in.
I could smell the tea, almost taste it.
Almost! But I had to go through the same old rigmarole of refilling the kettle and waiting for it to boil, tipping the hot water (grrrrr!) out of the teapot and making sure (grrrr!!) this time, to put some teabags in.
While I waited, well you know what they say – a watched pot never boils, and the devil finds work for idle hands? Well while I waited I found the damp end of you know who right there waiting, drooping a little but no more than usual. The kettle doesn't usually take that long to boil and for a moment I thought I was going to beat it, except I hadn't quite got to the place where I wouldn't have been able to stop.
Close. But not quite there.
Then the kettle clicked off. I made the tea, and took it back to bed in the early morning light, feeling quite randy. Rough blanket against bare bum helped too.
The fashion mag with the skinny girl in it must have been put out with the recycling stuff but I found an Artigiano catalogue instead, and a lovely picture of a lady with red hair on her head, a bit like Sophie Dahl.
I forgot all about the tea after that, forgot all about everything except a favourite fantasy, me and her, her and me, you know, in or on a big old bed somewhere probably in a sunny afternoon's orchard with apple blossoms and lots of pillows and pale, see through curtains blowing around the branches. Oooh hell, I can make that one last and last, last until all the pots of tea in the world are quite cold, even with their cosies on.
And the earth did move for me, as it would have done for her had she been here in reality. She almost was for we moved enough to sink the four corner posts of that big old bed. into the orchards soft soil.
Neither chocolate nor tea was needed after that, not even a rearrangement of blanket or pillows for, Sweethearts, I slept soundly from that moment until half past eight without dreaming any more at all.
The odd thing was, when I went in search of the catalogue a little while ago, just so I could say good morning to her you know, there it was, on the kitchen worktop next to the kettle. Just sitting there, waiting for me, with a whole bar of Cadbury's lying on top.
© Aahlu. 2007
Chocolate with Sophie
by
Aahlu
by
Aahlu
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Fri, 2nd April, 2010
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