Come to my tea party, she said. But I told her I was busy.
She leaned over with a confinding whisper, we don't actually drink tea- its really just water, but we pretend we're drinking tea. Like you do, in the mornings and nights. So come to my tea party.
I apologized, repeating I was busy. I had bills, for God's sake, and I had to pay them. They say, no better time then the the present.
But Mr. Gorilla and Lady Wolf will be there! And I've told them so much about you. They are just dying to meet you- come to my tea party to see them!
I sighed. I'm busy, I'm busy.
Don't be frightned. They're tame really. And quite good company they are. And besides, you will be the guest of honor. You'll sit at the head of the table, and drink from the uncracked cup. So you see, you have to come to my tea party.
I shooed her off, insisting the tea party go on without me, go drink your "tea" with your tame friends.
And then the next day it happened, the car skidded on the leaves
She never came home from school
and I wondered why I was busy when she told I was her guest of honor.
it was what I was taught, what the world has always been about. Work. Do a lot of it. Don't shirk it. Put it off for nothing.
And nothing is what she has become. But be before, she was something. She was. But I ignored what was. I missed it in my determination to follow the rules of society.
A backwards society.