The Tea Party

Jenny walked into the playroom, carefully holding a large glass pitcher filled to the brim with dark brown ice tea. She had to hold it with both of her small hands, as she pressed it into her stomach to make sure she didn’t drop it.
She smiled as she looked around her special room. Toys lined the floor to ceiling shelves. It was spotless, just like her Mommy had asked her to keep it. The pink walls didn’t have a single mark on them, and almost all of her toys were exactly where they should be.
There was some dust on the higher shelves. She couldn’t reach them without a ladder, and she wasn’t suppose to climb the ladder without her Mommy or Daddy there. Usually her Mommy cleaned the room, and got everything really clean, but she’d been sick. So she was sleeping an awful lot, and hadn‘t cleaned the room in a long time. .
Jenny stopped looking at the dust. She was having a tea party, and the rest of the room looked awesome. Her best friend Annie was coming over and bringing cookies. Her stomach grumbled at her, as if reminding her that she was suppose to be getting the sandwiches.
She put the ice tea on the little tea table in the center of the room, and walked back to the kitchen to get the peanut butter sandwiches.

Jenny sat at the tea table, idly fingering the lace table cloth. Annie should be there any minute now. Her mouth was already watering from smelling the peanut butter. She really wanted one, but as her Mommy always told her, a good hostess waits for the guests to arrive and to be settled before having any of the food. So Jenny contented herself with just sipping her ice tea as she waited.
Finally there came a knock at the door. Jenny ran excitedly down the hall, and threw open the door, without bothering to look out the window first. No one else came by anymore except Annie. Jenny didn’t know why this was, and no one would tell her why either. But since most of the people who used to come by were boring adults, she didn’t really care.
Before the door got opened even halfway, a little girl in a yellow dress threw herself through the door, hugging Jenny and nearly dropping a small bag she had been holding.
“Hi Jenny!” she squealed.
“Hi Annie!” she squealed in return. “I have everything all ready in my room. What type of cookies did you bring?” Jenny asked as she practically dragged her friend down the hall.
“My favourite, peanut butter cookies with raisins.”
“Blegh!” Jenny exclaimed. “You always bring those. Why don’t you ever bring Oreo cookies, or chocolate chip ones?”
“Because they aren’t my favourite, these are. Next time you can bring the cookies.”
“I will. And when my Mommy goes shopping tomorrow, I’ll tell her to get all the cookies they have, but no peanut butter cookies, and nothing with raisins.”
“Well then I’ll bring some more of my own cookies when I come over next, and not share them with you.”
“That’s fine by me,” Jenny said turning her nose up and trying to look completely unconcerned by anything. “Are we being princesses today, wizards, or fairies?”
Annie thought for a moment, “I think we should be wizard fairy princesses.”
“But how would we fit the wings over the robes?”
“Oh. I guess we can’t cut out holes in the wizard robes for the wings,” Annie said sadly.
“I don’t think my Mommy would like that. Lets just be fairy princesses.”
They reached the playroom as Annie excitedly nodded her head. They both raced to the little closet that held dozens of different costumes. Each finding their favourite dress, crown, wings and wands, and hurriedly throwing them on.
They sat down at the table, and Annie took the cookies out of the bag, placing them on the little tray in the middle of the table.
“This looks very lovely Jenny,” Annie said with her best manners.
“Why thank you, Annie. I worked all morning getting everything just right. Do try the tea, I think its quite good today.”
Annie sipped the ice tea. “Mm, this is good. And how do you like your tea, Mr. Ted?” She asked the large stuffed bear sitting beside her.
Jenny tried not to giggle as she drank her ice tea and ate a sandwich.
“Has Timmy come back from his Grandmothers yet?” she asked once she was certain her giggles were under control.
“I don’t think so. And Andrea is still with her parents at their beach house.”
“I think Tammy moved. I went to her house yesterday and all the lights were off.
“I wish there were more kids here,” Jenny moped. “It’s boring without more kids to play with.”
“Hey!” Annie said, “what about me?”
“I didn’t mean you were boring, but you live all the way across town. What am I suppose to do when you’re not here?”
“How about we have a sleep over?” Annie asked. “Then I we could play all day today and tomorrow. That would be a real party.”
Jenny jumped up excitedly. “That would be great. I’ll go ask my Mom.”

Jenny skipped happily down the hall, and knocked on her parents door. She opened it after a second. They were still getting over the flu, and didn’t like being disturbed. The room was very dark, but she could just make out the bed where her Mommy and Daddy were sleeping.
“Mommy,” she said quietly. “Would it be alright if Annie stayed over for the night. I can make her supper. I promise we won’t make a mess.”
She waited for a reply, and then gently shook her Mothers shoulder. “Mommy did you hear me. Can Annie sleep over?”
Her mother nodded tiredly.
“Thank you, Mommy. You get some more sleep ok.”
She tiptoed out of the room, and gently closed the door behind her. She smiled as she tried to think about what she and Annie could do for their party. They could play with her dolls, and play pin the tail on the donkey, dressing up would be fun, and maybe if the tv worked they could stay up late and watch a few movies.

As she smiled to herself and thought of all the fun party games she had, her eyes glazed over a little more. She didn’t notice the layer of dust that covered everything. She ignored Patches, her cat, which lay dead and rotting in the corner of the kitchen. She most certainly did not look outside at the dark neighbourhood. Its' silence broken only by the howls and barks of the feral dog packs that roamed the street, looking for food now that their owners were all dead.

She simply walked back to her special room, filled with her toys, where nothing bad ever happened. She sat down and continued drinking the foul, muddy water that was coming out of the faucets, and ate the little pieces of cardboard that had peanut butter and raisins on chatted very politely with her toys, and the empty seat across from her. Later she pulled out a few board games and began to play with them. Occasionally she would clench her swollen, distended, stomach, with her thin, bone like arms. But it would always pass, and she would continue to play.

And she never, ever, allowed herself to notice the smell coming from her parents room. That would really spoil her tea party.