The sophistication, the ambiance! Like a feathery soprano spreading her voice...and her slender figure...in a melody against the Steinway, she bedazzles!
You step foot across an imaginary threshold into a fantasy land thick with rose petals and exotic spices from the East, and signs in calligraphy tantalizing your tastebuds...
Spice of Siam...Blackberry Ambrosia...Mandalay Mint...
You have just entered the most exquisite specialty shoppe in town and your figurine...because she is delicate like a glass managerie...is making her way oh so slowly toward your presence.
She presents you with the scent of the day, the finest grade of tay..tea...you will ever lay eyes on.
No, no, her eyes say, ignore that pine tar soap over there on the counter, I have what you want, what you desire, what you crave...
“Our flavor of the day,” she pronounces.
She has a cup for my pleasure, and I gulp.
It is as tepid as a first date with your third cousin. I try to wash it down but it reminds me of a somebody's mouthwash.
She quickly produces a cup of what appears to be a puddle-swirl of reddish particles of an almost "Brazilian Cherry" color.
“Try this.”
With hints of rain forest...an aroma that could be anything from ground cherry wood to dyed fiberboard particles....
“It is a Sassafras substitute, cultivated and dug in the Amazon Rain Forest, with similar medicinal and herbal qualities. I am sure you will enjoy.”
I thought about the European fruit and herb tea section and migrated to the back, passing Miss Air Cloud, a thin blonde with hair like an eraser...hunting for something like Bilberry or Blackcurrent.
But it was nowhere in sight. Burdock, Bombay's Best, Basswood, but no Bilberry. "European" had apparently been replaced by teas starting with the letter “B.”
I thought I had lost her, this wafer-thin whisp.
“I have a new flavor,” she said, startling me like a hyena breaking wind. “It is over here.”
A him...a hint of fish and garlic...brushed by.
“Barberry?”
“It is a simple wild fruit flavor. I think you will enjoy it.”
I took the bag from her hand and turned it over and over…
“And this is from…”
“The Amazon Rain Forest- I believe.”
“Are you sure?”
She studied me like a protagonist would study a toilet bowl on a football field, but I turned my back and made a great fuss.
“Wait.”
She made her way to a little table with assorted fudge. Then, she presented me with a three towered arrangement of Strawberry Tart Fudge.
And suddenly, the thin waif reminded me of a long-lost love, and I took my treat outside into the street, devouring each morsel with delight...
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