tea bagging

Who took the tea bags out of the pots?
It was me. I took the tea bags out of the pots. I couldn’t help it, it was just the thought of all that tea that wouldn’t be properly hot and I’ll admit it, the conviction that I was a better tea maker than the cake sale committee chairwoman. She was very nice too, which made me feel even worse. Welcoming, chatty and not too bossy.  

I got to the hall at ten, as arranged. There were a few of us, all helping the school cake sale committee get the hall ready for crowds. I had been primarily assigned to the tea stand. It was a bit of fun, there was plenty to do and a few familiar faces to have a chat with. I hadn’t worn the wrong clothes; I didn’t feel like the oldest person in the room. All was good.
In a kitchen off the school hall the chairwoman had left six big tea pots on the draining board. A few kettles were coming to the boil and while she was waiting for them she put six tea bags into each of the pots. Anything wrong with this picture? Exactly. She never heated the tea pots. But that was none of my business, I was just there to help and anyway, did it really matter? Aine, my buddy who was with me on the tea stall came into the kitchen to get some paper cups. "Oh my God, did she put the tea bags in already?" she whispered. I nodded. "Will we take them out and heat the pots?" I wholeheartedly agreed and quickly took the bags out of the pots and stuffed them back into the Lyons box on the table. Suddenly the chairwoman was beside me again. "Its non stop isn’t it! Lets get these pots filled; the crowds will be here soon!" She picked up a kettle and started to pour. Peering into the first she stopped. "Hang on a second. I put tea bags into these, I cannot believe this! Did someone take them out?" My stomach doing flips, I muttered "Tea bags? I'll get some." in a vague way and wandered out into the hall, looking purposeful yet innocent. I could hear her exclaiming behind me and asking the other volunteer helpers whether they had done it. Briefly, I considered confessing. But by the sounds of things the situation had already escalated and  I just didn’t have the courage to come clean. There was a commotion coming from the kitchen and the words "tea bags!" "Someone!" and "TEA BAGS!" again. Fair enough I suppose, I had deliberately undone her work. But how could I explain now? Fighting for the tea pots right to be heated seemed pathetic. It was pathetic.  Housewifery gone mad.

Then one woman rushed excitedly out of the kitchen, in my direction. She said, to my absolute horror “Did you take the tea bags out of the pots?”
Time stood still. I opened and closed my mouth like a fish, trying to look puzzled and preoccupied by the paper cups in front of me. “I think I took them out of one pot” I admitted “just to heat it.”
“Oh it was you” she answered.
“Just one pot I lied, “just to heat it!” but she was gone, back to the kitchen. To tell on me. And Aine? Well she was in the toilets touching up her makeup. She missed the whole thing.

The crowds began to arrive.  Aine wandered out and joined me behind the tea table, smiling, relaxed and nicely coiffed. It seemed like everyone was thirsty and we got down to the business of serving. Later when I got home, I told my husband the whole story. He looked painfully bored, raised his eyes to heaven and comfortingly said "Could you not have just left the tea bags? Now they’ll all think you’re a complete wierdo."