Tea Party

“Arrrrggh!” I checked my watch for the third time in ten minutes. Where was that Ry? Starling surveyed me coolly, and smirked slightly at my obvious displeasure. Why did I ever invite her? She hates full humans, I thought. I’m the author, I’M supposed to know this stuff!1

“Crumpets?” I asked tiredly.2

“Umm, how ‘bout NO?” she sneered. “I’d prefer bird food, you know. Not.”3

Carrow! Carraw! I looked up as a fleeting shadow crossed our table. Beating his feathery, tawny wings, Ry landed on the table, his blond hair gelled into small spikes. “Crumpets?” I asked him. I took one myself, and marveled at how the sugary taste melted in my mouth. Scribbling something down on my pad, I marveled as my crumpet changed into a blueberry muffin with those huge sugar crystals on top. Wow, the world of writing is so – awesome! “Or on the other hand, blueberry muffins?”4

“Wow, so you wrote this place?” asked Ry curiously.5

“Yup,” I said. Seeing that I was in Ry’s world, I had figured out the spell to make my writing become real.6

“So are you here to interview us or not?” asked Starling crushingly. Raising an eyebrow, I glanced at my list.7

“Well, first of all, what do you guys think of me – and my writing?”8

“Hmmm… Let me think…” said Starling. “Maybe you never thought about how you cause us suffering… And pain… And killed me, and Pippis, and Typhani… Sum it up?!” Her deep brown eyes flashed with fury. "You're twisted. You've created a world in which I will never fit. I- I-" She broke down into tears.9

“Ok, I’d never thought of it that way… Um, Ry?”10

“We-ell, I sort of agree with Starling,” he said awkwardly, shooting me a sideways glance. Suddenly I was all too aware of the birds chirping, and the wind lazily twirling past my ears. Had I really done this to them? I hastily grabbed another muffin, its texture all too rough in my hands, its taste too sweet. There world was so clear, the thoughts all too precise, and I realized that I had created a world of pain, of misery. I vowed to make it a little softer on them.11

“Starling, you are not a bad guy. I love your story, and admire your character. I made you suffer to bring out your personality. I am sorry.”12

They smiled, and I wrote down something, and vanished, to come back to my own life.13