大象传媒

IN THE TEALEAVES!
BY ANNE MARTIN

I had been asked by a friend if I would sing at their church social which was a common occasion in my youth. Anyhow, after the items were all through, we, the platform party, were invited to stay for tea. In the groups being fed was a lady - a member of that congregation - who read fortunes from tealeaves. I was a bit shy of handing over my cup, but, of course, like many young ladies of my generation, enjoyed hearing what she would find.

My cup was drained leaving the tealeaves in the bottom. At that time all tea was made with loose tea - this would be impossible nowadays as every one uses tea bags which leave no residue, except maybe, some dust. Mine was duly turned upside down on the saucer, turned round three times and lifted up.

The lady then proceeded to view my future - most of which I paid little attention to. There was one thing that stuck in my mind, as it sounded rather strange. She continued by telling me about someone that would mean something to me later, but first, I had to negotiate some kind of obstacle. There she also saw a lane or avenue with trees on both sides. At that time I did know one young man with an avenue of bushes, but I didn't fancy him. Anyhow, shortly after that I did meet one, fell in love with him to discover afterwards that his house was in the middle of an airfield and the lane had two rows of trees up to the house.

This airfield was hard to get through as what had been left of the original road was transgressed by many lay-bys and runways. In the dark it was almost impossible to find the only outlet as there were no hedges to follow. Several people who came into the airfield had to stay in the car until morning (daylight).

After I married and moved into my new home, my husband sometimes had to go out into the airfield and guide the car and passengers back to the one entrance. We would have noticed the lights going round and round and round on the various lay-bys and runways from our upstairs windows.

The road was opened up again and fenced along in the 60's so no more drivers got lost on "my obstacle" as seen in my tea leaves.

(409 words)

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