Tea Shrine

Tea Shrine
WC 261




“Thank you for the tea.” I take the mug and sit down at the nearest table to the door. This new shop is close to where I live. I thought I would swing by on my way shopping and see what all the hubbub was about. There was a big spread in the paper about it.

‘Come see FLOOR OF GLASS TEA SHRINE ‘ was the advertisement in Sunday’s paper. Okay, I thought when I saw the ad. I have to go see this. So I gave the shop a few days, enough time for the novelty to wear off, or so I thought.

Dozens of customers were milling about. Back and forth they wandered, over the glass floor. And the floor was glass! Amazing.

“Wow! Look at it!” said one child as he looked down. His mother gingerly stepped onto the floor from the front door. “Don’t jump on it,” she admonished the little boy.

An elderly woman poked at the floor with her cane. “I don’t trust it.”

The owner was milling about, reassuring everyone that the floor was perfectly safe. The engineers had indeed tested this. The load tests had come back and all was in working order. This floor would not break.

As I sat down at a table, I looked down. Under the glass floor was an aquarium. Greenery floated and fish swam about. Bubbles rose. So wonderful. I was mesmerized, so transfixed that I didn’t hear the first crack.

The FLOOR OF GLASS TEA SHRINE is now a permanent shrine to all those lost that day.