A Cup Of Tea

A cup of tea: what’s the meaning of it to most of people in this colorful world? To me, basically, it means nothing; to my father, on the contrary, it means an old habit which has been established for more than 20 years. One of my cherished memories involves two simple tea cups of my father, one for home and the other for office. Beyond these, before reading this novel, A Cup of Tea, I still have no idea of the importance of a cup of tea, or we can say an old habit, to a man who has got used to drinking a cup of black tea after lunch every day and I now understand. During these weeks, in American Literature course, I’ve been learning short stories written by the American writers, such as Mark Twain, William Faulkner and so on. The more I learn, the more interest I have on these simple but full of ironic, humor and wit stories. So I went to the library and borrowed a book named Outstanding Short Stories. Among this wonderful book, there is a story written by Affonoso Botelho impresses me very much, that is, A Cup of Tea. It is, in short, a lighted-hearted story of the amusing adventures of a traveler in search of a cup of tea, while he is also a lucky guy because a young man always accompanies with him, smoothing his restlessness. The theme of this story is quite clear: don’t allow anything to interfere with a good habit you have formed and don’t hesitate to help others when necessary even just offer some kind words. To begin with, I’d like to talk about the habits. Each of us has unique habits. As for myself, I do have some habits, for instance, I am used to keeping my room clean, used to searching the Internet by mobile phone to read some news before sleeping and so forth. These habits, far from good or bad, have formed in my life and worth keeping as it stands now. Taking a cup of tea after lunch is also a habit; at least, it seems that the traveler, a fat passenger, regards it as a good habit. He was so anxious, frustrated when he realized that he couldn’t drink a cup of tea this day that he could not sit still and muttered impatiently. Maybe he also realized his strange behavior, he explained to the young man who sat opposite to him why he looked antsy this moment: he couldn’t get his cup of tea. It had been the custom of him to take a cup of strong black tea after lunch, but he was in such a hurry to catch the coach so he didn’t wait for tea just now. He even gave the advice to the young man, namely if you had formed a steady habit, let nothing put you off it. The young man was amused and told him that he was able to get tea in the refreshment room when they got to the railway station. Reading here, I was amused too. The image of the embarrassing fat man unfolded clearly before me. Then when they got to the station, the train was already at the platform. Everyone rushed into the refreshment room to prepare for the train journey. The fat man sat down and attracted one of the few waiter’s attention, but before he gave details of the tea that he wanted, the busy waiter had attend to other orders. Presently the traveler climbed into the train as the whistle sounded. “Well?” the young man smiled. “My dear boy, it was green tea that the waiter brought me. I can never drink green tea!” No doubt it was a disappointing answer. This was the first time he failed drinking a cup of strong black tea. The next three times, he failed again and again, separately for the reason of no delivery of black tea at Chide, no time drinking the black tea in Amatante and even no tea at all at an inn near the village of Quintella. Then apart from the habit of the traveler, in my opinion, we shall attach more importance to the kind behavior of the young man. Taking myself as an example, once returning home from the school, I didn’t buy the ticket in advance because it was not on holiday. Yet when I reached the railway station at 6p.m, I was informed by the broadcast that all the tickets from Nanjing to Shanghai had been sold out at that time, even the ticket of D train. (There was no G train at that time) The latest train was at 12:30p.m. I was so depressed that I almost cried at that moment. After discussing with my father over the phone, I bought the ticket reluctantly. But the next problem was where I should stay to kill the rest of 6 hours. At last, I headed to the Mcdonald, which was open 24 hours. Sitting on a seat, I took out my PC, playing the games. A few moments later, a young man who sat opposite to me started chatting with me. He said he was a college student and was waiting the train as well. He was a kind guy. We talked about nearly 2 hours before he had to leave. It made me feel better after chatting with a people no matter whom he was. I waited and waited, and the train finally arrived. It was 12:35p.m when I was on the train and I would arrive in Wuxi at 3:30a.m. Oh, I forgot that I had no seat on that train because it was just a standing ticket. Sitting on the narrowed corridor, I was upset again. Around me, there were another two boys and a girl. After what seemed a very long time, none of us fell asleep so we began to chat. As I said before, at least it would make me feel better through talking with others. Through the chatting, I found that I was luckier because I was the earliest to arrive at the station. Comparing with them, 3 hours seemed not a long time. And I knew my father was waiting me no matter how late I was. I was fortunate and happy, wasn’t I? Although this episode had already passed for a long time, when I was reading the story, I couldn’t help recalling this tough but warming experience. In our whole life, when we are in trouble, if there is somebody who is willing to help us, even with only a few words, we will feel warm and grateful after all. So such a simple story, which just consisting of two strangers, a cup of black and some dialogues, however, from another point of view, successfully evokes the warmness and kindness from my heart. Life is full of ups and downs. When we receive the help from others, we shall not save our kind words and friendly smile. Just like a famous song goes, “The world will turn into heaven only if every contributes a little.”