Trafika Europe 12 - French Bon-Bons

The Combinations

armchair and removed her glasses. ‘For the ancient Chinese,’ she said, polishing her lenses with the hem of her shawl, ‘tea symbolised harmony, calm and… Oh yes, yes, most importantly of all, opti- mism . The drinking of tea often involved certain ritu- als, which were meant to represent the balance and proper ordering of the universe. Their philosophy, do you know, preceded the birth of Christ by more than fif- teen hundred years. The Christians, being Romans rath- er than Israelites, professed a greater liking for wine, to symbolise the union of body and spirit. The Romans, of course, learned the making of wine from the Celts. Our own land was first settled by the Celts, you know. A thousand years before the Sklavs first wandered from the shores of their Bleak Sea.’ The old lady’s smile began to wane. She repositioned her glasses on the bridge of her nose, her faded eyes growing larger behind the lenses. I wondered what the history lesson was leading to. ‘We don’t normally expect visitors, nowadays. Do we, Gawaine?’ The parrot shook its head from side to side, ruffling its feathers, then went back to eyeballing me, its beak soundlessly open, the shadow of a grublike tongue moving inside. I tried to think of what the old women’s strange conversation reminded me of, but she inter- rupted.

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