Елена Рихтер
The Lady of the House

If you had asked why the Lady decided to go to the antique shop that day, it would be unlikely that she would have given you an intelligible answer other than. …she just decided and that's it!

Maybe because the day was gloomy and gray, and there, standing in the shop window, she noticed a bright porcelain statuette of a ballerina – almost the same one stood on a shelf in her grandmother's cupboard and always reminded her very much of her childhood dreams and fantasies whenever she would stare at it.

Or maybe it was because that morning, after redoing all the household chores, she suddenly felt extremely lonely and decided to take a promenade and find something on the streets of the city that could improve her disposition.

Or perhaps it happened because a cheerful wizard drove by and whispered in her ear that she just needed to visit this particular antique shop that day.

This Lady, of course, would never assume that he did. After all, wizards always drop in unnoticed and whisper their wishes so quietly that you almost don't hear them.

In any case, whatever it was – a combination of circumstances or just plain ordinary magic, she found herself that morning in an antique shop that stood on the corner of Bolshaya and Malaya Street in the huge city that had been her home for many years.

The shop was fascinating. You know, of course, that all antique shops are magical, but this one was more wonderful and magical than all the other wonderful antique shops in the world!

Old illustrations to those fairy tales, that the Lady herself loved to read as a child, hung on the walls. She looked with delight at the smiling Cheshire Cat, which seemed to wink at all the visitors of the shop, Mary Poppins, flying with her umbrella to new adventures, Alice, who found magic pills in a rabbit hole and Carlson and his cinnamon buns.

On the shelves of the shop, she found a many stacks of old books, with worn crusty covers and that unique aroma that old books have.

On scattered tables with curvy legs, covered with lacy tablecloths, there were sets of fancy porcelain cups and saucers. And yes, it was real porcelain through which the light shines when you raise the cup to the sun.

In the farthest corner of the shop, she spied an incredible treasure – a toy railway track, along which wooden wagons and a real steam train were noisily rattling. The wagons rumbled with their wooden wheels, and the locomotive made an absolutely incredible sound "pfuuuuufff!", similar to the sound of a real old steam locomotive.

The Lady of the House spent a long time in this wonderful shop, looking at all the unexpected, fascinating wonders and inhaling their magical aromas.

Suddenly, with a start, she awoke from the intoxicating atmosphere and mystery of the shop, she decided that it was time to leave and go home but, just as suddenly, she noticed an old teapot on a shelf next to a lot of old books. It was an ordinary, unremarkable teapot – white, with a simple pattern on the sides. The only odd feature of the teapot, perhaps, was the absence of a lid, and this made it seem lonely, useless and abandoned. After all, hardly anyone would ever want to buy a teapot without a lid.

But, she decided, such a lonely teapot definitely needs its own home. And as for the lid… "I have a lot of different tea sets, surely there will be a lid that will fit this teapot," she thought, so she bought it!

Returning home, she set about brewing tea in the new teapot. She thought for a long time about which lid to choose for the teapot, and finally decided to take one from one of her oldest tea sets. The lid was white and went well with the colour of the new teapot.

She boiled some water, rinsed the inside of the teapot with boiling water, poured two spoons of ordinary Indian tea into it, poured in the boiling water and closed the lid. The lid almost fitted, but it was a little too big and overhung the pot leaving a small gap, allowing a little steam to escape.

After waiting for some time until the tea was brewed, she removed the lid so that it would not fall into her cup while she was pouring herself tea, and reached for her favourite cup. The fragrant steam, meanwhile, quickly began to rise above the teapot, and when she finally poured herself a cup of tea, it had completely evaporated. She took a sip of tea. It was absolutely tasteless…

"Ufff!" – the Lady of the House was very disappointed. – "While the teapot was standing without a lid, all the aroma had disappeared… But never mind, tomorrow morning I'll try to find a better lid for the teapot. That should do the trick!".

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