{"id":4804,"date":"2021-09-14T08:24:06","date_gmt":"2021-09-14T15:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/?p=4804"},"modified":"2021-09-14T08:24:06","modified_gmt":"2021-09-14T15:24:06","slug":"mama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/archives\/4804","title":{"rendered":"Mama"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

a story from Buddha in a Teacup<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCan you tell me,\u201d asks Sweeney, handing the teapot to McDougall, \u201cwhat this is worth?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McDougall, a portly man with a gray handlebar\nmoustache, takes the little pearly white teapot in his big fleshy hands and\nnods slowly. \u201cBaleek,\u201d he says quietly. \u201cIrish porcelain. Late eighteen\nhundreds. Extremely rare. I\u2019ll have to examine her with a magnifying glass, but\nif this is the original glaze, and she\u2019s flawless, I\u2019d say she\u2019s worth ten\nthousand dollars. Possibly more. And I\u2019ll tell you right now, I want her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sweeney, a slender man with brown hair turning gray, had hoped to get thirty or forty dollars for the old thing. Desperate for money, he had finally done what he\u2019d been avoiding for three years. He\u2019d gone through the two boxes of stuff left to him by his mother. In the first of the boxes he found only memorabilia\u2014pictures and letters. But the second box contained the teapot, six matching cups and saucers, and a matching sugar bowl and creamer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat much?\u201d he says, trying not to show too much astonishment at McDougall\u2019s estimate of the teapot\u2019s worth. \u201cAnd what if I had the matching cups and saucers and things?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McDougall gazes thoughtfully at Sweeney, his right eyebrow rising dramatically. \u201cSix<\/em> cups and saucers?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes,\u201d says Sweeney, holding his breath. \u201cAnd a sugar bowl and creamer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McDougall carefully sets the teapot down on the table between them. \u201cA complete set of this Baleek, circa 1870, in excellent condition, would be worth at least fifty thousand dollars, and possibly a great deal more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy so much?\u201d asks Sweeney, staggered by the sum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, first of all we\u2019re talking about extremely rare and fragile ceramics that are nearly a hundred and fifty years old. A complete, original set outside of a museum is virtually unheard of in this day and age.\u201d He pauses. \u201cHandles intact?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes,\u201d says Sweeney, turning to go. \u201cI\u2019ll be back with them in twenty minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, no, no!\u201d cries McDougall, emphatically shaking his head. \u201cI will bring my padded carrying case and come with you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cExcuse the mess,\u201d says Sweeney, unlocking the door to his apartment.          <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m used to messes,\u201d says McDougall, following Sweeney into the cramped little room. \u201cIn the mud lie the nuggets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The place smells sour, the sink full of dirty dishes, clothes strewn about the floor, the squalid bed unmade. On a rickety table by the only window, six cups on six saucers surround a sugar bowl and creamer, each piece the same pearly white as the teapot. McDougall reverently approaches this still life, his eyes wide with wonder. When he is satisfied that the pieces are immaculate, he turns to Sweeney and says, \u201cI will be happy to write you a check for fifty thousand dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd I will be happy to accept it,\u201d says Sweeney, his tired eyes filling with tears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the rare and delicate tea set is safely packed\naway, the padded case closed and locked, McDougall says, \u201cNow, if you don\u2019t\nmind, could you tell me what you know about the set and where your mother got\nit?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know anything about it except that my\nmother\u2019s mother was British, so maybe it was hers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t remember your mother using it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo,\u201d says Sweeney, his voice full of disdain, \u201cbut\nthen I don\u2019t remember much of anything about her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen did she die?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThree years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou were her only heir?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He nods. \u201cShe didn\u2019t leave me anything except a box\nof photographs and the tea things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWould it be a terrible imposition if I looked\nthrough those photographs?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, not at all.\u201d Sweeney hands him a well-worn\ncardboard box. \u201cIn fact, you can have them if you want.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McDougall takes the box from him. \u201cHave you looked\nat these?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo,\u201d says Sweeney, shaking his head. \u201cMy mother hated me. She used to call me her big mistake. These wouldn\u2019t mean anything to me. And now, if you\u2019ll excuse me, I want to get to the bank before it closes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the Baleek safely installed in his vault,\nMcDougall makes a strong pot of black tea and sits down to examine the\nphotographic legacy of Sweeney\u2019s mother. There are hundreds of photos, and on\nthe back of each is a note to Sweeney. The largest picture is of Sweeney as a\nboy of seven or eight having a tea party with his mother. They are using the\nBaleek set. On the back of the photograph Sweeney\u2019s mother has written<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here we are acting out the Mad Hatter\u2019s tea party from <\/em>Alice in Wonderland. That\u2019s my mother\u2019s old Baleek tea set, which she got from her mother who got it as a wedding gift in 1872. Amazing none of the pieces ever broke or even chipped a little. In fact, you and I had many tea parties with this set, remember? You even had tea parties with your friends Raymond and Cecily, but nothing ever broke. Proof of angels, if you ask me.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You know, Dearie, I wish I could have left you buckets of money, but all I have is this tea set. I hope it brings you joy. Perhaps someday you\u2019ll pass it along to someone who will appreciate it as much as we did. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love you very much.<\/em>      <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mama<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

fin<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broke My Heart<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

a story from Buddha in a Teacup \u201cCan you tell me,\u201d asks Sweeney, handing the teapot to McDougall, \u201cwhat this is worth?\u201d McDougall, a portly man with a gray handlebar moustache, takes the little pearly white teapot in his big fleshy hands and nods slowly. \u201cBaleek,\u201d he says quietly. \u201cIrish porcelain. Late eighteen hundreds. Extremely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4804"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4804"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4808,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4804\/revisions\/4808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}