Tea Party Madness

It was madness. Cold tea dribbled off the white-clothed table edges. Various limbs of cups, saucers, teapots, sugar bowls and milk jugs littered the table. Dolls spewed white fluff from their positions on the table, some had butter knifes sticking out of them.

Kerli stood next to the table. Icing and clods of cake clung to her hair and was smeared down her front and across her face. Her dress was ruined, her shiny shoes wet and full of pastry and glazed fruits. She wiped some cake from her eyes, smudging her sparkly makeup in a streak toward her ear.

“Well,” she said after a moment. “That was livelier than I thought it would be.”

Kerli turned around and left the room, returned, picked up the dolls and put them in a neat pile on the table, then left again.

In the long hallway she greeted her friend, a woman older than her by a few years. Her friend glanced up at Kerli’s hair and dress.

“Nice costume. How was it?” she asked.

Kerli shrugged and pulled off her frilly dress and threw it aside. Then she pulled on her black robe and sat down, combing the cake from her long tendrils and filling her engraved rings with sugar.

“It was fun. For the most part. They began fighting.”

The woman raised an eyebrow. “And you didn’t stop them?”

Kerli shrugged again. “I stood off to the side to watch them. They were so bloody. I think they enjoyed the cake though.”

The woman nodded. “Of course they did. The cook did a wonderful job. Maybe next time you should stop them. You don’t want to run out of toys. What would you do then?”

Kerli wondered. “Play on my own I suppose.” She sighed and stood up. “I’m going to go wash up. Maybe tomorrow I’ll build an army. I haven’t done that in a while.”

Her friend set down her book. “Perhaps you should find another hobby.”

Kerli shrugged. She really was quite tired from that last tea party. She wanted a bath and a nice sleep in her bed. Maybe some new dolls.

Kerli went to her room and took a bath. When she was nestled in her large bed, lights turned off and curtains closed, she thought about her friend’s comment. She lifted her wrist and tugged on the string that had just begun to form on her skin. “I won’t sleep for long,” she promised.


Art from 2010 Kerli Music Video "Tea Party"


Text by Lucie MacAulay