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Tea With Oolin by Mollie Baxter
'Is that too strong?'
'No, no, my tongue is learning.'
Oolin smiles broadly when I place the cup before him.
'Most thankyous.'
He is always respectful, although his smile can sometimes appear bewildered.
That could just be the effort of maintaining what I can recognise as
a smile.
'I tried to make tea for my own on Tuesday,' he says carefully. I grin.
'And?'
'Buh'leck! Not divine!' He resurrects his rictus.
Somewhere under all those ridges and folds is a pleasant sense of humour.
I like him.
'Never mind -- it will come.'
"Time is waiting. Now, I've ready what I wish to learn today."
"Go on, I'll do my best."
'Your democracy.'
'Oh heck -- remember, politics is hard for me.'
'No caution, just try.' He sips his tea. I politely ignore the spills.
"Democracy. Your country's way?"
'At the moment, yes.'
'And you say it is for making differences belong?'
'Toleration of differences is part of it, yes.'
'And you ... vote to make it that way?'
"That's right."
'And to vote -- is saying the biggest choice is right?'
' ...er, not right as such, but it is what is agreed upon.'
'So the minority tolerates the majority?'
'I suppose it does.'
'And what do the majority tolerate?
'The majority tolerate the minority disagreeing with their decisions.'
Oolin sips his tea thoughtfully. "So what's in it for the minority?"
I think about it.
'The minority gets to think differently without being beaten up. And
to argue their case again next time.'
He nods, loses the grip on his tea cup, and it falls with a clatter
into his saucer.
'Sorry! Not divine!' I see he is annoyed with himself.
"That's ok. You are doing very well."
'Most thankyous. Now, I have a joke ready for you.'
'Go on.'
Oolin caught on to human jokes very quickly. I had envisioned long,
difficult explanations, but it seems humour is not just a human preserve.
We were a bit presumptuous on that one.
'One of mine meets one of yours.'
'Ok.'
"Mine says, 'So what have you done in the past 2000 years?' Yours says,
'We've got this democracy.' Mine says, 'And what did you do after waking?'"
His gills flap merrily. I watch him for a moment then sigh and shake
my head.
ABOUT THE WRITER
Mollie lives in Lancaster and can often be seen performing her
work in the area. She is a regular contributor to Lune Fiction,
Lancaster’s flash fiction magazine. Also a singer-songwriter,
Mollie plays regularly at the Spotlight Club and has released
one album, Hating Baby, and a single, Tracy Don’t
Take Sugar. Both are available from Atticus Bookshop and
Andy’s Records, Lancaster. She is currently working on
a novel, Glamour, a twisted psychological fairytale,
and a concept album, Stamping Beetle.
In her spare time, Mollie likes to sleep.
MORE STORIES... FACES AND PHASES Our weekly serial of old
Lancaster by Bill Jervis
SHORT STORIES •
The Devil's
Paradise by Jim Barton A
satirical, cruel but true, view of life in Lancaster in the 1980s... fond memories. • R.A.D.
Do Skerton Bus Stop by Mollie Baxter If only arts funding was
always this much fun! • Tea with
Oolin by Mollie Baxter Alien encounters over a cup of Earl
Grey, hot. • The Miracle
Worker by Charmian Coates Shenangians in a Blackpool pub have
unexpected results. •
Evacuees by Bill Jervis A schoolboys' pitched
battles on Padfields, Lancaster, in 1944 remembered. • Snapshots by
Bill Jervis A chance encounter brings back
memories of wartime Morecambe.
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. Oolin © 2002 Mollie Baxter. Please contact the writer
is youb wish to publish this story. 
