Short Stories

Tea And Muffins

Lynda has always been pressured to be in the family business. However, scaring kids has not always appealed to her as it did to her parents. She wanted to make friends with them and have tea parties. There was just one thing; who'd want to have a tea party with a giant rad scaly lizard? Certainly not little girls.

Lynda has been to countless houses, but as soon as she crawls out from under the bed, they'd scream and turn on the lights, forcing her to leave. Her brother, Harold who enjoys scaring children, always tells her to give up, because that's not the natural way for monsters. Though Lynda would never give up, there had to be someone who'd drink tea with her.

There have been occasions when she was close: she came out and when she went to say hi, she accidentally spoke in her native language instead of English. It did not go well. Let's just say she'll never be going to that house again. After years of trying, Lynda was getting tired of going to house after house because she went to seventeen a day on average.

She almost gave into Harold one day, too. But then she went to a house in England, a place where she thought everyone loved tea. It was her twenty-four thousand, eight hundred and twenty-third house she had been to in her career, when she met Agnes.

As always, Lynda crawled out from under the bed and looked around the room. The cream-colored walls were covered with shelves full of stuffed animals, books, and glass figurines. There was a small dresser and a comfy looking blue beanbag. In the corner laid a black haired girl who was fast asleep. It almost made Lynda not want to wake her. But Lynda slithered over towards the bed again and tapped the girl's shoulder. She smiled wide, showing her purple teeth, and waited for the girl to wake.

The girl didn't open her eyes at first, she only turned to the wall. Lynda tapped again and waited eagerly. The girl stretched her arms and then opened her eyes to see a red mass. She wasn't sure what it was, though, because she had just woken up and it was dark.

"Hello?" she said. "Who are you?"

"Hello!" Lynda said, excitedly. "My name is Lynda, may I ask what your name is?"

"Agnes." She started to sit up, and then she saw what she was speaking to. She opened her mouth as her eyes grew wide with fear.

"Wait!" Lynda exclaimed. "Before you do anything, I'm not here to eat you or anything like that." The girl closed her mouth and relaxed her eyes, now listening intently. "I just... wanted to ask you if you wanted any tea."

"Well," began Agnes. "I don't like tea all that much,"

"But I thought all British people loved tea..." she scoured her thoughts, as if maybe she had gotten it mixed up with some other group of people.

"But you're not a scary monster. I always thought all of them were, but they aren't, right?"

Lynda thought for a minute and then said, "Do you like chocolate muffins? I brought those, too." She opened her bag and pulled out a box of four giant muffins.

"Oh boy, I'd love some," Agnes climes of her bed onto the floor, where her and Lynda enjoyed their muffins and talked for about an hour.

It was only eleven thirty pm when Agnes was getting tired again, that Lynda decided it was time for her to go.

You'll come again, won't you?" Agnes asked.

"Of course, your the only person I've met that actually likes my company,"

"Why's that?"

"Well I don't look very friendly do I?" She gestured to her scaly body.

"But you're really friendly! I bet my friends would like you," Agnes thought for a moment and then said, "I can tell my friends about you! So when you come over they'll all be at my house. And they like tea, too."

"That'd be great! I can come again tomorrow, if you'd like."

"Yes, please."

Lynda winked and swiftly crawled underneath the bed. Once she went under, she faded away to her own house, and just couldn't wait to see Agnes again.