Disclaimer: See #1 for it.

#8

Drink

His keys clattered as he sat them down on the hall table. Even they sounded weary to his ears.

Jervis Tetch hung up his coat, loosened his tie even more, shucked off his shoes, and made his way to the tiny kitchen of his apartment. He turned on the light and grabbed his kettle from the stove.

Humming filled the small space as he filled it with water. The sound of water filling the metal object was very soothing after his stressful day.

The white rabbit cookie jar watched him as he set the kettle on the burner and turned it on.

Jervis nodded to it. "Good evening White. I rather hope you had a better day than I did."

The cookie jar remained silent, knowing its owner would tell it all about his day in a moment.

Jervis dug around in his tea cabinet and removed a box of a fine Earl Grey. "It started out a good day, you know. Alice got there a little bit after I did and shared a morning cup of tea with me. She asked after my project and I filled her in on my progress." He removed a fine china cup and saucer from another cabinet. "Everything was frabjous until lunch. Dr. Cates came in and began her usual tirade."

The cookie jar seemed to give Jervis a sympathetic look.

His face twisted as he did an impression of Dr. Cates.

"'Tetch! You had best made progress. Because if you haven't, heads will roll!' 'You're such a waste of company money, Tetch. You never get any work done. Honestly, all you ever do it drink tea and theorize.' As if she ever does anything besides complain. I do work, but as no one shows any interest in what I do besides Alice, I don't have the materials or tools best suited for what I'm doing. I had to reacquaint myself with the parts of the brain with an ape's brain. And I'm using outdated machinery to create my devices." He shook his head sadly.

The kettle began to whistle.

Jervis removed it from the stove and added two scoops of Earl Grey to his teapot once he'd warmed it up. He poured in the rest of the water from the kettle and put the teapot on a tray.

The cookie jar watched it all with an air of extreme familiarity, knowing its job was coming up.

Jervis removed a lemon slice from the container in the refrigerator and placed it on the saucer. He turned to the cookie jar. "Sorry old fellow, but I'm going to need to remove some of your innards.

The cookie jar let Jervis remove its head and take out a few cookies which Jervis placed on the other side of the teacup.

He replaced the rabbit's head and carried the tray into the living room. He placed it on the table next to his armchair, grabbed his beloved copy of Alice in Wonderland, settled in his chair, and poured himself a cup of tea.

The book opened right to where Jervis had left off the night before as he carefully sipped from his cup.

The cup of tea was the most civilized moment of Jervis' day…even Dr. Cates' rants were wiped away in the oblivion of a fine cup of Earl Grey.