Jasmine Tea

A Story by Melissa

She sat in the rocking chair, her gray slippers gently lifting off the floor to propel her backward… forward… backward… forward. Without taking her eyes off the book, her hand reached out and found the cup of jasmine tea waiting silently, faithfully, on the side table, wisps of steam rising delicately, and she continued rocking backward… forward… backward… forward…

It was Tuesday afternoon, and her kids hadn't come home from school yet. The sunlight poured through the solitary window in the cluttered room, casting its light on the book she held in her rough hands calloused by motherhood and life. In the shadows of the room were finger paintings and good grades she obligatorily hung, and next to the collage were two growth charts, marking the nine years she had"dare she say it"lost.
The few precious moments she could steal for herself, the ones she spent getting lost in tear-stained and dog-eared books, the ones she spent bathed in the sunlight of a single window, the ones she spent rocking backward… forward… backward… forward…these moments reminded her of the life she had once possessed, her forgotten dreams rising and disappearing like wisps of jasmine tea.