Laws and Tea

A man told me about a woman or girl, I couldn’t tell which, was taken ill by some tea. I asked when. He said it was at a gathering where Vairics was playing. I corrected him, its Vairoc, and I was there, is what I told him. He looked at me bewildered and then asked if I had drank the tea. I told him I did which caused him to frown deeply with disapproval and rush off. The old man next to me started laughing. I asked him what he was laughing for. He said the man rushed off because he did not want to be seen in the presence of tea-orgy-goers. I nearly choked on my tea, not that type of tea, the normal type, from laughing. Then a new female voice grunted behind us: “They should legislate against such behaviour, the drink is dangerous. It should be forbidden. What is this ‘Yusuf’ thinking, why isn’t he stopping this nonsense!” We laughed some more. If I hadn’t vowed not to drink the stuff again I would have gone out and found some tea to drink there and then. Such pettiness makes the rebel in me surface. I finished my ordinary tea and headed into town to see if I could catch some gossip.

Morron