The Tea Party

Jacklyn was sitting in her living room watching some television. She was fidgeting impatiently. She could not wait for her tea set to come in that day. She ordered it months ago, and she knew that today was the day it was going to come. There was a ring at the door.

Jacklyn jumped up knowing it was her tea set. She swung open the door. The delivery man was pudgy and had lots of hair. Too much hair. But she smiled kindly and took the package from him, and signed for it. She shut the door and went to her living room to open it up.

She carefully slit the tape and folded back the cardboard. It was everything she expected and more. She held a pearly white teacup in her hand, with soft wisps of pink flowers on it. It was marvellous. She hurried to the kitchen to make some tea. But before she could do anything she heard a loud crack, almost a rip. Like something was happening that shouldn't be.

Jacklyn went outside to see what the commotion was, and could not believe her eyes. There was a giant hole in the sky. A gaping hole, and out of that hole fell five of her. Yes. Five Jacklyns fell out of the sky, all different version of herself.

They all had the same blonde hair as Jacklyn, but one had cut it short and spiky. Another had curled it. One even had pigtails. Then Jacklyn remembered that she had thought over the years about doing the exact same things to her hair. What was going on here? Was she dreaming? Did she have a psychotic break? I just wanted tea, Jacklyn thought, exasperated that she now had to deal with these, whoever these people are.          

She walked over to them, and said hi to the closest one. The one with the spiky hair.

“You look like me,” she answered, “like you really look like me.”

“Ah, yeah, I know,” Jacklyn said, “believe me I wish there was some explanation. Or that I could just wake up, but you're here, and other yous, or mes, so um, want some tea?”

“I'd love tea,” spiky Jacklyn answered.

“Oh, me too!” said another Jacklyn.

“Yes! Yes!” answered more Jacklyns.

So all the Jacklyns went inside and sat around Jacklyn's kitchen table while Jacklyn made the tea.

“Does everyone like ginger tea?” Jacklyn asked, wondering how similar they really were to each other.

“Yes!” everyone answered, then laughed. But there was an uneasiness to the laugh. What were they all doing here? Six Jacklyns couldn't live in one world. Or could they? Maybe they could get a show on TLC. Lord knows the crap they put on there.

Once everyone had their tea, they all wanted to talk but no one said anything. They were all too bewildered by what had happened. Original Jacklyn decided to speak first.

“So, how did you all get here?” she asked. “What happened before you fell out of the sky?”

“Well, I was just gardening,” curly haired Jacklyn said, “then there was this pull and it was dark, then I was here. With all the other Jacklyns.”

“Same for me,” spiky haired Jacklyn said, “only minus the gardening. I was just walking down the street but the same thing happened.”

The other three Jacklyns experienced the same things. The Jacklyns did not know what to make of this. They all stared at each other, hoping the other would have an answer. No one did.

“Well, I suppose you're staying with me for now,” original Jacklyn said, “I wonder if anyone else is experiencing this?”

“Like, other people brought here like us?” a blue eyed Jacklyn asked. She was the only Jacklyn with blue eyes. The rest all had green.

“Yeah,” original Jacklyn answered, “maybe we should go and see if anyone else has more of them here.”

“Okay,” the five other Jacklyns said in perfect harmony, which kind of creeped them out. But they all got up to go outside to see what was what.

When they got outside they noticed the sky was still gaping, but the hole was larger now. Quite large. And when they looked around, they noticed there were multiples of people everywhere. So they weren't the only ones, they all thought in unison, but what does this mean? Why is this happening?

Original Jacklyn walked over to who she thought was her original neighbour Joe and asked him if he knew what was happening. He didn't. He was just as confused as she was. Jacklyn walked back to her group.

Suddenly all was quiet. It was like they were all waiting in anticipation of something but no one knew what. Then a figure descended from the hole in the sky. He floated down. He had a bedazzled silver robe, and ridiculous silver hair that shot up out of his head in one gigantic thick spike and curved over. But at least there was only one of him.

“Hello, my people!” he yelled to everyone, “you have been caught in my game. You see, I need your help, all of you, for my father is dying, and the only way to save him is to sacrifice you all in a battle to the death. You will all kill your other yous until there is only one you left. Then you will kill the others until there is only one male and one female. Or you can kill the others first. There are no rules to the order of the killing. The last male and female standing will win, and they will repopulate this world, for the other worlds from which you came are all gone now. They are no more. But your sacrifice will not be in vain. I will harness the power from your merciless killing and feed it to my father so he will live another one million years. He will also harness the power from the destruction of the other worlds to make it two million years. Now, let the killing begin!”

Photo Credit: Nessguide Let's have a Cuppa... via photopin (license)