210. Stay Awhile. Stay Forever!
Amy decides to accept the offer and follows him to a pair of comfortable sitting chairs with a table between them. Amy takes her seat as the Colonel readies the tea.
“Sugar?”
“Yes, please.”
“One lump, or two?”
“Two, please.”
“Milk?”
“Yes, please.”
The tea is prepared and the Colonel hands Amy her cup. Colonel Tulkinghorn then sits down and begins a long and involved story about a war that Amy is scantly familiar with from the mid-Nineteenth Century. It is all Amy can do to keep from nodding off. She manages to nod politely, however, and the Colonel goes on.
Eventually Amy starts to feel a strange lightness. At first she has a difficult time putting her finger on it, but after looking around a bit she realizes that she is floating in the air! It hadn't been apparent before because her chair, the colonel, the table, and the tea service are all floating along with her.
Amy waives her hand in front of her face and discovers that it is translucent. She looks down and sees herself below, still solid, sitting in her solid chair and enjoying her tea.
“What's happening to me?!” shouts Amy.
Colonel Tulkinghorn is roused from his endless story. “What, what? Oh, yes, Spirit Tea. I thought you knew that was what we were drinking. Powerful good stuff. Does have a tendency to separate soul from body, though, if you still have a body. Best tea on earth for those of us who are, shall we say, corporeally challenged, though.”
Amy panics. If she's a spirit floating above the room, who's running her body? She looks down again to see her body just finishing her tea. Her body stands up, turns, and walks to the sitting room door. Before she leaves, though, she turns, looks straight at Amy, and flashes a coquettish smile. With a delicate wave of her hand, Amy's body disappears out the door.
“Now, where was I? Ah yes, it was the bloody Sepoys, you see, and...” Amy can't believe her fate. Separated from her body, apparently forever, forced to become a permanent spectator to worldly events, never more a participant.
“And,” Amy adds to herself, “I have to listen to this blowhard's stories for all eternity.”
Amy is in no condition to continue this adventure or her life.