Sam wasn’t waiting at the gate when Emma Lea got to school. He wasn’t at the water fountain or on the playground. She stayed by the climbing bars until after the bell rang, hoping they could walk to class together. But he was too late. When the bell rang, she went inside without him.

“Sam?” The teacher called his name. When he didn’t answer, she looked up and checked his desk and marked him absent in the attendance book. Emma Lea was worried.

“Something’s wrong,” she muttered softly.

Mrs. Carmichael heard her. “What did you say, Emma Lea?” The gentle teacher knelt beside her and asked, “Do you know why Sam’s absent today?”

“No, Mrs. Carmichael,” she answered politely. “I think something’s wrong.”

“It will be OK.” She put a soft hand on Emma Lea’s to comfort her. “I’m sure it’s nothing serious.”

But Sam’s empty desk troubled her all day long.

And the schoolwork seemed more difficult.

And recess felt very lonely.

And Emma Lea started to think that the end-of-school bell would never ring. When it did ring, she hurried outside to find Mama waiting in their car.

“Sam’s in the hospital,” Mama told her as soon as she closed the car door.

“I knew something was wrong.”

“He had an emergency operation last night.” Mama explained what had happened. “We can visit him this afternoon.”

“Is he OK? Did it hurt? Can he walk? Can he talk? Can he eat? How long will he be in the hospital? Should we take him a book? Flowers? Candy? A milkshake? Maybe we could take a music player or a movie? Art supplies? Pencils and paper?” She stopped to catch her breath. “Will he be OK?”

“He’ll be fine in a few days. You’ll see.”

“I’ll draw a picture for his room.” Emma Lea tried to think of something special to do for her best friend. “And we should stop by the party shop for a balloon.”

She sat at the table in her bedroom drawing a picture of them on the playground at school. She filled the background with flowers and birds and leafy trees.

“Are you ready?” Mama called.

Then Emma Lea thought of one more thing as she put her crayons away.

“My teapot.” She smiled thinking of taking tea to Sam. “Mama, can we take some tea in my new teapot? My magic teapot.”

Her grandmother had given her the special polka-dot teapot and she had dreamed that it would grant her three wishes like Aladdin’s lamp. It was Sam who told her that she didn’t need to use wishes to be his friend.

He had helped her understand. The teapot didn’t have special powers. The real magic was in what she could do with it to help the people she cared about. She wanted to share a little bit of magic with Sam.

Mama loved the idea and helped her heat the water.

“Mint and chamomile tea always make me feel better.” Emma Lea measured a spoon of dried mint leaves and a half spoon of yellow chamomile flowers into their teapot. It would brew an herbal tea that would be sweet even without honey or sugar.

Mama sealed it in a thermos to stay warm. They wrapped teacups and saucers in cloth napkins that matched a checkerboard tablecloth. Emma Lea added at bag of homemade cookies and a small vase with a flower picked from their back yard. Everything fit cozily into their family picnic basket.

The hospital was larger than Emma Lea Had imagined. The parking lot was crowded and an ambulance zoomed in with its siren blasting and lights flashing. Mama stopped at the main desk and asked directions to Sam’s room. They walked through the wide hallways filled with doors to other patient rooms. Busy doctors and nurses wearing uniforms and name badges walked a brisk pace, in hurry to help people who were sick and hurt. There were machines Emma had never seen before. Mama and Emma Lea used the elevator to go up to the 4th floor. Sam was in Room 424.

His nurse examined the basket before Emma Lea went in. “It looks beautiful,” she said. “We’ve been trying to get him to take a few bites of food. Maybe this will help.”

Sam’s eyes were closed. There were wires and tubes connecting him to monitors. His mother was sitting beside his bed.

“The medicine is making him very sleepy,” Sam’s mother explained. She pushed another chair close to Sam’s bed for Emma Lea.

His eyes fluttered open. He was trying to. Emma Lea had never seen her friend look so helpless.

“We missed you today.” Emma Lea set the basket on the table beside the bed and unpacked the picture and the flowers.

Mama tied the balloons to the end of the bed. They spread the tablecloth on the hospital table and arranged the tea things. Emma Lea chose matching cups and saucers for each of them. Mama helped pour the tea.

His eyes started to twinkle again as he realized that Emma Lea was preparing something special for him.

“That smells good.” His voice was still raspy and weak but he was starting to look much better.

The two mothers strolled out the door to leave the two friends to talk and enjoy their treats.

Emma Lea remembered things that happened at school. As she described the projects and the games at recess, the day seemed better than it had earlier in the day.

Sam took some slow sips of the sweet, warm tea. It was difficult to speak but it helped to tell someone how frightened he had been when they rushed him to the hospital. He spoke slowly, describing what had happened. The lights. The smells and unusual sounds. So many new faces.

“I don’t remember the operation and I’ve been asleep most of today.”

Emma Lea poured some more tea into his cup.

“I feel better already.”

After a few minutes, one of the hospital volunteers, a friendly, happy woman with a pink apron and a white dress, rolled a cart into the room. It was a regular cart filled with juices and snacks and magazines. “What’s this?” she asked when she saw the table and the teapot.

“This is Emma Lea’s Magic Teapot,” Sam explained. “She brought it to make me feel better.”

“So I see!” She helped Sam choose a book. ” I remember my grandmother’s teapot. I think she knew how to brew a bit of magic as well.”

The next day, when Emma Lea and Mama arrived at the hospital, the lady in the pink apron was the first person they met in the hall. She had changed her cart.

“You gave me a wonderful idea,” she told Emma Lea. There were two large teapots and stacks of cups and saucers. She was wearing a big hat and flowered dress and the cookies filled the tiered tray. She offered them cookies and tea.

“Thank you.” Emma Lea and Mama both said.

“You reminded me of how my mother cheered us up when we were sick,” the volunteer lady told Emma Lea. “Everyone felt better when she served a “cuppa”.”

“Cuppa?” Emma Lea questioned.

“That’s short for ‘cup of tea’. When I saw what your magic teapot did for Sam, I thought I’d try it with everyone here.”

She pushed the cart down the hall to her next room, “Tea time! It’s tea time!”

“All the patients here must be a little bit scared,” Emma Lea said to Mama.

“Everyone here can use a little teapot magic,” Mama agreed.

“Me too.” One of the nurses saw the teacart. “I could use a spot of tea. It’s been a long day.” She put on one of the flowered hats while she sipped her ‘cuppa’.

“Tea and cookies in the afternoon?” They could hear the doctor inside the patient’s room questioning the volunteer. “What a marvelous idea.” And the doctor stopped for tea too.

In just a few minutes the tea cart was surrounded with chattering guests. Nurses, doctors, patients, visitors and some of the other volunteers dressed in pink aprons.

“Magical!” Sam was out of his bed. He was in a wheelchair and his mother had rolled him out to join the party.

“Very magical,” Emma Lea agreed.

The other volunteers agreed, “We should all decorate our carts like this.”

“Thank you, Emma Lea.” The ladies in the pink aprons let her push the cart into the next patient room.

“Tea time!” Emma Lea said to the ladies in their beds. “May I serve you a cup of tea?”

by Babette Donaldson
© Blue Gate Books, 2007