When I started this blog, I mentioned that I had previously published a short story entitled Summers with Grandmother Fumika in a tea connoisseur’s magazine. The story involves a young Japanese girl performing a tea ceremony for a kitsune fox spirit. It was my first short story to be published in a print periodical, and to this day it is still one of my best works. Below I am inserting a small excerpt for you to read. If you like what you see, feel free to go online to www.teamag.com and order a copy of the Winter 2011 edition of TEA, A MAGAZINE. It is a fascinating read, including tea trivia and lore, recipes, and much more.
Here is Summers with Grandmother Fumika:
Suddenly out of the corner of my eye I caught movement. I whipped my head around, trying to catch a glimpse of what I couldn’t have seen. Was it really—?
A white foot and tail disappeared around the corner of the house, the tail swishing in the air. I stood up, surprised and confused. Had I just seen—no, it couldn’t have been, it was probably just some animal. The only reason I thought it was that was because I had been thinking about Grandmother Fumika’s stories a few seconds ago.
Nevertheless I tiptoed towards the corner of the house, in case it was either a kitsune or a normal yet very dangerous animal that had wandered onto our property. I peeked around the corner and gasped so loudly that I thought it might hear me. Lying near the koi pond was a kitsune fox spirit, a real kitsune fox spirit! Was I seeing things?
Please leave a comment telling me what you think.
Rami Ungar The Writer 