Alex Smith

Aboard the Helena Pea anchored in the purple shadow of the ‘Explorer’, the tea did not turn out as expected.

“Arare,” said Ginger Ohno, fisherman and card shark. “Made by the Iwachu Company.” He had not yet poured from the cast-iron teapot. “Means ‘hail’ in Japanese.” Ohno held its lithe handle with fingers, which had none of the tapering grace of those of his famous distant uncle, who at that minute was positioned to dance in a recital in the Kanda Kyoritsu Kodo hall in Tokyo.
On a private balcony of the looming ship named Explorer and subtitled ‘Semester At Sea’, a girl was reading a book and drinking Coke-Lite and she did not care much for the Explorer, or her private cabin, or the flat-topped mountain or the blue day, and she certainly did not spend any thoughts on the old Helen Pea and its crew about to drink tea. But in a fish restaurant some cubic gallons of oxygen diagonally away, stood a waiter, a student of three-dimensional computer graphics and he did spot the teapot patterned with a hobnail design. He wondered in the form of numbers at its spout:
{ 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75,
76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83 }
{ 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87,
88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95 }
These all related not so much to the iconic Arare teapot, but to that landmark Utah Teapot.
Regardless of the attention and lack of attention his pot garnered, the distant relative of the ballet dancer Kazuo Ohno tilted the pot in order to pour tea by then well brewed, but what came out?
First something sharp and yellow and long. Ah!
His shipmate squinted. “I’d swear that’s a beak and by the red spot at its top, I’d hazard the beak of a…” He did not have to end the sentence for following on the beak in the good order it should, came a head and then the body of a seagull.
“How the devil did such a plump bird come from that tiny spout?”
“Plump?” said Ohno. “You worry about its plumpness? The question is not how a plump bird came out, but how a bird at all?”
It did not end with a bird though because the gull came knotted up in a long string of lights, old fairy bulbs in blue, green, red, and yellow.
“He has come from the Seapoint promenade!” said a deckhand, also agog. “I swear those there are promenade lights, the festive season lights, the seaside lights.” All hands studied the lights cascading from the cast-iron pot until Ohno realised how the bird was struggling, and so the ballet dancer’s relative fell over himself to catch the bird, to wrap his arms about it. He held the seagull close and was overcome with delight for the beast was fat with smooth feathers and his bird heart beat warmly. Oh and Ho! That was not the end of the strangeness! After the entrails of promenade lights, came bricks, the sand, the railings, a whole heap of running shoes, grass, a putt-putt course with every of its lost balls found, and then by God, the sea, yes the entire ocean – beginning with Three Anchor Bay – came gushing out replete with rocks and weeds and fish and whales – so many kinds of whales, but king among them, Whale Shark, – after them came tankers and yachts, froth and barnacles, rope, bluebottles, used condoms, treasure, translucent octopi, a pound of hellos left unsaid, a Beach Road full of apartment blocks, some dozen dozen cats (including an exotic Bengal belonging to an ornithologist publisher), old arguments, three women in top hats, burnt toast, Coke Lite, a bookshop of broke booksellers, a poet called Creamy, a coffee bar, that ship of American teenagers, then in bronze and very pricey a car hijacking by a famed sculptor, and no, it did not end, soon spluttered forth a whole city complete with crooked politicians, liar Mafiosi, journalists, mountain, peaks, cable car, a string of postcard concubines, a gram of look-the-other-way and even a sky of faraway stars … in fact, when the tea stopped pouring it turned out that instead of the pot holding the tea, the tea was holding the pot. Everything was backwardski, like it is when you look through a prism.
Rim:
{ 102, 103, 104, 105, 4, 5, 6, 7,
8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 }
Body:
{ 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19,
20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 }
{ 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32,
33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40 }
Lid:
{ 96, 96, 96, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100,
101, 101, 101, 101, 0, 1, 2, 3 }
{ 0, 1, 2, 3, 106, 107, 108, 109,
110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117 }
Handle:
{ 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48,
49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56 }
{ 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60,
61, 62, 63, 64, 28, 65, 66, 67 }
Spout:
{ 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75,
76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83 }
{ 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87,
88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95 }

Vertices:

{ 0.2000, 0.0000, 2.70000 }, { 0.2000, -0.1120, 2.70000 },
{ 0.1120, -0.2000, 2.70000 }, { 0.0000, -0.2000, 2.70000 },
{ 1.3375, 0.0000, 2.53125 }, { 1.3375, -0.7490, 2.53125 },
{ 0.7490, -1.3375, 2.53125 }, { 0.0000, -1.3375, 2.53125 },
{ 1.4375, 0.0000, 2.53125 }, { 1.4375, -0.8050, 2.53125 },
{ 0.8050, -1.4375, 2.53125 }, { 0.0000, -1.4375, 2.53125 },
{ 1.5000, 0.0000, 2.40000 }, { 1.5000, -0.8400, 2.40000 },
{ 0.8400, -1.5000, 2.40000 }, { 0.0000, -1.5000, 2.40000 },
{ 1.7500, 0.0000, 1.87500 }, { 1.7500, -0.9800, 1.87500 },
{ 0.9800, -1.7500, 1.87500 }, { 0.0000, -1.7500, 1.87500 },
{ 2.0000, 0.0000, 1.35000 }, { 2.0000, -1.1200, 1.35000 },
{ 1.1200, -2.0000, 1.35000 }, { 0.0000, -2.0000, 1.35000 },
{ 2.0000, 0.0000, 0.90000 }, { 2.0000, -1.1200, 0.90000 },
{ 1.1200, -2.0000, 0.90000 }, { 0.0000, -2.0000, 0.90000 },
{ -2.0000, 0.0000, 0.90000 }, { 2.0000, 0.0000, 0.45000 },
{ 2.0000, -1.1200, 0.45000 }, { 1.1200, -2.0000, 0.45000 },
{ 0.0000, -2.0000, 0.45000 }, { 1.5000, 0.0000, 0.22500 },
{ 1.5000, -0.8400, 0.22500 }, { 0.8400, -1.5000, 0.22500 },
{ 0.0000, -1.5000, 0.22500 }, { 1.5000, 0.0000, 0.15000 },
{ 1.5000, -0.8400, 0.15000 }, { 0.8400, -1.5000, 0.15000 },
{ 0.0000, -1.5000, 0.15000 }, { -1.6000, 0.0000, 2.02500 },
{ -1.6000, -0.3000, 2.02500 }, { -1.5000, -0.3000, 2.25000 },
{ -1.5000, 0.0000, 2.25000 }, { -2.3000, 0.0000, 2.02500 },
{ -2.3000, -0.3000, 2.02500 }, { -2.5000, -0.3000, 2.25000 },
{ -2.5000, 0.0000, 2.25000 }, { -2.7000, 0.0000, 2.02500 },
{ -2.7000, -0.3000, 2.02500 }, { -3.0000, -0.3000, 2.25000 },
{ -3.0000, 0.0000, 2.25000 }, { -2.7000, 0.0000, 1.80000 },
{ -2.7000, -0.3000, 1.80000 }, { -3.0000, -0.3000, 1.80000 },
{ -3.0000, 0.0000, 1.80000 }, { -2.7000, 0.0000, 1.57500 },
{ -2.7000, -0.3000, 1.57500 }, { -3.0000, -0.3000, 1.35000 },
{ -3.0000, 0.0000, 1.35000 }, { -2.5000, 0.0000, 1.12500 },
{ -2.5000, -0.3000, 1.12500 }, { -2.6500, -0.3000, 0.93750 },
{ -2.6500, 0.0000, 0.93750 }, { -2.0000, -0.3000, 0.90000 },
{ -1.9000, -0.3000, 0.60000 }, { -1.9000, 0.0000, 0.60000 },
{ 1.7000, 0.0000, 1.42500 }, { 1.7000, -0.6600, 1.42500 },
{ 1.7000, -0.6600, 0.60000 }, { 1.7000, 0.0000, 0.60000 },
{ 2.6000, 0.0000, 1.42500 }, { 2.6000, -0.6600, 1.42500 },
{ 3.1000, -0.6600, 0.82500 }, { 3.1000, 0.0000, 0.82500 },
{ 2.3000, 0.0000, 2.10000 }, { 2.3000, -0.2500, 2.10000 },
{ 2.4000, -0.2500, 2.02500 }, { 2.4000, 0.0000, 2.02500 },
{ 2.7000, 0.0000, 2.40000 }, { 2.7000, -0.2500, 2.40000 },
{ 3.3000, -0.2500, 2.40000 }, { 3.3000, 0.0000, 2.40000 },
{ 2.8000, 0.0000, 2.47500 }, { 2.8000, -0.2500, 2.47500 },
{ 3.5250, -0.2500, 2.49375 }, { 3.5250, 0.0000, 2.49375 },
{ 2.9000, 0.0000, 2.47500 }, { 2.9000, -0.1500, 2.47500 },
{ 3.4500, -0.1500, 2.51250 }, { 3.4500, 0.0000, 2.51250 },
{ 2.8000, 0.0000, 2.40000 }, { 2.8000, -0.1500, 2.40000 },
{ 3.2000, -0.1500, 2.40000 }, { 3.2000, 0.0000, 2.40000 },
{ 0.0000, 0.0000, 3.15000 }, { 0.8000, 0.0000, 3.15000 },
{ 0.8000, -0.4500, 3.15000 }, { 0.4500, -0.8000, 3.15000 },
{ 0.0000, -0.8000, 3.15000 }, { 0.0000, 0.0000, 2.85000 },
{ 1.4000, 0.0000, 2.40000 }, { 1.4000, -0.7840, 2.40000 },
{ 0.7840, -1.4000, 2.40000 }, { 0.0000, -1.4000, 2.40000 },
{ 0.4000, 0.0000, 2.55000 }, { 0.4000, -0.2240, 2.55000 },
{ 0.2240, -0.4000, 2.55000 }, { 0.0000, -0.4000, 2.55000 },
{ 1.3000, 0.0000, 2.55000 }, { 1.3000, -0.7280, 2.55000 },
{ 0.7280, -1.3000, 2.55000 }, { 0.0000, -1.3000, 2.55000 },
{ 1.3000, 0.0000, 2.40000 }, { 1.3000, -0.7280, 2.40000 },
{ 0.7280, -1.3000, 2.40000 }, { 0.0000, -1.3000, 2.40000 },

MEMO 2 OF 999