The Tea Room of Forgotten Scents

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Some places aren't found when you're looking for them—but only when you're missing something. And so it came to be that a little raccoon, whom everyone called "Mr. Minden," had built his tea room precisely where longing and chance meet.
It was barely larger than a squirrel's burrow. The entrance: a round door, framed by lavender and dried rosemary. A glass wind chime hung over the threshold, which always chimed whenever someone thought an old dream. Inside, it smelled of vanilla shadows, rain-drenched wood, and the first cake ever baked. The room was filled with teapots—some made of gilded clay, others of amber, one even made of a dried lotus blossom. Each contained a tea brewed from a memory. Not a specific memory, but a feeling. Mr. Minden was a silent host. He wore a checked shirt, had a fine watch chain around his stomach, and a mustache that always curled slightly whenever someone came in looking particularly sad. He didn't ask questions. He just placed cups down. Once, an old rabbit came who had forgotten his brother's name. Mr. Minden handed him a tea that smelled of warm earth and childhood fever. The rabbit cried softly, drank, and then said, "Emil. His name was Emil." Another time, a cat entered the little room, dressed all in black, with a suitcase full of songs no one wanted to hear. Mr. Minden served an infusion that tasted of cinnamon, dust, and the scent of apples—and for a moment, just one, a song could be heard in the room that only she knew. Guests came and went. Some forgot they'd been there. Others carried the scent of the tea with them for their entire lives—as a vague memory of something that perhaps never happened. When Mr. Minden locked the door in the evening, he murmured a word to each tea bag: "For later." "For when it gets too much." "For the first snow." And outside, behind the curtain of moss, the night-time pollen rain continued to fall. Very quietly. Very gently.