two cups. one tray. one pot. the second cup is poured the same way as the first: same height, same hand, same slow turn of the wrist at the end. you set it across from yours, on the side of the table the other used to sit on. you do not address the cup. you do not raise yours to it.
you drink yours. you let the other cool. you do not throw it away while it is still warm. when you have finished, you stand, you take both to the sink, you pour the cold one out first. that is the rite: the same care for the cup that is not drunk as for the cup that is. nothing is being summoned. nothing is being honoured, exactly. it is only that the kettle was put on for two, and the rite is the kettle's, not yours.
this is sometimes done in mourning, sometimes after a quarrel, sometimes for the phantom the kitchen has begun to keep. it is sometimes simply done when the pot is too big for one cup. the household does not press for reasons. the second cup is poured. the second cup is poured out.
— field note: in some houses the second cup is left at the table for an hour before being cleared. in others it is cleared at once. the kettle does not seem to mind.