WINTER

Te Ao Hou, 1970, Page 22

WINTER The linoleum was cold when they stood on it, especially in winter, first thing in the morning when they got out of bed or last thing at night when they stood in their bare feet undressing. The bedroom floor was entirely covered with the smooth shiny polished linoleum which made the room so cold and miserable. The children wondered why adults put such a horrible thing on the floor. Sometimes they had a carpet in their room which their mother put by the bed and it was nice and warm, but it wasn't a very big carpet and they would all try to jam onto it at once to keep their feet off the cold floor. Invariably a struggle would ensue and Nick, being the smallest, would often find himself the one having to stand on the floor. On these occasions there would be much sulking and sometimes even tears, with his sisters giggling and telling him not to be such a sooky bubba. Sometimes though, they would feel sorry for him and relent and let him have a bit of room on the mat, squeezing up tight together to make room for him. But there were times, depending on how they felt towards him at that particular moment (he might have given them cheek earlier on), when Violet would allow him to put just the tips of his toes on the carpet, just enough to torture him, and make him behave himself in future. Yet there were other times also, when he was wild, that he was able to hold his own with his sisters and especially with Carolyn who would find herself coming out second best in the elbow-jolting and shoving that took place. But he was never able to depose Violet from the mat. She was too strong. Even when he and Carolyn sometimes ganged up on her, they were both liable to find themselves having to undress on the cold floor. But Violet, for all her superior strength was usually fairly

soft-hearted and would let one or other of them come back onto the mat. Usually Carolyn. But there was once or twice when she and Carolyn were enemies, that Nick found himself the favoured one. And was it good being able to pick on someone else for a change instead of being the one always picked on! He made sure he made the best of it. They would usually have Carolyn in tears before they were finished with her, for Carolyn was a cry-baby. This, for some reason or other, only made Violet and Nick worse towards her and they went on teasing her all the more, until their mother came in to see what all the fuss was about. Or else they would both begin to feel sorry for her and make it up by offering her the whole mat to herself. And yet there were times still when fortunes would swing completely around in a circle: Nick and Violet would one moment be picking on Carolyn and the next minute, for no reason at all it seemed, except that Violet had a sudden whim, the boy would find himself the one being picked on. Violet would suddenly turn on him and encourage Carolyn to help her, until Nick once more found himself the one standing on the cold floor wondering what had happened. There was one final turn this odd game sometimes took. Violet, feeling in a chivalrous mood, would herself hop off the mat and let Nick and Carolyn share it between them and no entreaties from her brother and sister could get her to come back onto the mat while she stood undressing on the cold floor, shivering and making distressed noises.