A reprieve

Friday 14 November 2008

The weather has gone warm again... who knows why? Living here on the edge of the ocean you get to notice it quite a lot. Like people of old, sailors and fishermen and farmers here on the peninsula, both empowered and encumbered by water, the Pocomoke to the north and the Chesapeake to the west and the Atlantic to the east, we are affected by whatever the western chills and southern breezes and ocean storms must give us.

At the end of this week the cold has all but vanished and we bask in the high 60s and sunshine and light breezes. I came home from school, dragging my windcheater behind me, and stomped up stairs. Within three minutes I had my room windows open and all my clothes off. I cast myself into my chair and opened a book, but I could scarcely concentrate; it was nearly 80 in the room. I happened to glance outside once and saw them just before I heard them, Jessy and Lisa squealing like excited squirrels, running out through the garden with their hands in the air, both of them stark naked in the bright sun. Jessy danced, twirling on her toes, pretending she would dive into the (covered) pool, and Lisa followed her, giggling incessantly. They chased each other round the potted trees and the dormant flower gardens, sometimes at full speed, singing and laughing as though they had not a care in the world. When they went out the side garden gate I had to join them.

Down in the small parlour Mother sat on the short sofa with a book. Little J.J. played at her feet, oblivious to the beautiful weather just outside the open French windows. 'They're out there,' I said.

Mother looked up and smiled at me. 'Yes. I let them; but not for long. This weather changes fast.'

I nodded and stepped calmly past her to the open window. The breeze was scarcely anything at all; it was more like a late-spring afternoon than one in mid-November. From beyond the garden wall I heard Lisa squeal in glee.

'Well,' Mother said, 'you'd better go, Janine.'

I looked back at her, smiled, and then flung myself out into the garden.

The three of us cavorted like much smaller children, swinging on the bench swing, climbing in trees, rolling in the wet grass and just plain running around. It was delightful, maybe the most fun I've had since school started. The air did not grow cold and only when it had begun to get dark did we start back to the house. We came in through the side gate, taking care to latch it again, and tromped up the steps to the garden, panting, sweaty, covered in bits of grass and dirt, all three of us exhausted and elated with the unexpected opportunity we had discovered. It could not have been better-- unless of course we'd had all day like this.

Mother was gone from the parlour, certainly no longer worried about anything happening to little Lisa once I had gone out with her. From the kitchen wafted the scents of apple-cinnamon bread. 'Mmm!' Jessy sighed deeply. 'What is that?'

'Is that dinner?' Lisa marvelled.

We went through the little parlour to the front stair hall and Jessy turned towards the kitchen to investigate tonight's menu. Just then Daddy came up from the basement, coming round the railing and coming face-to-face with Jessy, with Lisa and me in the front hall beyond. 'Oh,' he said, holding back a laugh, 'are we back to this? I might have guessed, with this weather....'

We all blushed. Daddy bent a little to peer out the front window whilst Jessy stood awkwardly in front of him, eyes down, fingers locked loosely before herself. 'We were... just playing,' she tried.

Lisa bounded forwards from me then. 'We were playing outside, Daddy!' she said exuberantly.

'Outside! Really, now!' But he was hardly upset with us. 'Hm, and filthy too, from the look of it.' He caught Lisa and wiped away a bit of tree dropping from her bare shoulder. 'Well, that's it then. No dinner for any of you till you've all washed up. Off you go, then.'

I stepped through the opening to the stair hall and grabbed Lisa's arm to tow her up stairs. I didn't even stop at my room-- there was no point. In the common bathroom I started the water and bodily picked up Lisa and lowered her to her feet in the bath. Jessy stepped in with her and together we lathered her head and body and ourselves into the bargain.

We didn't really dress for dinner, all of us attending in soft robes and socks. Lisa said Grace and we had a good supper of crab cakes and rice and broccoli, and for dessert we had Mother's homemade apple-cinnamon bread. Needless to say the robes came off when we left the dining room. Jessy and Lisa played with J.J. on the floor in his room, both of them bare as babies and he in only his Pull-Ups. I retired to my room to read, typed a little, even hold a pleasant conversation with Brett about tomorrow night, and especially savour the sensation of being naked, with the windows wide open, as though it were summer all over again.

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