ON A WINTER'S DAY WHEN I WAS BORED........

              "You can't get too much winter in the winter..." -Robert Frost

It was when I was about 13 , I think. A February like this one. Frosty. Damp.Home from school.Bored. My mother off to work at the Empress. Told me not to get into anything. Told me to practise. Piano and Violin competitions coming up. Yep, I told myself. I’ll get right on that.........

 I started the day by reading the Narnia series. My favourite character was the Queen. I decided to re create Cair Paravel in the living room. It meant  pushing  antique furniture around and shoving my dad’s 100 year old chair, ( which I still have) over to  the front of the huge picture window.  But a court needs courtiers. So I got our tabby  cat, Deena,and placed him on the couch. Then I grabbed every doll, and stuffed animal I could find and ringed them around the cat. Deena went to sleep. 

 The Narnian Queen had royal robes.  I eyed the curtains next. All sheer and white. Perfect. I hauled them down from the main window. I was able to tie them all round me. Gave me about a 40 foot train and then some. I must have a crown. I grabbed my favourite crystal necklace and pinned it onto my head.  Then a scepter. A stalk of celery was my first choice, but it broke. Then I remembered there was a conductor’s baton in the piano bench. Better.

 The train was tripping me up as I paraded up and down  the living room. I shook the baton at the old Deena. He yawned.  He purred. TV was blaring in the other room. I needed music here. So I grabbed a record. “Night on Bald Mountain” by Mussorgsky. Turned it up loud.  Made my grand entrance into the “throne room” to the deafening sounds of woodwinds and timpani. I marched past my cat  and plopped myself on the old chair which was now a throne; started giving orders to unseen guards. 

 Turned down the record and proceeded to have  an invisible sword fight, like the White Queen in Narnia, all the while yelling out phrases from the “Lion Witch and the Wardrobe.”

   Now, the only problem was that day there was a construction crew working at the front of our house. I guess they heard the loud music and me yelling and everything. All of a sudden there were a few hard hats trying to look through the port hole in the big front door.

 . I dropped to floor and hid beneath the window. Knock. Knock. Silence. They went away. Whew. Dodged that one.

Feeling  clever , I got my book and started reading more portions of the story to the cat and the stuffed animals.  I threw myself into the characters. All of a  sudden there was a Knock Knock at the back door. 

 Now I had been told never to open the door to strangers. But when there are two police officers standing  there what was I going to do? I opened it. Me in my curtain robes trailing through the kitchen, glittery beads on my head, conductor’s baton under my arm.….

 “We’re just checking” they said. “We’re were told that there was loud music coming from this house.”  “T.V.” I said, pointing at the show  that was playing. Beverley Hillbillies. “Are you here alone?” 

 “My mother’s at work.” And then I added helpfully “I’m sick” (Cough cough) Uh huh. They handed me a note and said that they wanted my mother to call them when she got home. I think my crown slid a little bit. They left.

 Nonplussed, I decided I should maybe do something  that would be less noisy. The hall had just been polished the day before. It was lovely and shiny. Perfect for dancing. Or sliding. My train was being difficult so I tied it around my waist. And for the next ten minutes or so I shuffled and slid down the hall. Getting rather brave, I started to slide faster, trying to get closer to the big front door. Unfortunately, I tripped on my shifting train and slid WHAM into the front doom. Smashed onto the hardwood. CRUNCH went my right elbow. Deena toddled down from the couch to sniff at me on the floor. He washed his paws.

 Can anyone say OWWWWWW. 

 Somehow I managed to get things put back together.  By the time my mother arrived home I couldn’t move my right arm. I delayed telling her till late in the night. She had called the police back, by then. I have no idea what they talked about. The next day I found out  I had fractured my elbow, and had to wear it in a sling for a few weeks. 

 It was GREAT. NO piano. NO violin. NO competition practise ( YES), NO chores. My mother never asked me about the curtains she found lying on the couch. She just hung them up again. Everything started up again when my elbow healed. 

 My mother told me I had to make up for lost time, so I had to clean the bathroom every day, do dishes, laundry……way fun.

  I never went sliding on the floor again. 

 But every so often, when I was alone, and a tad bored,  I would pull out my favourite Narnia book, get into character,  and have me a grand old imaginary sword fight……