Jorma was swimming lazily in the waves which were warm and soft like a blanket. Suddenly he felt somebody shake him by the shoulder and a voice said,

"Jorma, time to get up."

The boy opened his eyes. Again he saw the stripy ceiling and Hedi's fluffy hair. So they were still in the country.

"Is it tomorrow now?" he asked hopefully. "Are we going to the sea at once?"

"It isn't tomorrow yet," Hedi put him right. "It's still today."

Jorma was disappointed.

"But we're in bed. We've been sleeping," he protested and kicked the blanket.

"It was our afternoon nap, it doesn't count," Hedi explained. "It's only afternoon now."

Jorma sat up. He saw that it was afternoon, indeed: all objects in the room looked dull, it felt stuffy, even the fly buzzing on the window-pane sounded bored. It was very seldom that afternoons received Jorma with the same cheerful and promising face as mornings did.

What an unpleasant afternoon in exchange for his lovely swimming dream...

"What did you wake me up for today?" he said to Hedi crossly. "We can't go to play with Tiia and Margus now."

Jorma lost his temper at the thought that he would have to go to bed once again before he could go to the beach and meet his new friends. He struck his pillow, as if the pillow were to blame that it was today and not tomorrow yet.

Of course, it was not very nice to pour out his bad temper like that, but Hedi did not scold him the way his parents would have done. Jorma would not have taken any notice of her scolding; he would have answered back and they would have ended in a quarrel. But what was the good of a quarrel? Therefore Hedi said with a mysterious smile,

"Mummy's going to make pancakes today."

At the moment Jorma wasn't in the least interested in pancakes of any kind, but the mysterious smile of his sister aroused his curiosity. He stopped punching the pillow and asked,

"Did Mummy tell you?"

"No," said Hedi, "Mummy was telling Granny, and I happened to overhear. I pretended to be asleep, but I wasn't."

That made a lot of difference.

"What else did they say?"

"Grandfather is going to heat the sauna," Hedi confided to him, "we'll all be going to the sauna tonight."

"Me too?"

"You too."

Jorma had never been to the sauna. He had very much wanted to go, but neither Mother nor Father had taken him. Thus he had only secondhand knowledge about it. There was a lot of water in the sauna, and one was allowed to splash it and nobody scolded. Water was poured on hot hearth-stones and then people whisked themselves in hot steam, which was very pleasant, but not everybody could stand it.

Jorma used to assure his parents that he would stand it all right but they doubted it. So today, after a long last, he would have a chance to live up to his words!

Jorma rubbed the last traces of sleep out of his eyes, slipped out of his bed, grabbed his shirt and pants off the back of the chair and began to put them on. Hedi helped him. When the children came into the kitchen, they found their parents and grandparents still sitting and talking. Nobody was going to make pancakes or heat the sauna.

"Hmmm!" Jorma grunted and his lips curved. He had been awakened quite in vain.

"The little darlings are up after their nap," Grandmother said.

"Hedi awoke me," answered Jorma. He went straight to his Mother, put his head on her lap and closed his eyes. He thought that at least his beautiful dream would return.

Mother passed her hand caressingly over his head, but did not let him remain and rest on her lap.

"Jorma, dear, why don't you go out and play? It's so good in the yard now... Look, Hedi is in the yard already."

Jorma toddled after Hedi with very little enthusiasm. It hurt him that his parents sent him away. Not that he would have liked to spend every minute in their company. By far not, but it might have been left for the kids to decide when they should be together and when they should not.

In the hall Jorma could hear Mother say with a note of dissatisfaction in her voice,

"The boy is often in a bad mood after his afternoon nap." Father said, "It's very interesting—when I was a boy I used to be in a bad mood after my nap too."

That confession comforted the boy a little. Although he didn't always approve of what Father did, Jorma very much wanted to be like him.

"Hey, Hedi! Where are you?" Jorma called stepping out onto the porch. He had a good mind to take his sister to task. What had she awakened Jorma for, without any good reason? Why promised things that weren't there?

Hedi, however, was not in the yard. He was received by a sleepy deserted afternoon farmyard. The footpath lay motionless. The yellow blossoms hidden among the dark green leaves peeped out with sleepy eyes. All seemed to be dozing around him. Jorma thought that if he strained his ears just a little bit he might hear thousands of tiny noses snoring.

What a dreary prospect to wait for the night in a sleepy world like that before the bright hopeful morning came! And he was quite alone in his wait, all forlorn! Even the sun had abandoned the farmyard, leaving behind only its rays without showing itself.

What was he to do? There was nothing at all for him to do. Yet for an idler time would drag on still slower. How endless and dull an afternoon could be!

"Hedi!" Jorma called again. It sounded like a call for help.

There was no answer.

Jorma couldn't bear the desolation of the farmyard another minute. He decided to return to the house, in spite of the wish of his parents. At that very moment he heard someone call his name.

Jorma listened attentively. The call was repeated. Who was it? Hedi? Then she must be somewhere near by? But why couldn't he see her? Had she hidden herself? Where?

"Jorma," came a soft call from somewhere just around the corner.

Sounded like Hedi's voice, but not quite.

"Got to go and see who it is," the boy decided and began moving cautiously towards the corner. He was fully awake now—because he had to be ready for any surprise.

There wasn't anybody around the corner. Strange!

"Hey!"

Turning swiftly Jorma caught a glimpse of a small furry creature disappearing behind the verandah. Wasn't it Ints, the cat? Impossible. Ints was stripy, grey and white, but that one was dark brown.

"Jorma!" this time the call came from behind his back.

How could it be that one and the same being called him from two opposite directions? Or was it that there were two of them, and they were out to fool him?

"Hey!" came from the direction of the verandah again.

Jorma was so eager to find out who the caller was that he forgot all caution and rushed round the corner. The thudding of his feet aroused the path, and the flowers, and the grass from their slumber and they all shouted in chorus,

"Quick! Quick! Catch it!"

There came a faint rustle from the bushes studded with white clusters of blossoms. Jorma crept through the bushes and lo! he found himself in his own house. In its corner, squatting beside the white stone which concealed the purple secret was Hedi! She was smoothing her dark brown tousled hair.

"Was it you kidding me?"

Hedi giggled in answer—he had guessed right!

But Jorma didn't mind it in the least. Because what Hedi had done was to have shaken the dull sleepy afternoon to full wakefulness.

Jason Ladock

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