Are You All Over the Meadow?

Teddy was out of sorts. This afternoon’s visit with his cousins was not living up to expectations. Ruby, at six, was a year older and bossy. He no longer liked her silly game. Ruby had made it up and insisted they play it all afternoon. It seemed to Teddy to consist of nothing more than running about and never getting anywhere. He stood at the top of the lawn, which sloped in a smooth sweep of spongy turf to the road below, making angry dents in the soil with his toe. Ruby was calling out the signature line again.

‘Are you all over the meadow?’

‘Yes.’ He responded with little enthusiasm.

‘Can I come with you?’

‘YES!’ Teddy roared his frustration.

 That was the signal to run, and Teddy and Ruby raced away on diagonals across the sloping lawn, passing each other in the middle and looping around to the top where Ethel sat, her hands clamped over her eyes. Ethel’s three-year-old legs had had enough, and she had decided to become invisible. It wasn’t working, though, because Teddy marched straight up to her and pulled her hands away. ‘You were s’posed to run with us.’

‘I not,’ declared Ethel.

‘Yes. That’s the rules.’

‘I NOT.’ Ethel’s voice rose in defiance. Teddy scowled. His head bent suddenly over her hand, still held in his. Poor Ethel squealed in horror, her face crimson; he had bitten her. She held the injured wrist up to show Ruby, who plopped down on the grass beside her and peered earnestly into her face, full of big sister concern. ‘Whatever has happened Effie?’

‘Deddy bid me’ Ethel huffed through her tears. ‘Look Ruby, look. Teef marks.’ Ruby looked. She glared at her cousin who stood with his arms folded firmly across his chest, pouting and unrepentant.

‘Teddy, did you bite Ethel? Did you?’

‘So what if I did,’ said Teddy, ‘she was cheating, so there.’

‘She’s only three, Teddy. She doesn’t understand the rules. You’re very naughty to bite.’

‘Don’t care. You’re not my mummy anyway. You’re a big ninny.’

Incensed, Ruby did something that she was to regret, oh so much, afterwards. ‘See how you like it.’ She grabbed Teddy’s hand and raised it to her mouth. Before he could react she had closed her teeth, leaving bite marks on skin for the second time that day. Teddy roared in anger.

‘I’m going to tell Mummy on you. You vewy naughty, Wuby. You will be in big twouble now.’ His face burned and angry tears glazed his eyelashes to points. Teddy always lost his r’s when he got upset. He stumped off in righteous fury to find his mother.

‘Why did Teddy bite you, Ethel?’ said Henry, Teddy’s older brother. Henry was nearly ten and considered himself far too mature to join in the younger children’s game. He had spent the last hour sitting on the grass with a book in his hands. A thoughtful boy, he had quietly observed Teddy’s rising anger.

Ethel was starting to enjoy the attention. ‘I din’ do anyfing, Henry.’ She cradled the sore hand against her tummy, unselfconsciously using her ‘baby voice’ to good effect. ‘He jus’ did it, jus’ like dat.’ She emphasised the point with a chopping motion of her good arm.

Ruby rose and offered a hand. ‘Come on Effie, Daddy will be home soon. Let’s go down to the gate and wait there. I bet I see him first.’

‘No, I will.’ Tears forgotten, she bustled across the lawn with Ruby. Henry followed the girls, and it was Henry who saw his Uncle Walter first, striding down Arney Crescent with his jacket over his shoulder. Walter’s law practice was handily situated in the nearby village of Remuera, and he loved walking home on a fine summer evening like this, down the hill past the many fine houses with the sea in his face. It gave him time to put aside the problems of the day and prepare to indulge in that most rewarding of pastimes, playing with his children. Now he swung Ethel onto his shoulders and took Ruby’s hand, listening gravely as she explained in detail the rules and objectives of her new game.

As soon as she learnt to walk, Ruby would potter about the garden with Walter on the weekends, as he patiently explained what he was doing and why. 'See this little leaf here, you have to break it off very carefully, so the plant channels its energy into growing tomatoes instead of growing more stems and leaves. Yes you can try. Gently, Ruby, gently! Oh, see you've broken the whole stem now. Never mind, next time you'll get it right.' They would spend whole afternoons walking down to the wharf and fishing with a handline for sprats, walking back as the light faded and the sky blushed green and gold.

           But now, only half an hour later, Ruby hung her head and stared at the patterned red carpet in the big front room, twisting her hands in front of her. She bit her lip and tried to keep back the tears. Walter’s ice-blue eyes, which normally radiated laughter, were troubled. ‘Your aunt is very upset. Teddy says you bit him, Ruby, is this true?’

           Ruby didn’t look up. Daddy was so cross! She couldn’t remember ever seeing that look on his face, and she was devastated. ‘Yes, Daddy,’ she whispered.

           ‘I am extremely disappointed in you, Ruby. I should have thought you would be more responsible. You will need to be punished for this.’ Walter was a gentle man. He had never yet punished one of his children, but his sister’s boy had a valid grievance, and she expected to see justice done. They had been brought up in an era when children were seen and not heard, when ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’ was considered sound parenting advice. Walter desperately wanted to be a good father and bring up responsible, considerate, and law-abiding children. His own parenting style was more about mentoring than reward and punishment, and he knew his sister believed he was over-indulgent. His decision was strongly biased by that knowledge. ‘I shall have to spank you, and then you must go to your room. You will have no dinner tonight.’

Ruby lay in her bed upstairs and cried for a long time. She had never been spanked before and she felt the shame deeply. She had wanted to expose Teddy’s behaviour to excuse her own but somehow the words she needed wouldn’t come. She craved her Daddy’s approval and she feared there was nothing she could say that would absolve her. So she endured the spanking and cried into her pillow.

Ruby’s mother had planned a special meal but dinner at the big round table was unusually quiet. Teddy, fully aware of his guilt, was disconcerted by the severity of the sentence passed on Ruby. Henry was contemplating injustice and whether he ought to speak up, while Walter’s mind was haunted by Ruby’s woebegone face. In the absence of her sister and in the strained atmosphere, Ethel was uncharacteristically subdued. Henry finally took advantage of yet another long silence.

‘Uncle Walter?’

‘Yes Henry?’

‘Actually,’ he said. Henry had recently discovered this word and used it whenever possible. ‘Teddy bit Ethel first. And that’s why Ruby bit him.’’

‘Is that so? Thank you for telling me that, Henry. Did you bite Ethel, Teddy?’

Teddy, red faced, concentrated desperately on his plate. ‘Yes.’

Walter regarded Teddy for a moment, his face expressionless. ‘In that case, maybe the wrong child has been punished. I must visit the prisoner.’

Ruby lifted a tear-stained face when Walter knocked.

‘May I come in?’ He looked around the door.

‘Yes, Daddy.’ Her voice was hoarse from crying.

‘I’m told that Teddy bit Ethel,’ he said, sitting amiably on the bed. ‘Is that

what happened?’

‘Yes Daddy. He was so mean about it and I was so cross with him…’ Her lip wobbled.

‘Oh sweetheart,’ he gathered her into his arms. ‘That was wrong, you know that don’t you? Two wrongs don’t make a right.’ She nodded her head against his shirt front. ‘But there is such a thing as a mitigating circumstance, and I shouldn’t have punished you so harshly without asking more questions. I’m very, very sorry. Ok?’ More vigorous nodding. ‘I am going to make a promise to you, Ruby. I promise I will never spank you again.’

And do you know what? He never did.