Bergfors Family Forces

       “It’s your fault,” Johannes tried to elbow his sister, but there was not enough space to swing an arm properly. “No it’s yours.” Johanna retorted and prodded his boot with hers. It might mean a kick. “No it was your idea to hide in the rain barrel.” Well, it was a rainwater tank in summer, a metal fuel barrel in the distant past, and a perfect hiding place today. Johannes and Johanna had coaxed Jonne and mid-brothers to play hide-and-seek, and when the oldest brother turned to a wall to count to fifty, Johanna darted to the hallway to grab her boots and coat, then stomped loudly upstairs to the Duo’s room, and Johannes followed her because he got her idea. They had long equipped their window with a strap to close it from outside, and a rope ladder hung outside the window since time immemorial. And the barrel was right on the ground, and the Duo was still small enough to hide in it, thus not leaving traces in the yard. At least, last year they coped. And this time, too. In haste, they didn’t even understand how they wedged inside together. By all the reckonings, Jonne should stop counting already and go search through the cabin. Uncapped ears and ungloved hands started freezing, but the kids kept quiet and waited when Jonne said he had lost. Nothing was heard yet. Neither words nor footsteps on the snow nor doors or windows creaking. Johannes wanted to peek out and discovered he couldn’t. The twins were stuck. No matter how hard they wiggled and wriggled, they couldn’t even raise their hands up to pull themselves out. After a while, Johanna cried for help, but no one answered. Johannes guessed that Jonne saw their coats missing and went to look for the siblings in the town, at school, under the bridge… For some time, the twins argued about what was better, to lose the game or to win and catch a cold. No, it would be too stupid to get ill on vacations. After some more bickering, they pushed and shoved together to the same side, and at last the barrel leaned in its snow nest and fell and rolled on and on until it bumped into something. A loud crack scared the kids. Johannes pushed hard to get up and succeeded, with a chunk of rusty wall breaking out. It was a very old barrel, after all. The kids got out, looked at the ruins, blamed each other once more, and tiptoed home. It turned out that mid-brothers were still hiding in warm and comfortable places: Yukka was reading his favourite book with an electric torch in a tiny cellar under the stairs, and Yussi was sleeping in the bedclothes drawer. And Jonne, the seeker, was nowhere to be found. Cheater! He was supposed to be It, not the champion of hiding! Jonne came back late, even after Mom, all wet with snow, with a black eye and a happy grin. He confessed he had agreed to play hide-and-seek only to sneak away to join his classmates in downhill sledding. Johannes and Johanna blamed him for the broken barrel, Mom scolded him too. But Jonne laughed and said that his strategy was the best: the Duo spent half of a day unsupervised, with less damage to the household than ever.