Games in Loefjesland

A little story about games played in Loefjesland...

It was a sunny day in Loefjesland. The kids were happy because there was no school. It was one of those days to play games outside with your friends. Kannelijntje, Loreliefje and Yonie were all there. Because there were too many children to play hide and seek, and there was not enough space to play tag, they opted to play skipper. Maybe you know how the game is played? It goes as follows: one kid is the skipper standing in the middle between two borders which is the sea. The other children are the boats who must try to cross the sea but they have to stick to the rules that the skipper lays upon them. When the skipper thinks a person does not follow his rules he can tag that person. The tagged person becomes skipper from the next crossing and the skipper becomes a boat. Afterwards the game is repeated just as long as anyone wanted to play the game.

The children created two borders. One border was near an apple tree and the other one near the field with crops which formed a waving sea of gold, green and silver (because of the cotton balls). The skipper was between those borders (into the sea), and was not allowed to cross them could only tag the boats that were in the sea. The skipper had to give the boats a chance to execute the mission he gave them. He could for example say they had to pretend to be a kind of animal of an object. He could ask them to do some kind of action like jumping, crawling, rolling etc. It was not always doing a task. Sometimes it was something that you did or didn’t have. The skipper could say that someone wearing a piece of clothing of a certain colour was or was not allowed to cross. The children had decided that crossing the sea from the apple tree to the crops meant doing an action. And the other way around meant something they had or had not. The children were playing the game for a while and sang a song before each crossing.

The skipper was Gerloef at the moment who let himself pretty voluntarily by Kannelijntje. The children had to go from the tree to the crops so that meant “do something”. Gerloef spoke: “You have to pretend to be a worm.” This caused for a gloomy face with many children especially the girls wearing a pretty dress. “Oh no, my pretty flower dress will get tears if I have to crawl over the ground.” Loreliefje said: “That’s not too bad. We can repair that. Our mothers can help us with that too. Come, let’s do it together!” Gerloef had to laugh when all children were crawling on their bellies and elbows over the ground. He kept an eye especially on Kannelijntje and Loreliefje. Yonie on the other hand went down on her knees and started to do somersaults. Of course this was totally wrong, but Gerloef was not looking at her. He kept looking at how Kannelijntje and Loreliefje were performing. He laughed even more and said: “Come on girls. Shakes those bums! When they reached the other side, Kannelijntje grumbled: “He really does this on purpose! Look how dirty my dress is now!” Loreliefje also tried to wipe the dirt from her own dress en said: “Well you’re not the only one. You do know he always tried to watch us.” Kannelijntje spoke: “And especially me! What will be next? Everyone who has wings cannot pass, right?” Gerloef had heard this and said: “That’s not a bad idea, Kannelijntje. But I will play if fair. Only the ones having butterfly wings may not pass.” Kannelijntje grumbled once more: “Haha very funny! I am the only one with butterfly wings.” That was right because Yonie was the only other fairy and she had wings like the ones from a bat.

Yonie said to Kannelijntje laughing: “Maybe we should swap wings?” Kannelijntje sighed: “Maybe you better do something to distract him instead of trying to be funny.” Yonie reacted fiercely saying: “Well I did try distracting him before but apparently he does not want to catch me. But don’t panic, I have an idea to outsmart him. You just stay here.” Meanwhile the other children started to cross. Loreliefje stood still hesitatingly. She wanted to help her friend, but didn’t know how. Gerloef was grinning at Kannelijntje while children were passing him. Yonie went to Loreliefje and whispered her something in her ear. Loreliefje crossed a bit later too. Gerloef didn’t glance at Loreliefjeand kept looking at Kannelijntje who was still standing behind the border together with Yonie. “You won’t escape me this time, Kannelijntje!” Gerloef said teasingly “I will count to five and than you have to come out.” Yonie whispered to Kannelijntje that she needed to stay behind her. Gerloef meanwhile had started counting. At the count of three, Yonie nudged Kannelijntje to go out. Kannelijntje placed a hand on the shoulder of Yonie and crossed the border staying behind Yonie.

Yonie halted when she was right in front of Gerloef and looked at him with a challenging look on her face. Kannelijntje made herself smaller hoping that Gerloef would not pay attention to her. Gerloef spoke angrily: “Go away Yonie! You are not allowed to form an obstacle!” Yonie laughed and spoke: “An obstacle that is in your way, you have to push it down.” “Push it down?” Gerloef said not understanding. “Yes, like this!” Yonie said and pushed him hard. Gerloef was a big boy who was not easy to bring out of balance. However Gerloef had not noticed that Tommelief was sitting behind him enrolled like a hedgehog. Gerloef stumbled and fell backwards on the ground. Quickly Yonie and Kannelijntje ran over to the other side. Loreliefje quickly returned to the sea helping Tommeloef on his feet again. After that they both helped Gerloef getting up. Gerloef was cursing loudly. “You are not hurt, are you?” Loreliefje spoke suppressing a laugh. “No!” Gerloef grumbled “Oh, just you wait. I will teach you all a lesson!” Yonie shouted at him: “Falling is good for your health, Gerloef! It makes you big and strong!” Kannelijntje didn’t say anything. She was not laughing like the other kids were. She was scared that Gerloef would pick even more on her now. Gerloef spoke: “Everyone who cannot fly may not pass! If you really want to cross, you have to fly for real!” The children were surprised. He should have been angry at the two fairies but he aimed his arrows at the other children. Yonie spoke to the other children: “Don’t panic, I have an idea.” Kannelijntje spoke: “Please Yonie, don’t say we are going to make him fall again. He is already very angry at us.” Yonie spoke: “No we will grab him and take him with us into the sky. That way he cannot touch the others.” Kannelijntje smiled and said: “I even have a better plan.” She ran towards the buttercups which were growing under the apple tree and gathered two. She gave one buttercup to Yonie who understood immediately what Kannelijntje wanted to do. Yonie spoke to the others: “Who is willing to fly?” No one said no to that.

Yonie and Kanneliijntje went up and started flying above the other kids. They got pollen from the flowers and rubbed them between their hands. It fell down on the children as fairy dust, looking like little golden stars. From the moment the dust touched their heads they went up slowly. By moving their hands and feet they were swimming through the air. It was as of they were flying without wings. Everyone loved this, except for Gerloef who was scolding at the others what a bunch of sharpers they were. Kannelijntje went flying right above him and dropped the last fairy dust on him. It just touched his head and up he went into the air. He shrieked and started crying for help loudly. When he was at the same height of Kannelijntje, he grabbed her. Kannelijntje: “Gerloef why are you holding me so tightly? You are not afraid are you?” Gerloef stuttered: “Afraid? I am not afraid. Well, maybe a tiny little bit. I can’t fall, can I?” Kannelijntje had to laugh again. Such a tough guy who was scared to fall. Otherwise he always had such a big mouth. “Sorry, that you were pushed to the ground.” spoke Kannelijntje “I really didn’t know that Yonie was going to do that.” I knew you would not do such a thing.” he said to her in a flattering voice “You are too sweet for that” Kannelijntje asked: “You really aren’t hurt?” Gerloef said: “No, or yes now that you mention it… I feel a bit pain in my back. Can you maybe rub my back a bit? You have such fine soft hands.” Kannelijntje went flying behind him and massaged his back. Gerloef visibly enjoyed this and gave directions all the time like ‘a bit lower or higher, a bit more to the left or to the right’. He spoke: “Now that you are busy, maybe you can massage my neck a bit too? It feels a bit stiff.” Kannelijntje sighed. She wished she never asked if he was hurt.

Yonie had also noticed that Gerloef was taking a bit too much advantage of the kindness of Kannelijntje and decided to intervene. She gestured that Kannelijntje needed to step aside, which Kannelijntje did. Gerloef didn’t notice that Yonie had taken the place of Kannelijntje. Yonie started to massage the back of Gerloef but she did it a bit harder. It didn’t take long before Gerloef reacted: “Not that rough, Kannelijntje. You did it so much better before.” Yonie spoke: “I will let you laugh a bit.” Immediately Yonie started to tickle Gerloef under his arms. Gerloef started to laugh hard: “Hahaha! Don’t do that! I can’t stand tickling!”

Want to know more? Just ask me :)