TheBanyanTree: I like to win sometimes

[John Bailey]

Wednesday April 2, 2003

I LIKE TO WIN SOMETIMES


I didn't think it would work. I'll be honest about it, I really didn't 
think it would work. The colour we selected for the cloakroom walls, 
replacing the acidulous aqua green that made your face look like long-dead 
putty, was an aqua blue of almost the exact same tone. When the job was 
done it looked as if the green had been sucked out by some magical process 
and replaced with a pronounced sky blue.

"Yeah, but do you like it?" Graham said as he washed out his brushes.

"I don't know yet. It's great to see the back of the green but it's a lot 
darker in tone than I'd thought."

"No. Not darker. Stronger."

"Well, okay, stronger. Give me a day to get used to it."

Sure enough, during the course of the day it grew on me and I'm quite happy 
with it now. It's a cheering blue, quite light, really, like the colour you 
see in the sky on a summer's day before the haze has developed. And my face 
in the mirror over the basin looks like its normal cheerful self once more.

So, the transformation works.  I'm not absolutely convinced it'll be the 
final transformation but it'll do for now.  And it really is good to see 
the back of the green.

"Okay," I said as we sat over our supper. "So, then, what colour is my 
study going to be?"

"They call it 'Egyptian cotton'."

"What's that when it's at home, then?"

"Sort of faded white bandage colour, with green smears like you get on an 
Egyptian mummy."

"Oh. That sounds interesting. How do they get the green smears in, then?"

"I was kidding about the green smears."

"That's a shame. I quite fancied green smears."

"I give up."

"That's good. I like to win sometimes."


--
John Bailey   Carmarthenshire, Wales
journal of a writing man
<http://www.oldgreypoet.com>