“He said he’d tell his mom as soon as he got home. Hmph! Tomorrow I won’t bring Buzz Lightyear—I’ll have Giovanni make Woody instead. That way, every single day he’ll have to go home and ask his mom to make it, or else he’ll just be a poor kid who’s never tried any of these things!” Ben tugged at his backpack straps, walking along and glancing back with a smug grin.
“Exactly. Why should you have to prove you’ve eaten something? Let him taste what it’s like to be shown up and have to go home frustrated,” Jolene said, then turned to Emma. “Same goes for you, Emma. If anyone bullies you, come tell Mommy. We’ll figure out a way to get back at them together. Only by fighting back will people learn not to mess with you—because we’re not pushovers!”
Emma nodded vigorously. “Mommy, nobody bullies me. My teacher said I learn fast!”
Ben tugged at Jolene’s sleeve. “Jolene, I called George a ‘shorty’ today, but he didn’t even understand what it meant.”
Jolene laughed and shook her head. “That’s okay. Just know that ‘shorty’ means you’re calling him a little runt—he’s not as tall or as handsome as you. That’s all.”
“Oh, okay. From now on, I’ll call everyone a shorty,” Ben said, nodding half-understandingly.
Jolene wiped her forehead—no sweat there—but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she might be corrupting the kids.
Oh well. She felt a little guilty. She clearly didn’t know how to raise kids properly, and now she was teaching them… what was she even doing? She just hoped Raymond wouldn’t come after her for this later…
They stopped by the mall because Jolene suggested Ben buy some board games, so he’d have options when his brother didn’t know what to play with him.
But Ben hadn’t played many board games before, so Jolene took both kids to browse.
They found a three-in-one set at the toy store: an airplane race game, Gomoku, and Chinese checkers.
Jolene also picked up a board game set for herself and Emma.
In her past life, Jolene and her author group friends would do all kinds of activities on weekends—sometimes script murder mysteries, sometimes board games. But there were no board games like that here.
Jolene even thought about designing her own escape-room-style board game at home—not a scary one, but a cute, kid-friendly version she could make herself.
Today was piano day. Jolene dropped Ben off at class, and she and Emma sat outside the classroom, playing Gomoku together.
Back home, after dinner and homework, Jolene took out blank paper and cut it into 40 cards, each about one decimeter square. She drew passages and various rooms—bathroom, bedroom, living room, kitchen, park, museum—mainly places she wanted Emma to recognize.
She also designed some cards and identity cards, and left all the coloring to Emma and Ben.
Emma knew this was a game her mom had drawn herself—called “Escape Room”—which could be played by two or more people.
Kids loved coloring, but Emma hadn’t learned to draw yet, so she was slow and often colored outside the lines. But that didn’t matter—this was just for them to enjoy together.
Once everything was drawn, Jolene invited Ben and Emma to play.
Since there were only three of them, Jolene said, “We’ll each play for ourselves. There are three dice—if you roll ‘eyes,’ you can look at the cards around you. If you roll ‘escape,’ you can move to another room. If you roll ‘swap,’ you can exchange card positions…”
During the first round, Jolene explained and demonstrated as they played.
Since they’d all helped make the board game, the kids were much more engaged than they were with store-bought games. It seemed way more fun.
After two rounds, Ben was hooked—and even said he wanted to team up with Emma to challenge Jolene.
Jolene clutched her chest and pointed dramatically at Emma. “Wahhh, Emma—you want to go against Mommy? You’re helping your brother instead of Mommy? Mommy’s so heartbroken…”
Ben opened his mouth wide, realizing Jolene was just acting. He laughed. “Haha! You’re the adult and we’re the kids—you’re supposed to go easy on us!”
Emma pressed her lips together, glanced at Ben, and looked conflicted. Finally, she said softly, “But I want to be on Mommy’s team…”
The next second, Ben tossed the dice and turned his head away. “Hmph! I’m not playing anymore!”
Jolene: “…”
“Ahem, how about this—when Mr. Raymond gets home, we’ll invite him to play too. Didn’t your brother say yesterday he’d play with you for an hour every day? How about you team up with your brother, and Emma and I team up—let’s do a team battle mode!” Jolene had a sudden flash of inspiration and dragged Raymond into it.
Ben thought it over and finally agreed.
Jolene breathed a sigh of relief and gave herself a mental high-five for her quick thinking.
Before long, Mr. Raymond came home. As soon as he walked in, Ben ran over. “Hugh! Come play the Escape Room game with us! You’re on my team, and Emma and Jolene are on the other team—we’re doing team battle mode! We’re going to beat them!”
Raymond was completely lost—he’d never even heard of an “Escape Room” game—but he spotted the cards spread out on the living room floor and could tell they’d been colored by the kids. He realized Jolene must have designed the game herself.
“Sure, can I go change first?” Raymond asked.
Ben finally let go of his brother’s sleeve.
Raymond went upstairs and changed out of his black suit into a black short-sleeved shirt and sweatpants, then came down to the living room and sat down beside Ben.
Jolene explained the rules to him again. Kids needed demonstrations, but adults got it after one listen—the game really wasn’t complicated.
Ben muttered to himself, “Gotta roll eyes, gotta roll eyes—I need to see the other rooms…”
But he rolled three escapes instead—no eyes at all, and escapes were completely useless. Ben pouted in frustration.
Jolene looked down and stifled a laugh. This kid took games pretty seriously.
It was Raymond’s turn to roll the dice. Ben held his breath, staring intently at his brother’s hand. “Wow! Eyes!”
Ben quickly reached out, flipped over a card, and saw it was a kitchen card. He shouted excitedly, “Whoa! Hugh, you’re amazing! We’re definitely going to beat them!”
Raymond looked a little helpless. He looked down and said, “Okay, let’s go.”
Ben leaned in, trying to see through the back of the cards to spot the escape passage, but unfortunately, Jolene had used thick paper—and instead of markers, she’d used crayons, so nothing showed through at all.
Raymond followed the route Ben planned, heading toward the bottom left corner, while Jolene and Emma moved toward the top right. The two teams were far apart.
Finally, it was Emma’s turn—and she flipped over two cards, one of which happened to be the escape passage.
Ben screamed in frustration, “Huh? Why’s it so far away?! What do we do, Hugh?! Emma’s about to get out! They’re going to win! Noooo!”
And then he started crying.
Jolene: “…”
Raymond was dumbfounded. He’d seen Ben burst into tears too many times before. Since Jolene arrived, though, he hadn’t seen his little brother throw a tantrum like this in a while.
The next moment, Raymond shot a helpless look at Jolene—after all, the one with eight years of childcare experience sitting across from him was the nanny, not him.
Jolene was also panicking. She racked her brain trying to remember how to handle this kind of situation.
Some kids really couldn’t handle losing at games. She’d made a mistake—she should have set expectations before they started, telling them that winning or losing didn’t matter, only the fun of playing.
She honestly hadn’t expected Emma to get so lucky and flip the card right away.
Ben kept crying, sobbing loudly, “That round doesn’t count! Let’s play again!”
Raymond’s expression darkened, and he was about to scold him—but Jolene held up her hand to stop him.
“How about we play another round?” Jolene said loudly.
Raymond had no choice but to stay quiet. Ben, hearing that, sniffled and said, “One more round.”
The second game began, but Raymond had lost his patience. He didn’t want to follow Ben’s orders anymore—if they lost again, his brother might just declare it didn’t count and demand another do-over.
He really wanted to teach Ben that he couldn’t throw tantrums to get his way—just because he cried didn’t mean everyone had to give in. But he was also afraid Ben would keep crying.
Jolene totally understood how he felt. She was still trying to figure out a solution.
No one said a word—even Emma just quietly played her own game.
Once Ben had finally stopped crying and the room fell silent, Jolene said, “Actually, Ben’s strategy earlier was really good.”
“What? What strategy?” Ben looked up, surprised.
“For example, you guessed the exit was in the bottom left corner, so you focused on that one direction and kept trying to escape that way—that’s a really smart gaming strategy,” Jolene affirmed, then continued, “We just got luckier that round. Otherwise, you would’ve won ages ago.”
Ben blinked. “Really?”
“Yeah. So I’m definitely going to be careful now—I can’t let you figure out where the real exit is. Otherwise, with that strategy you came up with, you’d beat us in no time,” Jolene said with a straight face.
Ben shook the dice and pondered her words, feeling they made sense. He puffed up defiantly. “No way—I’m going to beat you!”
“But hey, we were all having fun earlier. When you cry, it makes everyone unhappy. So how about we agree ahead of time—this round, no matter who wins or loses, no one cries. Emma doesn’t cry, Mr. Raymond doesn’t cry, Jolene doesn’t cry—and Ben doesn’t cry either. Can everyone do that?”
Emma was the first to nod. “I can. Emma can do it.”
Jolene nodded enthusiastically too. “I can too! Jolene can do it!”
Raymond let out a quiet sigh of relief. “…I can too.”
Ben looked around at everyone claiming they could do it, and finally nodded. “Then I can do it too.”
Emma looked up at her mom. “Mommy, let’s pinky-swear!”
Jolene immediately held out her pinky and linked it with Emma’s.
“Me too! Me too!” Ben also stuck out his pinky and hooked it with Jolene’s.
Jolene smiled. Setting the “no crying” rule upfront meant the kids had to keep their word—that way, Ben wouldn’t be such a sore loser.
Just as she was about to pull her hand back, Ben turned to his brother and said, “Hugh, you haven’t pinky-sworn with Jolene yet—just like I did. Say, ‘Pinky swear, if you lie, you get your eyes poked with a needle.’”
Raymond looked up, his gaze falling on Jolene’s still-extended pinky, and suddenly felt a headache coming on.
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