‘I know, I saw your bunny rabbit,’ I whisper back.
He looks confused. ‘My what?’
‘In the tree house. On the wall.’
‘Oh, that. I’ve improved a million times since then.’
‘It’s not an art competition,’ says Kirk to my right, overhearing our conversation. ‘You’ve got to be in sync with the other person.’ He smiles at Andrea, but she remains tight-lipped. Oh dear.
The game commences.
Lewis and Moira go first. Lewis shakes the dice and moves their red counter onto a blue square, which means it’s an object apparently. When the hourglass timer is turned over, he draws a round circle and then looks at her. ‘Circle,’ says Moira confidently. Lewis shakes his head and draws another heavier circle round the first one. ‘Stone?’ Another head shake.
‘Ring?’ More head shakes.
Lewis just keeps helplessly drawing circles as the sand in the hourglass timer runs down. Moira starts panicking. ‘Er ... um ...’ The sand runs out.
‘It was a well!’ exclaims Lewis.
‘Jesus, you could’ve drawn something else to indicate that,’ Moira says, sounding annoyed. ‘Like a bucket or something.’
‘True,’ admits Lewis. ‘My bad.’
OK, so you have to think laterally; and the more synonyms you know, the better.
We’re up next.
Bailey shakes the dice and moves our yellow counter onto a green square. He looks at the card, and when the timer is turned over, he quickly starts drawing a round shape with a trunk.
‘Elephant,’ I say.
Bailey shakes his head and draws a tusk.
‘Tusk!’ Another shake.
He draws a violent slash through the elephant’s body. OK, that got dark quickly.
‘Death! Kill! Poacher! Elephant graveyard!’ I cry.
‘Time’s nearly up,’ says Kirk. Shit. I’m letting the side down.
Bailey draws more arrows to the tusk frantically.
Duh, of course! ‘Ivory!’ I screech just before the last grains of sand disappear.
‘Boo-yah!’ Bailey throws down his pencil and grins at me triumphantly. ‘Great work, team!’
I quietly congratulate myself.
‘Holly, you get to go now,’ says Kirk.
‘Oh, right.’
My stomach churns as I roll the dice. Hopefully, Bailey can guess the word. My drawing skills are so bad. We land on a blue square, so it’s an object. I glance at the card to see my word. Kirk flips over the hourglass before I have a chance to think too much about it. Quickly, I write the number 1 and draw a door with lines radiating around it and a stick person with their hand on the knob. Then I write the number 2 and draw a cock and balls.
Laughter erupts around the coffee table.
‘It’s too big for Bailey’s!’ hoots Lewis.
