ROLE-PLAYING IN THE BACK YARD

THE SCENE: Your 3-year-old has just walked into the house, then walked  back out. In the process, he locked the door, trapping the entire family in the back yard.

Andrew the Tall tries the gates, but they're locked. The keys are in the house, but it wouldn't matter if he had them. Some mysterious power, likely coming from the sun, has rendered the locks inoperable anyway.

Andrew the Tall checks his fence-climbing ability and hurtles over the six feet to the other side. He checks the front door. Locked.

Teresa the Desperate checks the windows. Locked. And too new to have any weaknesses.

She realizes, with a small degree of relief, that the young one could not have locked the dead bolt.

The small ones beat a drum slowly as Teresa the Desperate searches her deck for a tool.

She finds an old plant marker. It bends. She checks her skills and begins forcing it between the door and its frame. It breaks, brittle from the sun.

Andrew the Tall suggests one of the numerous plastic water-carrying devices the small ones had been playing with. But Teresa the Desperate has nothing to cut them with.

She tries another plant maker, but the skill is not with her.

Suddenly, she remembers a pair of grass clippers on the front porch.

Andrew the Tall springs into action.

He returns, and Teresa the Desperate slices the plastic bucket into a long strip.

She forces it under the lock. It doesn't budge.

She rerolls and slides it below the lock and up. And the family is in.

Another scenario beaten in the campaign that is the Jackson household.