A Pictures Worth a Thousand Words

Stuck Inside

The rain hammered against the rooftop of the Zimmerman's square white house and a blanket of gray clouds covered the sky. The window was foggy and wet, and the plants outside were speckled with rain drops. And on the other side of the window sat the middle child and only boy in the family, Jamie. Jamie was a small boy with hair the color of tree bark and a round face that made him look a lot younger than he really was. His green eyes were as dark as the leafs of an evergreen, and his short stubby nose was sprinkled with freckles  He sat in the squashy green armchair by the window, memorized by the swirling wind and water, the booms of thunder, and flashes of electricity. Ryan had always loved thunderstorms. They were beautiful, and chaotic, and scary all at once. When it thunder stormed, you stayed indoors and play bored games and read, and just lay in bed, listening to the whistles of the wind and pattering of the rain. A large boom of thunder sounded outside the window.

 The youngest child, Ryan, was sharpening her colored pencil to a fine point. She was short like her brother, but unlike her brother, her face was thin and pointed. Her chestnut hair was long and straight, despite all her effort to keep it curled and wavy, and her pale skin was in perfect condition for now. Joey, the oldest of the Zimmerman child was flopped down of the couch opposite to her younger sister. She was humming quietly to herself her eyes closed, trying to ward off a coming headache. She was technically supposed to be doing her homework, but she was incapable of focusing at the moment. That's how she usually felt these days. 

Ryan got up from the couch and gathered up her pencils into the small cardboard box she used for her art supplies. She skipped over to her older sister and sat down on the armrest of the couch and plopped down on her back onto her sister's legs. Normally, Joey would object to this behavior, but she was to tired to complain. Ryan stuck her legs straight up in to the ceiling and began kicking thin air and singing Christmas carols to herself. Joey groaned.

"Could you stop that Ryan."she said, trying to conceal her annoyance. This had no effect on Ryan, who continued to kick at thin air as if she was riding an upside down bicycle. She sighed. "Jamie a little help?". Jamie glanced at Ryan.

"Hold on." Jamie got up from his armchair a walked over to the couch. He grabbed his younger sister and lifted her of the couch by her armpits.

"Hey! That hurts." Ryan complained. Jamie carry his sister to the window and dropped her on the armchair. She jumped up again and ran over to the couch. She jumped on top of her sister and began bouncing on her stomach. Joey couldn't help but laugh. She pushed her sister off and sat up. 

"Jamie can you give her something to do." Jamie hung his head upside down over the arm of the chair. 

"And why should I do that."

"Because you've got nothing better to do."

"Neither do you."Joey shot him a piercing glare

"Then because your a good sibling."

"And your not."

"Shut up."

"Why." 

"Please just do it."

"Fine."

Jamie got up from the arm chair and bounced over to his little sister, still sitting on top of Joey. He lifted her off the couch and carried her off into the kitchen to find something to do. 

The kitchen was fairly small and bright, and smelled of fruit and berries. The floor was covered in crumbs that stuck to the bottom of James feet. He scraped the soul of his foot against his leg and sat his sister down at the table.

"So, you wanna play a board game ?" he asked.

"All the board games we play are so boring though. I've played them a million times. Can we get something new?".

"Not right now. There's a thunder storm outside, remember?"

"So."

"We can't go outside in a thunder storm Ryan."

"But we won't be inside. We'll be in the car."

"Not right now, okay?" Ryan's face fell. Jamie had seen her staring in the toy shop window at the newest collecting cards, stacks of them, shining in the sunlight. She didn't really want them of course, Ryan had never been interested in card games. She only wanted them because everyone else in her class had a deck. They would trade them and play the game with each other during reuses or the bus ride. She felt left out. Jamie thought for a couple of seconds. Then an idea came to him. 

Joey woke to the sound of gaffing from the kitchen. Her head was still aching, not helped by the continuing pattering of the rain. The light coming from the kitchen was made it impossible to go back to sleep. She glanced out the window and was startled to see in was dark outside. How long had she been sleeping?

Then Joey heard a soft clatter coming from the kitchen, a sound she knew all to well. It was the clatter of dice. Intrigued, she got up and quietly made her way to the kitchen. At the small rectangular table sat her younger sibling, laughing and smiling while they played.... what was that? A piece of paper sat on the table, covered in colorful square and picture, a salt and pepper shaker resting on top. It was a board game.

"Hey." she said quietly

"Finally woke up did you." Ryan said sarcastically. But Jamie was smiling.

"You wanna play." he asked

"Sure, why not."

She sat down in the chair across from Ryan and looked down at the board. The colorful squares were arranged in a triangle shape, with three paths on the corners the connected to the middle Each square had a number and a instruction on it. One square said "Move to square 30" and one said "Start from the beginning". 

"Did you make this?" she asked Ryan

"Yeah. Jamie helped, but I did most of the work." Ryan's eyes were gleaming with pride. 

"Well it's really cool Ryan." Ryan looked up.

"You really think so?

"Yeah, it's really cool."

..............................................................................................................................

Willow Zimmerman was digging through grandma's old stuff when she found an old game of monopoly that looked like it hadn't been touched in years. She brought it down from the attic and  into her bedroom. It was old and dusty, and the lid was barely still attached with scotch tape. She lifted the lid to find not a game of monopoly like she had been expecting, but a folded piece of old paper. She lifted it from the box and unfolded it. The paper was covered in colored squares, and writing that she couldn't make out. It looked kinda like a game of trivial pursuit, but a triangle instead of a circle. She grabbed the paper and raced down the stairs to the living room. Her great uncle was sitting on the couch watching television. 

"Hey Uncle, can I ask you something?" Her uncle looked at her and nodded. She handed him the piece of paper. "What's this?"

Her uncles evergreen eyes filled with tears