A Game in Three Evenings

Every Saturday, Lena and her mother played a game with wooden boats. They moved between islands and collected coloured stones. Each game took almost two hours. Lena always made hot chocolate first.

Then her mother started selling fruit on Saturdays. She came home tired. They tried playing after dinner, but her mother forgot things in the game. She wanted to play a shorter game, but Lena wanted to keep their special game.

The next Saturday, Lena got the game and hot chocolate ready. Her mother wanted to play, but she was too tired to play for two hours.

Lena looked at her boat. It was close to the biggest island. She did not want to start again next week. Then she saw a wooden tray, a flat piece of wood for carrying things.

"What if we don't finish tonight?"

They played for twenty minutes. Then Lena moved the board onto the tray and put it on a shelf. The boats and stones stayed in place.

They played again on Monday while dinner cooked. On Wednesday, her mother was thinking about how to get past Lena's boat.

Her mother won that evening and asked to play another game.

"Tomorrow," Lena said. She left two cups ready for their next hot chocolate.