Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road

While on our way to visit family one weekend, Emma (12), suggested that she and I play “Graveyard” in the car. (Q, my sweetie, is driving, and thus can’t fully participate, and teenage son is sound asleep in the back.) Turns out the game is not nearly as morbid as it sounds, but is rather a counting game, wherein all parties are assigned a window out of which they are to count as many living creatures (humans excepted), or representations thereof, as possible. The one with the highest count after a certain time, wins. And why “Graveyard”? Well, if anyone sees a graveyard, then all other participants’ counts go back to zero.

There is some discussion as to how to deal with birds, which, though they may be spotted through one window, are very often within another player’s range within seconds. (Answer: if it passes your window, even if it already passed someone else’s, you can count them!)

And – eeuw – what about that poor critter, laying right on the yellow line? Emma decides, in the interests of fairness, that anything right in the middle is the driver’s.

The driver objects: “What? I only get squashed ones?”

Emma consoles him, “No, they don’t have to be squashed. You just get the ones right on the line.”

He is too pragmatic for that: “If it’s on the line, Emma, it’s squashed!”

Emma: “Eeeuuww.”