New Year’s Eve.
A time of food.
Fun.
Family.
And beating the pants off someone at this year’s game of
choice.
The game for the last hours of 2013 and the wee, small hours
of 2014?
Clue.
What could be better than starting the New Year out with a
little bit of murder/mayhem and trying to decide if the victim had been
bludgeoned, shot or strangled?
For some time, the players had been trying to figure out the
whom, what and where of Mr. Boddy’s demise. Manipulating rooms (Ballroom,
study, kitchen, library, conservatory, hall, dining room, lounge, billiard
room), characters (Professor Plum, Mr. Green, Mrs. White, Miss Scarlett, Mrs.
Peacock and Colonel Mustard) and weapons (Knife, gun, lead pipe, candlestick,
rope, wrench); and toying with such statements as: Miss Scarlett in the
ballroom with the lead pipe, and Mr. Green in the study with the rope.
The hour was growing late/early.
And our bunch of non-drinkers was growing slightly giddy
with the unaccustomed lateness of the hour.
Someone posed the statement, “Look at all of the different
ways to murder someone . . . the newer versions have poison. We need poison!”
A whole new dimension in the world of homicide.
To which my son, Erik, replied, “We have it!”
Everyone looked at him.
“Yeah,” he went on. “The Colonel in the kitchen, eating
beans. Murder by Mustard gas!”
For fifteen minutes, all anyone could do was laugh.
Perfect way to bring in the New Year.
