“What are you watching, Daniel?” Claire asked.

“Curling,” Daniel said.

“What?”

“Curling,” said Daniel.

“Curling is not a sport, Daniel.”

“It’s a game!”

“It’s not even a game.”

“It is!”

“Is not! Look, they’ve got brooms!”

“So?”

“That means it’s not a game, it’s a chore.”

“Says who?”

“Says me. Remember when Mum told us to play the sweeping up game?”

“Yes! That was so much fun!”

“Daniel! That wasn’t a game.”

“What was it then?”

“She was just making us tidy up the kitchen!”

“Because someone had fallen through the window and then traipsed mud all over the floor?”

“Exactly!”

“So wait, you’re saying that someone’s fallen through the window and traipsed mud all over the ice? At the Olympics?”

“Yes.”

“And Mum’s making them tidy it up?”

“Well, not our Mum.”

“Oh.”

“But someone’s!”

__________

Notes:

1. Written in January 2026