Making Space - Jenny 1

Jenny and Izzy fell in love in an escape room. They both worked within the accounts department of an international construction firm and this was their management’s interpretation of ‘something different’ by which they could celebrate the festive season. They and six other members of the team were shepherded into a room which, they said, would only permit exit after they’d solved a number of intriguing puzzles, by working co-operatively and as a close team. (Unless someone panicked or really really needed the toilet). The activity would be fun (oh yes) and memorable (one way or another) and result in them uncovering the combination of the lock which would open the door to freedom. Get the combination wrong too many times and the game would be forfeited.

The team swiftly divided into two groups and then split again and Jenny and Izzy, finding themselves together for the next twenty minutes on a sort of psychopathic cut down cryptic crossword, decided that twenty minutes would never ever be enough for either of them. Perhaps it was the realisation that they really did pretty much think alike, perhaps it was just the way Jenny heard Izzy breathing, or the way Jenny’s smile flicked across her face when they realised as element of the puzzle at the same time as each other, whatever it was the puzzle was completed and a few other pieces fell into place within their lives at the same time. 

They were still very much in love, and from their, perhaps, surprise beginnings they had built what they viewed as a functional and happy home. Peter, their teenaged son lounged on the sofa most days, head rarely rising from his mobile phone. Occasionally he’d offer a monosyllabic response to the world around him, but in general he’d either stay there, booking himself slots with the TV to accompany his screen, or he’d navigate back to his darkened bedroom ready for another few rounds with his Xbox mates. At least he was still connected to the outside world, thought Jenny, although Izzy was a little more wound up by his daily routine.

Helen, a few years younger than Peter was a little easier, and a little harder. Keen to engage with whatever her parents were up to, she was good company, but would then slide back in the opposite direction, fearful for what was happening, sad because she couldn’t see her friends, puzzled by all of it.

The escape room scenario played out most days, but Jenny really thought it was just a new version of their previous daily life, although with an annoying twist. Some days, before lock down, the challenge had been simply to keep all the plates spinning at once. Wait for a child to wake up, feed said child, sort out the things they needed to leave the house and send them each on their way to school.

Ensure bag was packed for work – generally something done the night before of course for speed – prep coffee and breakfast for herself and Izzy and then out to get the bus to take them into the town centre and work. Mission one accomplished. Everyone was where they were meant to be and for the duration of the working day at least it was possible to relax a little and let the workday take over.

Like the escape room she did things because they seemed like the right combination of things in the right order. Everyone went along with it, everyone fell into place. The kids ended up at school, Jenny and Izzy ended up in work. In the same way that the combination resulted in the locks falling into place and the door swinging open, there was a sense that doing it right unlocked the disorder of the day and ushered in free space, space where they could be open to the challenges of work and get their heads around what needed to be done.

And, when they all got home, the same exact room mathematics applied. Decompress everyone, tea, talk, bed, snack for her and Izzy and to bed. More free space. Space to remember the early days when they realised they were the solution to each other’s puzzle. 

And now they were in something that also amounted to an escape room, but regardless of how well they worked together, while alleviating the situation a little, the door would not swing open to allow them to go to the pub and beyond a night club, returning in the small hours in each others arms.