For the next two weeks, I’ll be babysitting Jaycie (10) and Max (9) during the week. It’s going to be a bit of an adjustment. First of all, I have to get up at some sixish in the a.m. which is some kind of nonsense. And then there’s the whole spending 45 hours a week with, well, people.

Anyway, to help make our time together extra-special fun, I decided we should download an audiobook as the soundtrack to all our errand running. After a rigorous and rousing debate we ended up with The Dollhouse Murders.

We listened to the audiobook all the way to the UPS Store, not quite a chapter, and as we were getting back into the car, I asked if we were ever gonna get the dollhouse or the murders.

“It’s all exposition right now,” Jaycie said.
“No,” Max said from Ruby’s back seat. “It’s not exposition, it’s a, a, not an epilogue, the other kind.”
“Prologue,” I said.
“Yes. It’s a prologue.”
“No, it’s exposition,” Jaycie said.

The arguing went on for a few minutes. I didn’t stop it because I was too busy figuring out how to explain the difference between the two and was kind of hoping they’d come to the right conclusion on their own. I’m having a tough time with the definitions. So far I’ve had to define traitor, void, precursor, heresy, and pornography (thank you Scott County Library web site).

The dual came to a draw and I was asked to make a ruling.

“It’s exposition,” I said. “It’s background information being given in the context of the story. A prologue is told outside the story, before it starts.”
“Okay,” they said.

I totally got off easy.