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Today’s Brain Game is a riddle. The solution doesn’t involve any real trickery; just a keen mind and careful reading. Good luck!
You and your twin brother were the only two children of your parents. (Your brother lives alone, never married, and never had kids.) When you graduated high school, you married your childhood sweetheart. Like your parents, you and your wife had twin boys. Neither you nor your wife ever wed anyone else, had children with anyone else, or adopted any children.
When your two sons turned five years of age, you and your wife decided that you wanted a third son. Unfortunately, tragedy struck before she could become pregnant. While up north at a skiing lodge, an avalanche rumbled down the mountainside and swamped the hotel where you were staying. You were the only survivor; your father and mother, your wife, and both of your sons died in the accident.
It’s been a difficult time since then, but you’re really looking forward to some fun this Christmas. That’s when your two kids’ grandparents plan to come to your house and visit them for the very first time.
Since both your parents and your twins are no longer alive, how is this possible?
Comments (14)
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Kind of a cheap one. I guessed that my wife’s parents visited the boys graves. Depressing brain game.
posted by Bill on 8-4-2009 at 8:46 am
I agree with Bill…Sad Brain Game…too depressing to solve.
posted by Gary on 8-4-2009 at 9:00 am
Also, you had a robot, named Rosie, who had her two sons that you adopted after the avalanche. And your mom and dad’s neighbors growing had the last name “Grandparents”, so thats how it’s possible.
posted by Chris on 8-4-2009 at 9:19 am
Maternal grandparents go to the grave?
pretty sick recaptcha given the nature of the question; “fam ablution”
posted by Sandie on 8-4-2009 at 10:05 am
The text states that the grandparents came to the house to visit them… so no, it wouldn’t involve going to a gravesite.
posted by Sandy Wood on 8-4-2009 at 11:37 am
And sorry that it was depressing. The good news is that it’s totally fictional. Having the people just “go away” didn’t seem like an appropriate option.
posted by Sandy Wood on 8-4-2009 at 11:38 am
The text does say that the grandparents came to the house to visit them for the first time. I assumed that the mom’s parents had never come to visit and therefore didn’t know that the children were dead.
Oh well – I wasn’t depressed until I read Bill and Gary’s comments.
Good one, Sandy.
posted by SlackJack on 8-4-2009 at 11:54 am
I assumed that the twins were cremated and placed on the mantle or something. Then the wife’s parents could visit them (i.e. see the cremated remains).
posted by Steve on 8-4-2009 at 12:39 pm
or, wife’s brothers and/or sisters have kids which will also be visiting at Christmas, wife’s mom and dad have never seen your neices and/or nephews…
posted by cecil on 8-4-2009 at 1:20 pm
Sooo, my late wife’s parents didn’t see the girls when they came for the memorial service?
posted by James on 8-4-2009 at 1:45 pm
No, James, it was too traumatic for girls that young. And to meet new strangers (the grandparents) at such a sad time would have only traumatized them further.
posted by Sandy Wood on 8-4-2009 at 2:11 pm
Without specifying that my wife had no siblings, I assumed that my in-laws were coming to visit my nieces/nephews. Doing it at my house seemed a little cruel, though.
posted by Thomas on 8-4-2009 at 3:12 pm
I guess since at the beginning I thought, “But I’m a girl! I can’t have a wife (at least here…)” that at least put me on the right track of thinking about the sex of the children as well.
It was pretty depressing, but tricky. The niece / nephew thing seems to work too.
posted by April on 8-27-2009 at 9:08 pm
It didn’t even matter if you had daughters or not.
The two kid’s grandparents would still be your wives parents. It never said the 2 kids still were alive or that you were going with them to visit them.
posted by KayTee on 9-29-2009 at 3:14 pm