Escape from reality

The bookshelf in The Study hides a secret space with
treasure and the clue to escape the room.

I finally got on the escape room ride. 

My sister would talk about them and how much fun they were. She had tried several with friends. They've popped up all over in the past few years. I hadn't done any. 

Escape rooms, if you aren't familiar, are themed entertainment. You and a group of friends -- or strangers -- are locked in a room. You look for clues, keys, puzzles, riddles, hidden objects — whatever you need to escape in an hour and solve the mystery. 

Here's something else you need to know about my sister: She loves projects. She loves making things, doing things, taking things apart, fixing things, putting things back together. 

While I enjoy projects — usually if I know what I'm doing — she loves them, even if she's never done it before. Nothing is too challenging. Dishwasher not working? She's got the tools for it. And YouTube. Need furniture refinished? Ditto. Have a landscaping project? Of course. 

It was no surprise when I arrived at her house that she had one of her bedrooms in the midst of becoming an escape room. Her best friend's birthday was in October, and she decided to make an escape room. 

She started in August. She made most of the props and bought the objects she needed, like old locks, magnetic locking devices, a keypad lock for the door and security camera. She built a fake wall in front of the closet with a hidden secret panel. She came up with the backstory, wrote journal pages, made puzzles, paintings, invisible ink and a website. 

It was a huge undertaking and quite impressive. I helped a little at the end, cleaning up and staging, painting, handing her tools as she wired and rewired the locking mechanism in the hidden compartment. (She even made fake brick panels to line the walls of the hidden compartment. There is no end to what she can do with cardboard, a sharp blade, hot glue and paint.)

I helped her be sure the clues would lead to the right key or solution. I wrote a cheesy rhyming poem to add an element to the game. I made the video for the website. 

But 99 percent of it was hers. 

She worried her friend would think it was lame. 

She needn't have worried. 

On the appointed night, her friends arrived, excited and not really sure what to expect. They received a box with photos of the key people, string, pencil, notepad, flashlight, bottle of invisible ink and two "blank" journal pages. They were turned into a dark room, the door closed and the timer started. 

We watched from her phone downstairs. We could hear and see them. Her iPad in a frame on the wall was linked to her computer, and it counted down the time and gave them clues when they needed them. (Some escapes give preset clues. Others will tailor them to where you are at, which is what we did.)

They were able to escape the room, find the hidden treasure and determine who killed Mr. Goldsworthy. But it wasn't easy, and they needed the clues.

It was neat to be involved in the planning and execution. (I even got to be an actor, Goldsworthy's attorney, who gave them the box and final instructions before locking them in.)

They had a great time. My sister loved it. Even during the build she was using "next time" and "if I did it again" phrases. 

She and her friend would love to do it as a business. It would be neat to take it to the next level, adding more haunt type elements (jump scares) or actors who actually interact during the escape to give clues, like the whodunit mysteries. 

If anyone knows investors, I know some enthusiastic entrepreneurs who'd love to escape into this business.