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Grades 4–5 · Home Alone Ready · Badge 2

The phone

Answer a call with the one-sentence script and never say you are alone.

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Step 1 of 9

1Watch

It rings

Film

It rings

The house phone on the kitchen counter, ringing. A kid at the table looks at it, then at the empty hall. The film ends on her hand reaching for it.

15 seconds

A number she does not know. It might be anyone. That is the point of the script: it works on anyone.

2The idea

The script is one sentence

They can’t come to the phone right now. Can I take a message? That is the whole script. It is true whether they are in the shower or in another city. You do not add to it.

Never that you are alone. Not to anyone. Not to someone who sounds like they know you, not the school, not a friend of your mum’s. Can’t come to the phone is the answer to is your mum there. It does not lie and it does not tell.

3The idea

What pushing sounds like

So when will she be back? Is anyone else there? Are you on your own, sweetheart? This is important, I need an adult now. That is the same problem as the one who keeps knocking, and it gets the same answer.

Say the sentence again. Then I have to go now, and hang up. Hanging up is allowed. Message a parent: Someone rang asking if you were home, I said you couldn’t come to the phone. A caller who pushes after the script has told you what you need to know.

4Say it

The sentence

Say it like it is the hundredth time you have said it

“They can't come to the phone right now. Can I take a message?”

Bored is the right tone. Bored gives nothing away.

5The idea

Noor, and the caller who keeps going

Hi, is your dad there? He can’t come to the phone right now, can I take a message? Oh. When’s he back? I can take a message. Is your mum there then? They can’t come to the phone right now. Is anyone with you? I have to go now. Click.

Noor messages her dad. Whole call: forty seconds. She never said where anyone was. Notice she said the script three times and never once answered the actual question. That is the script working exactly as designed.

6Decide

A woman says she is from the school and needs to speak to your mum about tomorrow.

Yes. If she really is from the school she will leave a message and be glad you took it. If she is not, she has learned nothing. The script is polite to the real ones and useless to the others, which is why it is the script.

Look at what each one gives away. At work till six tells a stranger you are alone until six. Hanging up straight off is not dangerous, but it does not work on real callers, and most callers are real. The script does both jobs in one sentence.

Pick one to carry on.

7Try it

Three calls, pick the reply

Interactive

Three calls

Three callers, one at a time, with audio. After each thing they say, pick your reply from three. Two of the callers push. The page shows what each reply gave away.

The third caller sounds like she knows you. Watch what that does to the reply you want to give.

8Find them

Which of these tell the caller you are alone?

Tap the ones that count.

Find all 4.

9Do it

Before you leave this page

Say the sentence out loud five times, until it comes out without thinking. Then have a parent ring you and try it for real.

Tick it when you have done it.

Lesson done.

They can't come to the phone right now, can I take a message? Never that you are alone.

Next lesson: People you know

Badge 2 · The Door and the Phone

2.1Nobody comes in 2.2The one who keeps knocking 2.3The phone 2.4People you know ★Badge Challenge

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