Hayley becomes increasingly frustrated with Paul
Hayley decides to try to turn on the noise-activated lamp, and brings a kettle into the lab to act as her time-delayed activator, giving her time to relocate to the study.
Placing the kettle on the floor and switching it on, she tells Paul to be quiet, before heading up to the study to wait. After a while, she shouts down to Paul to ask him if the lamp had turned on, but he has taken her instruction to remain quiet literally, so he does not respond. She returns to the lab to discover that the lamp had not turned on, even though the kettle had boiled.
Hayley decides to repeat the process, but this time places the kettle right next to the lamp on the table. The lamp has turned on during the process, so she attempts to turn it off again before she leaves by blowing on it, before remembering that it’s not a candle and clicking her fingers instead.
As she then rushes back up the stairs to the study, her loud footsteps cause the lamp to turn back on before she reaches the desk. Returning to the lab to discover that her method has again failed, she makes the assumption that the kettle had boiled too quickly because the water was already hot, so she refills it with cold water.
While setting the kettle up again, she also decides to try to use Paul’s voice as a trigger for the lamp, asking him to call back to her if she calls out his name. However, when she goes up to the study and shouts his name, Paul instead goes upstairs to find out what she wants.
Hayley attempts to provide clearer instructions to Paul, sending him back down to the lab and shouting “Paul, if you can hear me, say ‘I hear you’!”. Paul responds as requested, but at a pretty low volume, which does not trigger the lamp. Hayley returns to the lab and tries to get through to Paul again. While they are talking, the kettle is reaching boiling point, and either the sound of the kettle or of their conversation turns the lamp back on.
Hayley continues to try to get Paul to comply with her instructions, telling him that he should call out “Yeeeessss” to her, when she calls his name (unfortunately, she demonstrates her desired response to him in a somewhat hushed voice, rather than actually yelling out loud, which later allows the very literal Paul to continue to frustrate her).
As the kettle finishes boiling, Paul asks Hayley if she’s going to boil it again, but she says she’s abandoning it. When Paul says he doesn’t think she gave it a chance, Hayley says she already gave it three chances. As he begins to attempt to explain the actual problems with her previous attempts, she shushes him.
Hayley returns once more to the study and yells Paul’s name, prompting him to respond with a subdued “Yeeeessss”, as she had previously demonstrated.
After she returns to the lab again, displaying obvious frustration with Paul, he convinces her to persists with her kettle idea, which she reluctantly does, and which actually works this time.
Hayley completes the task after 19 minutes and 56 seconds, earning 4 points.
(Written by Will G and proofread by Karl Craven)
(Illustrations collected by JoGo & Will G and adjusted by David Fuller)
