PUZZLE CLUB

I heard my son Alex in the kitchen refilling his glass with water.

“Hey, Alex!” I called out to him. “I’m finished! Do you want to see?”

Seconds later, Alex was standing in the doorway, taking a sip from his glass.

“TaDa!” I cried as I moved my hands over the finished puzzle like a game show model. “I’m done!”

“Wow!” Alex came into the room to get a better look. “That was fast.”

“Well,” I had to laugh. “You gave me this two years ago for Christmas, so I’m going to say not that fast.”

“But you only took it out a few days ago and started working on it again.”

I stood back to admire my work. “I know I asked you to get me the puzzle mat so I could roll it up and put it away when I was working at the dining room table. But that wasn’t working for me.” I looked over at Alex. “I think the secret to finally getting it done was having a table where I could leave it out all the time. This way I could stop by and put a few pieces together, move on to something else, then go back and get some more done.”

Alex nodded. “I remember when you first took it out you thought asking for a thousand piece puzzle had been a mistake.”

“Well now I don’t.” I smiled as I sat down in my chair and began rubbing my fingers over the smooth surface of the puzzle, making sure to tap down any loose pieces.

Alex leaned against the door-jam. “So are you going to glue the back of it and save it?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I thought about that.” I couldn’t help but sigh. “But really where would I put it?” I looked around the room. “It isn’t like I’m going to frame it and hang it up.”

“So what are you going to do with it?”

I took out my phone. “I was thinking about taking a picture of it.” I stood up on the chair I’d been sitting on to get a better shot. “This way I can have the memory of the finished puzzle but still be able to box them up and maybe find someone else who likes to do puzzles and we can do a puzzle swap!”

“Puzzle swap?”

“Hey, these puzzles aren’t cheap!” I snapped the picture then checked to see if I’d gotten the shot I liked. “Nope.” I hit erase and handed the phone to Alex. “Can you try and get a better shot?”

I stepped down from the chair and Alex climbed up. “So until you find someone to swap puzzles with, what are you planning on doing?”

Alex handed me the phone to see if I like the picture he’d snapped.

“It’s perfect! Thanks!”

“No problem.” Alex stepped back down and picked up his glass again. “Are you going to get a new puzzle?”

I smiled as I put the phone down. “Well, I have to admit, I was getting this one done so quickly that I ordered a new one a few days ago. It’s suppose to arrive today.”

Just then we heard the doorbell ring. I looked over at Alex and couldn’t hide my surprise. “Wouldn’t that be perfect timing if that’s my new puzzle getting dropped off?”

Alex nodded then laughed as he reached over and turned off the light. “That would be perfect timing.”