Free Write - Jigsaw Puzzle

 

Although we are in two countries, Switzerland and France, thanks to the miracle of the internet, we still were able to "meet" and share our thoughts. Julia, a fan of jigsaw puzzles, used a photo of her latest for the prompt.

Julia's Free Write

Piece by piece, slowly and often more by shape than color…It a been a lovely day, a ride up the mountain by cable car, ending in a longer-than-expected walk, opening onto a natural ring of mountains surrounding the almost obligatory lake: we were in the Swiss Alps after all.
Sunny, the place had its’ share of visitors,  in spite of being off the beaten track.
They were grateful- and more than happy to pay- that there was a taxi service for the return trip.
So, opening her Christmas present brought it all flooding back. Amazing that her son had purchased just that one!
The days, weeks, and months passed as it was started stopped, rolled up for this or that dinner, game or meeting.
Partially destroyed by first her cats then her grandsons, here it was, finally finished; the wonderful puzzle  - a slice of her life.

 Julia has written and taken photos all and loves syncing up with friends.  Her blog can be found: https://viewsfromeverywhere.blogspot.com/

D-L's Free Write

 "I found the last bench piece." Jason pushed it into the puzzle.

Janice smiled at her husband's pleasure. For years they had lived in unconnected harmony, ever since Kai, their youngest had left for uni. He now had his doctorate.

She had her part time work at the library, knitting, gym. He had his sports and garden and sports and meeting his buddies for coffee Saturdays morning and sports. He took some carpentry projects if they interested him.

She had found the 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle in a charity shop wrapped in plastic so it was most likely complete. Once home, she put it out on the dining room table.

The scene of a lake and mountains reminded her of their honeymoon in the Alps and the puzzles she had done during blizzards when she was a child in Maine.

Amazement was the only word she could think of when Jason sat down and began joining pieces. They has spent several evenings working on it together. One night she made popcorn for the two of them.

Periodically one would say something, first about the puzzle, then about one of their kids or friends. It was more than they had said to each other in months.

"Do you want to order take out? Chinese?" she asked. 

"Let's go to the China Moon. No dishes for you to do."

"I'll make a reservation." Maybe she was making a reservation for a different relationship.

Jason kissed her hair when he walked by to get his jacket.

D-L has had 17 fiction and non fiction books published. Check out her website at:. https://dlnelsonwriter.com   

Rick's Free Write

I was puzzled. Where could that piece be? A thousand-word puzzle of a Swiss mountain lake scene, and I couldn’t finish it because of one lousy little piece of meadow grass.

I’d been working on the puzzle, on and off, for several weeks. I was in no hurry, obviously, but now that it was almost finished, I WANTED TO FINISH!

I looked around my office floor, trying to see a tiny ½-inch piece of cardboard of irregular shape. Green, or maybe plain. I got down on my hands and knees (until my knees couldn’t take it anymore), looking under the card table the puzzle was on, under the desk, the bookshelves, the printer stand… I checked every shelf, the wastebasket, lifted the edges of the rug…

If I don’t find that stupid piece, my mood would be shot for the day. I won’t get anything productive done.

I went in the kitchen, checked the recycle bin. Of course, if it was ever in there it might have been thrown out weeks ago.

The bedroom! Maybe it stuck to my sock and was in the bottom of the laundry hamper.

I ended up scouring the entire house, every room, even the car. I pulled everything out of its storage place and put it back. By the end of the day, the house was in the best order it had ever been.

It’s their fault! The manufacturer missed a piece. Maybe they did it deliberately to torment me. I’ll never buy a puzzle from them again! Maybe never buy another puzzle ever.

I scrunched up the nearly finished puzzle and started to toss it in the wastebasket. When I...

 Rick Adams is an aviation journalist and publisher of www.aviationvoices. com