cerebrate
[ser-uh-breyt]
1. to use the mind; think or think about.
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Vince was not good at puzzles. It did not matter what type it was, he was just bad at them. From jigsaw to logic to games and everything in between. If the term puzzle could be used to describe it, Vince was apt to fail. His friends had often joked that he could not solve a puzzle to save his life. He was fine with that as long as it was just figurative.
The problem was that it was now literal.
His breathing was fast as his sweat soaked fingers fumbled with the colorful plastic cube. He twisted and turned the different segments until the different colors started to bleed together. He saw a glimmer of hope when a few sides showed the same color. With a final twist, another side was complete. When he looked at the cube he saw that two segments were wrong. Just two, and they were on opposite sides of the cube. To him, that presented an impossible situation.
“You got close that time.” A heavily distorted voice said.
It came from a speaker placed above a timer. Vince risked a glance at the timer, seeing his ever dwindling time. It made him panic even more than he already was.
He opened his mouth to speak, but closed it before any words escaped. He had been connected to the guillotine-like death trap for an hour and a half. He had yet to get any information out of his captor other than that he had to solve a single puzzle to escape. In front of him, just within arms reach, was a partially completed jigsaw puzzle, a sheet of paper with a paragraph of text on it, and a small wire ring puzzle.
At first, Vince had tried to finish the jigsaw puzzle. He could mostly do those, given enough time and a clear enough picture to work from. But alas, he had neither of those. THe only other option he had was the Rubik’s Cube, since he knew those had a set solution. He had even looked it up once.
But that solution eluded him now, when he needed it most. He continued to work on the cube, twisting and turning it until the near complete state it had been in was utterly destroyed. Vince let out a pained yell as he felt the weight of the device on his back. He was about to throw the cube away in defeat when the voice chimed in again.
“What’s wrong? Giving up? You only have half an hour left you know.”
Vince growled and ground his teeth. No. Not now. He would not give up so easily. He took a deep breath and calmed himself as much as he was able. He closed his eyes and thought. He thought about the cube in his hands. He thought about past experiences with such things. He thought harder than he ever had before.
And then his fingers started moving. Without even looking at the puzzle, his fingers worked the rotating segments. All the while, his mind continued to work. It started to drift to other subjects, but Vince forced his mind back into place. He ignored the timer. He ignored the blade hovering above him. He ignored the occasional taunt of his captor. He ignored everything but his own thoughts and the tactile sensations of his hands.
And then he opened his eyes. In his hands was a cube, with each side a single, solid color. He looked up in triumph. He had done it. He had solved a puzzle to save his life.
“Well, I’ll be. Good job.” The voice said. The timer stopped. “But, think you can do it again with something else?”
The timer reset, this time with an hour instead of two.
“You’ve got three more to choose from. Good luck.”
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Like this guy, I am not particularly good at puzzles. I can do some easy ones, but beyond that...well, it's definitely not my strong point, that's for sure. Of course, I've never been captured by a Saw-esque villain and forced to solve puzzles or anything like that. I consider that a good thing, really.
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