Theme: Puzzle
The young girl sighed, feeling defeated, as she placed the jigsaw puzzle piece back in the box and stared at the vast sea of blinding white sprawled out on the picnic table in front of her. Taking a break, she lied down on the bench, closing her eyes.
The park was eerily quiet that afternoon. Usually it would be bustling with people at that time of day. Everyone was too preoccupied with the small game of soccer that was being played in the far field. Ib was never a fan of soccer, nor sports in general for that matter. Her lungs could never support the amount of air she needed to run, so instead she was stuck in the park putting together puzzles instead of throwing a ball around or playing tag with other kids of her age.
She didn't mind too much. Puzzles were interesting at times. They also provided her with an overwhelming amount of self-achievement whenever she completed one.
Yes, she didn't mind at all…
"You look like you could need some help with that." The sudden intrusion surprised her and her eyes fluttered open, revealing two large crimson orbs. Right across from her sat a man with unkempt lavender hair and tattered jacket. She silently screamed in her head for being found in such an unpresentable manner and sat up, straightened her back, and gave a polite smile.
"Yes, it's been giving me a bit of trouble. I'm usually very quick at solving these." She furrowed her brow, concentrating once more on the puzzle before her. The man chuckled.
"Well it's definitely more difficult, with its pieces being all white." He retorted, also concentrating on the puzzle. Ib gave a short nod, not minding his company. How would she find the right piece in 1000 pieces to fit each other? "-are called?" Ib snapped out of her thinking mode and looked up at the man. Had he said something?
"Um, I'm sorry. Could you repeat that?" He grinned.
"Do you know what these types of puzzles are called?" She shook her head, indicating a 'no'. "They're called milk puzzles, no need to explain why they're called that. They were all the rage twenty years ago." He explained. She nodded. She felt like she already knew this information from somewhere else but she shrugged it off. "Do you like milk?"
"It's alright." She replied, Ib had always been a laconic child after all.
"To solve these types of jigsaw puzzles, there really is no trick. The puzzle is what it is." The man said slowly while picking up one of the pieces. Ib had yet to match any of the pieces together. "You need to go through each puzzle piece and try to fit it on each side of the puzzle piece. If it doesn't work, then put it aside and work on the next one. The key is patience." Ib gave a mental sigh. That would take forev-"Voila!"
Ib stared at the man's hands to see that he had matched two of the pieces together. How? How did he do it when she sat there for an hour and couldn't fit a single piece to each other?! The man chuckled at the child's expression and handed the duo to her.
"To be honest, I'm actually no good at solving jigsaw puzzles." He admitted. "I was never a child to do them in the first place, but one day, I had an urge to do one and I took it out." Ib kept staring at the two pieces in her hands while listening to his story.
"Just looking at the mass of puzzle pieces made my head hurt, but then I thought, 'what if these puzzle pieces were like people?'" That caught her attention. She snapped her head back up to look at him. "We approach a person only depending on the first impression to tell us everything about him or her. What we don't realize is that there are many sides to a person, just like there are sides to a jigsaw. All 3 sides may not fit, but one side might! But we can never know that until we try all 4 sides."
Ib looked down at the puzzle pieces again.
"Just because that person has different interests than me doesn't mean that we won't fit together. We could just find something that we both like to do, thus fitting us together. There's always a chance we will fit because all the puzzle pieces look the same, there's no set picture to tell us automatically what will go where."
Suddenly a soccer ball rolled towards them, stopping short right in front of Ib. In the far distance came a child running closer and closer. Finally about 3 meters away, he held his hands up, waving.
"Why aren't you playing soccer?" He asked, coming closer. Ib recognized him to be one of her friends from the daycare center she went to afterschool. "It's tons of fun, you should join!"
"I, um- I can't." She stumbled on her words, not meeting the boy's eyes.
"Oh… I see." He said, disappointed. She kicked the ball to him and he easily caught it in his arms.
"You have a great kick! Too bad you can't play." He said. "Then, see you later!" He started walking back towards the fields.
"Don't you want to go play with them?" The man asked Ib. The girl bit her lip. How could she play with them? She just couldn't, her lungs wouldn't—she thought back to what the man had told her earlier.
Biting her lip some more and summoning up her courage, she called out to the boy. "HEY!" He turned as she ran towards him, panting and catching her breath by the time she reached him. "I-um-I-I do want to play! B-But maybe I can be a referee or goalie or something that doesn't require running?" She suggested. He burst into a huge grin and nodded.
"Of course! That would be heaps of fun!" He said. "Then let's go!" He ran towards the fields once more. Ib was about to but she gave turned around and gave one look back at the man.
He gave her a thumbs-up.
"Thank you." She mouthed. With that, she waved and turned around, running towards the soccer field where everyone else was.
"No problem, Ib." The man said to himself. He grinned happily and got up from the bench. The only thing that was marked that the two had even been there was the abandoned milk puzzle, with its two pieces fit together.
Who is this mysterious man? And how did he know Ib's name?!
Well, you guys obviously know who he was. I actually set this after the ending, "Memory's Crannies." I would say that was a pretty sad ending but then again, all of them are! X'D (especially Forgotten Portrait!)
And also,
THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH FOR THE SUPPORT!
I did not expect so many favorites, follows, and reviews! Over 20 favorites and follows for one chapter? You guys make me happy! And thanks to those who reviewed! I love reading your reactions and responses :)
I'm sorry I was a bit late with this chapter! Inspiration never hits but when it does, it hits like a truck!
If anyone has ideas for themes of the upcoming chapters, please PM them to me! I always try to base of a topic so I'll have a foundation of some sort.
Which reminds me, my goal for this collection of stories is to write 100 one shots of Ib fanfiction, thus the title 100 Roses For You. (harharhar, I'm so clever/shot)
Now that I got all of that out of the way, until next time!
- xSunni
