Page 24 of Piece By Piece

She sat down like a woman about to take a final exam.

“Dixie, I gotta tell you, that one’s pretty advanced,” Grant started.

“Honey, I was doing this kind of stuff before you were born. My late husband Johnny used to clip them out of the newspaper for me. Now you hush up and let me concentrate.”

She finished it in seven minutes flat.

Grant knew because he had timed her without meaning to.

It had taken him nine minutes.

She slid the completed grid across the table, then looked at him with the happiness of a woman who had just proven a point without saying it.

“You got anything harder?”

He stared at her. “How did you…”

“Sugar, I’ve been running a bookstore for decades. You think I don’t know my way around a grid? Lord, I’ve cataloged more inventory than you’ve probably had hot dinners, and my brain is a filing cabinet with a turbocharger.”

He reached under the table and pulled out a puzzle he’d been saving for himself. It was a level five logic challenge with overlapping constraints.

Dixie took it, adjusted her reading glasses, and went to work.

A small crowd gathered to watch, and Liza walked over and stood beside Grant.

“Is she beating your hardest puzzle?”

“She just might.”

“Oh my gosh, this is the best thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Dixie finished it in twelve minutes.

“Now,” she said, “who wants to play me?”

Nobody volunteered, of course.

A man in the small crowd leaned toward his wife and whispered something. She shook her head firmly.

Dixie stood up and smoothed her blouse.

“Well, that’s what I thought.”

She patted Grant on the arm as she walked past him.

“Those were fun, honey. You should bring some harder ones next time.”

Grant watched her go with something Liza could only call bewildered respect.

“She just beat your hardest puzzle faster than you can,” Liza said.

“Yes, Liza, I’m aware.”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m processing.”

Around 8 p.m., two more familiar faces appeared.