Rescube 51 by Holly Roy slammed on the brakes and leaned on the horn of the squad. It screeched abruptly to a halt several yards away from a wide-eyed boy on a bicycle who gaped at the shiny red truck like it was as unexpected in the street as a submarine. "Kids!" Roy spat in disgust as he watched the boy and his bike wobble back to the side of the street. "You'd think their parents would teach them better than that!" He stepped on the gas and the squad accelerated again. "Thought we were gonna have a still alarm, right there!" he added. He turned his head to look at Johnny, who dutifully glanced up toward the windshield and said, "Uh huh." Johnny then returned his attention to the cube of colored squares he was manipulating in his hands. "Johnny..." Roy sighed. "Are you sure that didn't come with a solution? I'm afraid you're gonna go nuts if you don't get it figured out." "I'm figurin' it out! I've almost got it a couple o' times." "I haven't seen you this obsessed since that magician guy gave you that ball with the 'secret of the universe' in it, or whatever it was." Johnny didn't reply. He just rotated small colored plastic cubes. ------------ "Where's Gage?" Captain Stanley said, looking up from where he sat at the dayroom table. "Still sitting in the squad," Roy replied as he strode through the door from the bay. ""Aw, Jeez..." Chet moaned. "Working on that puzzle thing of his?" "Yep," Roy said, sitting down heavily on the dayroom couch. "Ya' know, I think I'd rather have him in one of his chattery moods than so...so...focused, or whatever this is. He's kind of scary this way." "Where'd he get that thing, anyway?" Mike Stoker asked. "Some girlfriend gave it to him," Chet Kelly replied. "She works for a department store, and says they're going to be released in a few months. She told him these're going to be promoted really hard, and be really big. Um...somebody's 'cube,' it's called." "Rubik's." "Huh?" Chet asked. "Rubik's Cube. And I, for one, would like to get my hands on it when Johnny's through," Marco announced, wearing oven mittens and an apron and setting a pot of stew in the middle of the dinner table. "I think it looks like fun." "Aw, you couldn't work that! None of us could! The possible combinations...well, they've gotta be mathmatically infinite! And Gage has been fiddling with that thing since he got here this morning. He'll never get all nine sides back to their original colors," Chet said. "Well, I wish he'd hurry up and get it solved, and come back and rejoin the rest of the world," Cap said. "Heck, I wish he'd just get in here for supper. GAGE! SUPPER!" At that moment, Johnny came bounding into the dayroom from the bay. "I've got it!!! Look at this!!! I've finally got it!!!" As one, all five of his colleagues swarmed around him. "Let's see!" "How'd you do it?" "You got it?" "Well, finally!" "Here, lemme see!" At last, Roy held the cube and yelled, "What are you talking about? You only got one side!" "Well..." Johnny looked hurt. "That's what I meant..." "One green side is a looooong way from solving this thing." Cap emitted a long-suffering sigh. "Alright, everybody, let's eat before Marco's stew gets cold. And Gage, for Pete's sake, put that thing away for a while!" "But Cap..." "Put it away!" God, Cap thought. Just like an eight-year-old! -------------- Thirty minutes later found Roy backing the squad once again into the bay. Johnny sat on the seat beside him, on the verge of leaping out of the vehicle before it stopped moving. "I can't believe I left it." "Just wait, will you?" "If Chet's messed it up, I'll cripple him." "Well, if he has, I guess I can't stop you." Roy rolled his eyes. The engine shut off, and Johnny bolted out of the cab and into the dayroom. Roy wasn't many steps behind him. Cap looked up from the seven o'clock news broadcast on the television. "That was fast," he commented. "Yeah, well, the dad had the kid's head out by the time we got there. We checked him over, and he wasn't even bruised," Roy told him. As Roy spoke, Johnny's eyes had been flitting all about the room. He'd finally located his treasure on the coffee table. And facing up on the Rubik's Cube was one solid green side. He sighed in relief that no one had messed up his last ten hours of work. But then, he noticed it also had a solid red side. And a solid blue one. He dashed to the coffee table and snatched it up. All nine sides were their original colors. "Who did this???" he demanded. "Did what?" Roy asked. "Somebody got this back like it was..." "Oh. Chet did that while you were out," Stoker told him casually as he put the last plate into the cabinet. "Chet...?" Johnny almost whispered, turning the cube over and over in his hands, as if that would reveal an answer. "Sure did," Cap verified. "Right before our eyes." "I don't believe it... Chet?" Chet had been holding an open newspaper before his face. He lowered it. "What? Oh. Yeah, I hoped you wouldn't mind. I got kinda bored." "I don't believe this!" Johnny was still scowling as he perused the cube. "Chet?" Johnny said for the third time. "Yes, Johnny," Marco put in, with exaggerated patience. "Chet did it. We all watched him. He's very good!" Chet lowered the newspaper again. "Well, Johnny, you just have to understand the possible mathmatical permutations and their relationships to each other as they're applied to the nine colored faces on the cube. You see..." "Chet...shut up." Johnny placed the cube gently back on the coffee table and stood there for a moment. His face still held the record of his astonishment. NO ONE should be able to do this, but the fact that it had been Chet, his number one nemesis, stung. Johnny walked across the room toward the dorm. Something was not right here, but he hadn't quite figured out what it was. He knew, however, that he eventually would. He left the dayroom. Four pairs of eyes watched him close the door behind him. Captain Stanley tried to keep his attention focused on the television and remain neutral. Roy spoke first. "So, how did he do it?" Mike and Marco were chuckling softly, trying not to be heard. "Stickers," Mike said. "What?" Roy responded. Chet lowered his newspaper one more time and laid it beside him on the couch. "The cube is black plastic, and the colored squares are just plastic stickers. I peeled them off and moved them. Nobody could really work that thing!" Mike and Marco were laughing now. Chet grinned and said, "I know Gage'll figure it out. Five minutes, ten minutes tops. But it's worth it!" now who coulda wrote this story? |