By Chris McGinty
He heard the newspaper hit the door. The paperboy was really good with his aim. He stood from his easy chair and went to fetch his paper. When he opened it he saw that the daily puzzle was not there. This perplexed him.
He left his house and walked around the neighborhood until he found the paperboy, who he asked about the daily puzzle. The paperboy said that no one had said anything to him about it, but maybe his boss who handed him the papers each morning would know.
With the directions to the paper distribution center, he drove and found the boy’s boss. The boss was everything that you would expect from a guy working at a distribution center for a newspaper. He had long hair, an unkempt beard, and he was wearing a hat from his pizza delivery job that he probably worked part-time on the weekends. The only thing that wasn’t there was an answer to why the daily puzzle wasn’t in the newspaper. The boss did have the phone number for the editor though.
The man found a pay phone. Yes, you heard me, and called up the editor of the newspaper. He was put on hold and transferred a couple of times, but eventually found himself talking to someone who sounded remarkably like Jameson from the old Spider-Man cartoons. The editor simply stated that the puzzle didn’t come in. They have a three week lead time, so something happened with the puzzle writer three weeks ago where he was unable to put in his submission. The man asked, “Will there be a puzzle tomorrow.” The editor looked at his note and said, “No. I don’t have a submission for tomorrow either.” The man asked if there was a name and address for the puzzle writer, and since it was a simpler time the editor gave him the information.
The man drove to the house of the puzzle writer. It was clear from the pile of newspapers on his front porch and the overflowing mailbox that the puzzle writer had not been home for at least three weeks. He would get no answer here.
He called around to the different hospitals to see if there was a patient by the name the editor gave him. He eventually found the hospital and went there. He walked into the puzzle writer’s room where he found the puzzle writer on life support. He walked over and pulled the plug on the breathing machine. He left the puzzle writer’s room and said, “Puzzle solved.”