A Puzzling Situation

By Jonathan Pacic

Bryan sighed as he prodded his increasingly soggy cereal with

his spoon. Glancing up at the large kitchen window, he peered out at
the flickering streetlamp. I should be excited, Bryan told himself as he
slowly swirled the spoon in his cereal bowl. So why do I have this non-
stop ache in my stomach?
“Good morning sleepyhead.” greeted Bryan’s mom as she
entered the kitchen and sat down next to him at the table. “I know it’s
early, but you and your dad need to leave by 6:00 to catch your
flight.” Bryan quickly broke his gaze from the streetlamp, and noticed
his mom place a small package wrapped in sparkling red paper on the
table.
“Huh? Oh, hi Mom. I'm not all that tired. It's just...” Bryan
paused for a moment, thinking of the right words to use. "I'm a
little... anxious about visiting Grandpa Willis by myself. Going to the
college basketball tournament finals will be amazing, but I’m not sure
about the rest of spring break.”
“It’s all right to be anxious Bryan. Every new experience should
have us on our toes a little. I know we don't see Grandpa Willis very
often. Why, it’s been almost two years since he last visited, and the
last time we all went to Boston you were a toddler. Attending the
championship tournament is a wonderful opportunity, especially with a
fan as big as your grandpa. Plus, your dad and I feel that twelve is a
fine age for your first solo trip.”
“Watching those games will be incredible,” agreed Bryan. “But
Grandpa Willis… whenever he visits us he is always talking with you
and Dad or working on those word puzzles. I hardly know him."
 Bryan's mom smiled knowingly. “He sure does love puzzles. He
has played and made those games since before I was your age. Words
are his passion, Bryan. That’s why he’s such a great English professor.
Your Grandpa’s word puzzle obsession is actually why I brought you
this.”
Bryan’s mom handed him the package. “This should help you
feel a little less awkward during your grandpa’s daily morning puzzle
sessions.”
Bryan quickly unwrapped the crimson paper.
“A new Sudoku book!" he beamed. Leafing through the pages of
numerical puzzles, his eye caught something written inside the front
cover. “What’s this?”
“Oh, just a little puzzle of my own.” said Bryan’s mom with a
gleam in her eye. “An extra challenge to keep you busy at Grandpa’s
house.”
Bryan carefully read the riddle:
For an adventure that reveals a
connection, find the Remote Cross.

“What does this mean?” asked Bryan. “What on earth is a

remote cross?”
“If I told you, it wouldn’t be a challenge.” his mom replied with a
satisfied grin.

~
Throughout the plane ride to Boston, Bryan divided his time
between solving Sudoku puzzles and musing over his mom’s riddle. He
was so interested in the mystery of the challenge, he almost forgot he
was nervous.
 His anxiety rushed back, however, with the first words Grandpa
Willis spoke as they embraced at the airport. “It sure is great to see
you, Scooter!”
Bryan glanced around to see if anyone noticed. His face
reddened slightly. Why did Grandpa have to call him “Scooter?”
It had all started at one of Bryan’s basketball games during
Grandpa’s last visit. At first, Bryan was elated that Grandpa Willis was
going to watch him play. Then, soon after the game started, the
embarrassment began. For some unknown reason, Grandpa Willis
would shout out “Way to go Scooter!” Every time Bryan made a shot.
By the end of the game, Bryan almost wished his grandpa hadn’t
come. “Scooter” was such a babyish nickname. Bryan desperately
hoped that he would escape it during this visit. Apparently his hopes
were in vain.
After picking up Bryan’s luggage, they walked to Grandpa’s car.
On the back seat a bright blue package reflected the afternoon’s
sunlight.
“What have we here?” Grandpa asked with a smile as he opened
the car door. “It looks like the Boston Welcoming Committee heard
that you were coming. Go ahead and open it!”
Bryan picked up the glittering package. He removed the paper to
find a book of word puzzles. Bryan looked closely at the cover, and his
eyes opened wide.
“Grandpa, did you write this book? It says Charles Willis on the
cover!”
Grandpa Willis smiled broadly. “As a matter of fact, I did. I know
that you prefer Sudoku puzzles, but I think you might enjoy solving
these. Take a look, there’s a special puzzle for you inside the front
cover.”
 Bryan smiled. Two book cover puzzles in one day, he thought as
he opened the book and gazed intently at the message.

Dear Scooter,

GoodWill is In your heart, open to Live By any joyous span.

“I don’t get it.” Bryan mused. “Where’s the puzzle? All I see is
this confusing sentence. It sounds like a fortune cookie”
“The sentence is the puzzle.” replied Grandpa. “It’s an
anagram.”
“An anagram?”
“Anagrams are word puzzles that involve scrambling letters to
create a new word or message. Let me show you…” Grandpa Willis
reached into his pocket and pulled out a felt-tip pen and a pad of
sticky notes.
Bryan watched carefully as his grandpa pulled a sticky note off of
the pad, wrote the letter “B” on it, and stuck it onto the hood of his
car. The “B” was quickly followed by the “ryan.”
“We start with your name.” said Grandpa Willis while pointing at
the line of sticky notes on the hood. “But with a little bit of imagination
and concentration, the letters become something new.”
Bryan’s grandpa lifted each sticky note, and placed it in a new
position on the hood of his car. The phrase “ran By” now peered up at
Bryan’s astonished face.
“Cool!” exclaimed Bryan. “So the fortune cookie sentence is
really another phrase, all scrambled up?”
“Exactly.” said Grandpa Willis. “Hidden in that sentence is a
message from me to you.”
 “And you expect me to solve this?” responded Bryan. “There are
so many letters! I don’t even know where to begin.”
Grandpa Willis looked Bryan straight in the eyes. “The first
things you want to look for when solving a puzzle are the anomalies.
That is, the parts of the puzzle that stick out somehow. Does anything
in my puzzle stick out to you?”
Bryan looked over the mysterious sentence. “Well, I notice that
some of the letters are capitals.”
“Exactly!” beamed Grandpa. “Those capital letters serve a
special purpose in the message. Let’s start by taking a look at the L,
G, and W. My message to you starts with ‘Dear Scooter.’ So, how
should a message like that end?”
Bryan slowly scratched his head. “I’ve got it!” he exclaimed. “It’s
a note, so it ends with ‘Love, Grandpa Willis.’”
“Nice work! Now you know where to place those 17 letters and
the comma. We can work on the remaining 29 letters tomorrow.”
“Thanks for the help, Grandpa.” said Bryan.
“It’s my pleasure. Now let’s head to dinner. How do sandwiches
sound?”

Late that evening, Bryan sat on the edge of his bed solving
Sudoku puzzles by the dim light of the bedside lamp. He was
exhausted, but his mind kept racing through the many events of the
day. To his surprise, Bryan actually looked forward to working with his
grandpa tomorrow to solve the special anagram puzzle.
Special puzzle? Bryan suddenly realized that he had forgotten his
mom’s puzzle. He quickly reread the riddle:
For an adventure that reveals a
 connection, find the Remote Cross.

Bryan looked closely at the sentence, thinking about Grandpa’s

hint with the anagram. Did this puzzle have any anomalies? Bryan
rested his finger on Remote Cross. Both words were capitalized and
underlined. Could that be some kind of clue?
“Of course!” Bryan excitedly rose off the bed. “Remote Cross
must be the title of a book that Grandpa has! I bet the secret to the
puzzle is in that book.”
It was late, but Bryan knew that he wouldn’t fall asleep until he
looked for that book. Grandpa Willis Must be asleep by now, so Bryan
would have to be very cautious.
Bryan opened his door and walked down the short hallway to the
living room. After feeling along the wall for a few moments, Bryan
turned on the light and intently scanned the room. The only bookshelf
was in the far corner. As Bryan slowly paced to the shelf, he wondered
why someone who loved words so much wouldn’t have a larger
collection of books.
The shelf was tall and narrow, only about three feet wide but
extending from the floor to the ceiling. Bryan started at the top
carefully reading the title of each book. A little more than halfway
down on the leftmost edge of the shelf, Bryan found it. The golden
lettering sparkled like a fabled treasure as Bryan’s heartbeat
quickened. He grasped the book to remove it from the shelf, but it
didn’t move. The book was stuck. Bryan took a deep breath, wedged
his fingers in between the book and the wall of the shelf, and pulled
hard.
 The book gave slightly and a sudden “click” filled the silence of
the living room. At that same moment, the leftmost side of the shelf
slowly drifted toward Bryan.
“It’s a door!” Bryan gasped as light from behind the shelf
revealed a small room lined with bookshelves.
“Of course it is,” replied a voice from a corner in the new room.
“It’s hard to get into a secret room without a door.”
Bryan stepped through the bookshelf-door to see grandpa Willis
seated in an overstuffed chair, a book resting in his lap.
“Grandpa, this is amazing!” said Bryan as he looked around. The
room was filled with books, a few comfortable chairs, and a small
desk.
“Welcome to my reading room, Bryan. It’s a tradition of mine to
begin and end each day here. Your mother told me about her puzzle
when I called to let her know you arrived safely. You solved it in record
time!”
“Thanks Grandpa. There’s still something I don’t get though.
What is a remote cross?
“It’s a puzzle, of course.” smiled Grandpa Willis. “Remote cross
is an anagram for ‘secret rooms.’”
“Rooms?” asked Bryan.
Grandpa Willis rose out of the chair and strode to the far end of
the reading room. “I have one secret room for each of my favorite
hobbies. One for reading, and the other for basketball.” Grandpa Willis
pulled on a book that released another bookshelf-door.
Bryan entered the second secret room, which was considerably
smaller than the reading room. The walls were covered with shelves
holding trophies, signed basketball memorabilia, and framed
newspaper articles.
 Bryan noticed a framed black and white picture of a young man
making a jump-shot. The headline above the picture announced
“Scooter Willis leads Central High to State Championship.”
“Grandpa!” gasped Bryan. “Your nickname was Scooter?”
Grandpa Willis blushed slightly. “Indeed it was, Bryan. My father
gave it to me after my first year on a team. You see, my father had a
great love of words and puzzles. He nicknamed me Scooter because it
was an anagram of the phrase “to score.”
“To score,” whispered Bryan. Suddenly “Scooter” didn’t seem
quite as babyish anymore.
“That’s why I started calling you Scooter at that game of yours.”
said Grandpa. “Watching you play reminded me of my days on the
court long ago. You play spectacularly, Bryan. And, from the looks of
your first day here, you are quite a puzzle solver as well. What do you
say to shooting some hoops down at the park tomorrow?”
Bryan smiled broadly. “I’d love to Grandpa. That is, after our
morning puzzle solving session. I still have one puzzle from today left
to solve.”

Challenge: Can you solve the rest of the anagram that Grandpa Willis
made for Bryan?

If you have a guess, or would like a little more help in the clue
department (after trying the clues on the next few pages), please
send me a message at
PuzzlingSituation@hotmail.com

See the next page for a few clues to solving the anagram
Hints:
1) The remaining portion of the puzzle is one complete eight-
word sentence.
2) The first word of the puzzle is “I”
3) The capital “B” does not stand for “Bryan”
4) The capital “B” Stands for a place in the story.

For even more help, go to the next page for a clue that shows
the the length of the eight remaining words.
 The anagram fits into this eight word frame:

_ ____ ___ _____ ____ ____ __ _ _ _ _ _ _.