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1500 Pieces

2I reluctantly, very reluctantly, awoke from a very tactile memory dream. I had a card table set up in the living room, upon it, a partially worked jigsaw puzzle, a 1500-piece monstrosity. All the pieces were turned right-side up and separate sections were assembled, like little rafts or islands ready to be connected up with the mainland.

Like days gone past, I'd scan the table for certain color combinations and shapes then try to fit them in.  This time, I was looking for leafless dark branches fingering out on a background of robin's egg blue sky, my favorite -- high contrast. Unlike days gone by, the kodak-color, high gloss pictured lid is not propped up on the corner of the table lending guidance. I notice the deepening shadows in the room and go for a lamp to put a little light on the subject.

The lamp is an ancient relic, a yellowed marble-patterned spike with an equally yellowed lampshade. Plugging in the thick braided cord with it's oblong yellowed plug, produced sparks and revealed fraying ends. Though I felt the bizarre pulsating, vibrating shock to my fingertips down to my foot soles, and noted the power dip as the light dimmed and returned, I set the lamp right upon the cardboard-based table.

With the illumination, I was able to see the few misplaced pieces and removed a middle piece from the straight-edged border, a mistake I never would've made, (obviously a little person or a husband was here). Also obvious, the border was incomplete, (never happened with a puzzle I worked).

I set about collecting the straight-edged pieces to work the border when I realize I am missing pieces, many pieces. I check my carpeted floor to find...Lots of pieces...And another partially completed puzzle that my daughter left out on the floor. (funny how I failed to notice that before) I look upon it with fondness, (somehow I've intuited the fleeting specialness of this memory/reality mash-up).

Anxiety kicks in as I realize my husband will arrive soon and I've got a mess on the livingroom floor. As I begin to clean up, destroy my daughter's creation, it dawns on me that she's arriving with him. Oh, what have I done?! One puzzle led to two and became six...Unfinished puzzles...And one was a custom photo puzzle of my daughter with her boyfriend (that she broke up with) but in my dream, they got back together.

Wow! Lots of insight into my psyche there!!!

I wish I could summon back my dream.  The memory of the physical sensation of touching the coated cardboard puzzle pieces was exquisite -- the sharp and rounded edges, the smooth of the photo side compared to the dull gray rougher backside. I haven't felt that feeling for years.

As for cleaning up the mess...What mess? That's my baby girl's creativity! Screw Better Homes and Gardens!!!!



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Location: 2720 E Madison St, Seattle, WA 98112, USA

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