The Jigsaw Puzzle

When Penny was a little girl of six or seven or eight years old she went to visit her great-aunt, who lived deep in the woods in a small cabin built between two giant pine trees. She loved to visit her old aunt because there were all sorts of fun old-fashioned games and clothes and other things tucked away in the small cabin.

Her aunt let her play dress-up with dresses and bonnets and other clothes from days gone by. Penny was allowed to do anything she wanted and go anywhere in the cabin, except one place. There was a small pantry next to the kitchen, and at the back of the pantry was a tall wooden cupboard, and that was the only place Penny was not allowed to go. She never saw her aunt get anything out of it or put anything away in it. The cupboard was so mysterious.

One rainy night, after her aunt had gone to bed, Penny was hunting around for something to do. She played solitaire with an old deck of cards. She looked through an old photo album with faded pictures of relatives she’d never met. Some were young, some were old.

She went into the bedroom she slept in when she visited. She peeked under the bed and found an old shoebox full of receipts. On each receipt was written what her aunt bought, and the date it was purchased.

Penny wandered back out toward the kitchen and saw the pantry door. She knew she wasn’t allowed to go in, but she also knew the door wasn’t locked. As if the trees outside knew what she was thinking, the wind and rain suddenly roared against the large window next to the kitchen table. She looked out into the dark night, she could see the branches of the trees outside waving like fingers near the window.

She wrapped her fingers around the door handle to the pantry and slowly pulled the door open with a loud creak. She held very, very still, but didn’t hear any sound from her aunt’s room.

She reached up and pulled the little chain that switched on the light in the little pantry. And a few steps away from her stood the mysterious cupboard. She stepped closer and pulled the cupboard door open. It was empty inside, except for an old cardboard box.

Gently, Penny slid the box out of the cupboard and carried it to the kitchen. When she opened it she saw pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and wondered if they were all there. Only one way to find out. She poured the puzzle pieces onto the table and started flipping them all face up. The colors of the pieces were sort of familiar.

As she found a few pieces that fit together there seemed to be something she recognized about the picture they started to make. Then she realized it was a picture of the room she was in — the puzzle pieces made a picture of her aunt’s kitchen!

One by one she pieced together the puzzle, and soon she had the perimeter assembled and saw it was as if someone stood in the pantry doorway and took the picture. The room came together, one piece at a time, and after a few minutes she had part of the window, which was dark and rainy just like tonight.

A chill went up her spine when she added a few more pieces in, and a girl who was dressed just like her was sitting at the table. She almost stopped and put the puzzle away, but curiosity got the best of her.

Twenty minutes later, she had the entire puzzle assembled and it was just like she was watching herself — the puzzle was a picture of her, sitting at her aunt’s table, assembling a jigsaw puzzle in front of a rainy, wet window. But one piece was missing. Behind the girl in the picture, a final puzzle piece was needed to complete the window.

Penny stood up and tiptoed over to the pantry and looked into cupboard, and just when she was about to give up, she heard a rapping on the window. Like someone was knocking on the glass. She peeked out into the kitchen, but saw nothing except the puzzle lying on the table.

She went back into the cupboard but saw no sign of the final piece of the puzzle. She reached up on top of the cupboard. But nothing. Then she got down on her knees and reached way under the cupboard and there it was — the final piece of the puzzle!

Penny ran back out into the kitchen, sat in her seat, and popped the last, mysterious piece into the puzzle. There, in the picture of her assembling a puzzle at the table in her aunt’s kitchen was a white ghostly face staring in at her through the window.

------

In the morning, Penny’s aunt came into the kitchen to make breakfast. Rain was blowing in through the broken window, and the jigsaw puzzle was sitting in a wet puddle on the table ... with one piece missing. With a long, sad sigh, she picked up the empty box and swiped the puzzle pieces back in.