Puzzles the Will by Owen Townend

I adored Chrissy Banks but not as much as pattern-forming puzzles. Many an evening during my first year at uni, I kept my mind active with a cheeky game of Glow Down. It was essentially a social media clone of Bejeweled or Candy Crush, but I was addicted.

            In fact the only thing that drew me out of my tiny blue room was the breathy laughter of Chrissy who lived across the hall. When I opened the door, she was always playing with her peacock feather earrings or tucking her skinny jeans into thigh-length boots.

            She would smile and say, “Hiya, Will. Heading out?”

            “Not tonight,” I replied most nights.

            And yet she never looked disappointed to hear this like the others. She merely winked at me and headed out herself.

            Of course, Chrissy had nights in too, and could often be found in the common room amid the usual moaning about overdrafts and the lack of booze. I showed my face if I was heading to the kitchen, mostly to check that Chrissy was among them.

            Otherwise I’d stick to my room, going over lecture notes till one in the morning. If I wasn’t too tired after that, I could just play another round or two of Glow Down.

            One night in November I did just that but it stopped me from sleeping altogether. Normally I was at the top of the local scoreboard, a few other housemates dabbling in Glow Down every now and then. Stu was a regular who never scored more than two hundred points per week. That day he was up to one thousand.

            I set about my game, making sure I got one thousand and five hundred points at least. Out came the cartoon sun with both flaming thumbs up, confirming my high score. I put my phone down and breathed a sigh of relief. All was right with the world.

            Except how did Stu manage to achieve such a high score? He was drunk most of the time. Of course, there were flukes in pattern-forming puzzles but rarely miracles.

            I picked up my phone again and checked Glow Down. My high score had been beaten. In the last minute, Stu had managed to gain two thousand and five hundred points. Not only this, he wasn’t at the top of the scoreboard.

            Rachel the physical therapy student had four thousand points. Steve the seldom-seen student union rep had four thousand, eight hundred and fifty points. However, above them all with nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine points was Chrissy.

            I leapt out of bed. If they were all playing Glow Down, it seemed highly unlikely they were out. I marched out to the common room.

            There they all were, crammed together on the taped-up brown sofa with their phones on the table. The screens flickered familiar colours in speedy sequences. No-one had their fingers anywhere near and yet they all seemed to be playing, according to my phone.

            All eyes turned towards me, including the eyes of an unshaven stranger who was snuggled up to Chrissy. She waved.

            “Hiya, Will,” she said. “Heading out?”

            I just held up my phone, showing that I had been playing Glow Down just like them.

            “Yeah,” the stranger said. “I’m just showing the guys how easy it is to break this pointless game.”

            Chrissy leant forward. “Will, this is my boyfriend Mark. He’s doing computer science.”

            Mark waved at me half-heartedly. I had even less energy to return the favour. Once again I just left them to it, and lay down in the dark.

            I haven’t seen Chrissy Banks in years. These days I only solve puzzles in newspapers.