Seriously. Please tell me about this puzzle!
I want to know who made it, what it’s called and anything
else you can tell me about it… please!
…in return, I’ll tell you a story about it…
[EDIT: Thanks to the wonders of the inter-web, and in particular Nick and Matt, I now know this is called "Keep" by Mike Green. So now you know too.]
I found this lovely little red puzzle box in one of Wil’s
crates at IPP – it looked fairly rustic and I made the mistake of assuming it would be
reasonably simple to open… I fiddled around a little and made some progress
fairly quickly, opening the top of the box and finding a coin resting on top of
a silver coin-shaped sticker in the recess… so far so good…
…and then found I couldn’t get anything else to happen – to the
extent that I found myself asking Wil if there was indeed any more to find
(surely I’m not THAT rubbish as a solver, am I? RHETORICAL QUESTION – STEP AWAY
FROM THE KEYBOARD!) – Wil did a Wil and shrugged before returning his attention
to the paying customers. Fair enough.
After a while he suggested I take it away and try harder – I was
pretty sure there must be another opening – there was a lot more space available,
and the bottom panel seemed to have a fraction of movement in it – at least
more movement than it might have if it had been glued together!
So I took it and tried for quite a while during the Puzzle Party
to open it further.
I carried it pretty much everywhere I went and offered it to
everyone I came across…
Until I offered it to Louis and an MPP-crowd while I
wandered off to do something important (Don’t ask, I can’t remember!) – when I got
back they gave it back to me, significantly heavier and jinglier than it had
been when I gave it to them… they not only opened it, but they had also had a
quick whip around for the largest volume, lowest value pocket change they could
find to fill up my little red box…
So I sat down to try and open it again.
And failed, again.
At dinner the next night I summoned up sufficient courage (partly
mine, partly Peter’s) to try again – and then finally made the breakthrough I
was needing…
This box is very unusual, I’ve never seen a puzzle box use a
locking mechanism like that before… it’s rather sneaky and quite clever, and I
love my little red box…
After that I let Wil know that I’ve finally solved it and
tell him I really rather like it and I’d like to purchase it… at which point he
tells me it’s a gift from his lady- friend – chuffed doesn’t do it justice!
Spasibo!
