You’re sitting at a card table. There’s a puzzle box in front of you. You open the box and realize that there are not enough pieces to complete the puzzle. You look at the picture on the box and it depicts a vague image of swirling lines. The lines make a series of blurry shapes. An outline of what the puzzle depicts.

As you begin looking through the pieces you find some that go together nicely. You look at the pieces you’ve fit together. Then at the box. The picture on the box has changed. The section you’ve put together is clearer. You seem to have more pieces available then when you started, but you’re running.

Something on the floor catches your eye. Another puzzle piece. You look up and realize you’re in a room full of card tables. Each with a puzzle box. Some with partially put together puzzles. You go to the table by the piece on the floor. You see several pieces you need. You grab them and return to your table. Again the picture on the box has changed. You plug the new pieces in. The picture on the pieces has changed as well. You go back to the second table. The picture on that puzzle has changed as well. You sit down to work on that puzzle for a bit using pieces you’ve brought from the first table.

You walk the room. You sense there’s a pattern. The puzzles closest to each other seem to be related. You move from isle to isle, row to row. The differences become greater from your original puzzle.

You meet someone as you wonder through the tables. They present you a new puzzle piece. It’s one you need. You ask where she found it. “Over there,” as she points to a far away table. You head that way. As you get closer, the puzzle boxes have fewer and fewer pieces. The pictures become more vague, then have almost no image at all. You head back in a direction where the boxes are clearer. You begin building new puzzles. Now there are more pieces in the direction you want to go.

The years go by. You’ve explored many sections of the room. The endless room. You’ve met many others along the way. Worked on puzzles together. Argued about how pieces fit. What the pictures are of.

Recently you’ve begun to believe there’s more to all of it. That the tables themselves are arranged with some meaning. That you need another perspective. To see it all at once. Then you could understand that meaning. Then you could see that the tables themselves are pieces to a much larger puzzle. Perhaps that’s the real purpose to everything. The tables. The room. If you could just see enough of it. Everything would fall into place and make sense. But the room is too big, and you’re vision too limited.

You look down and realize that you need a piece from that very first puzzle you started. When you get to the table you see there are many more pieces than when you left. The picture is more distinct. More recognizable.

You sit down. You work the puzzle.