The Potato Chip Puzzles: The Puzzling World of Winston Breen (28 page)

But that would only work if Winston didn’t tell the whole truth, right now.

He couldn’t do that.

He started to speak . . . and stopped. If his story contradicted what Mr. Garvey told them, Dmitri Simon might not give the prize money to them
or
the girls. Simon might decide everybody was stretching the truth, that he couldn’t figure out what really happened, and he would simply give the money away to charity or something.

Everybody was looking at him, and Winston realized he had gotten halfway through his first sentence and then stopped like his brain had winked off. He gave a little cough and started again, telling the story just as it happened: The broken computer. Winston figuring out the word square. Going to the girls for help and giving them a hint so they could solve the final puzzle, too. He told Simon they had promised to split the money with them if they won.

Dmitri Simon turned to Mal and Jake. “Is that what happened?”

Winston’s friends glanced at each other, then nodded hesitantly.

Simon gazed at them for a few more eternal moments and then smiled. “Okay. I’m satisfied.” He clapped Winston on the shoulder and stood up. “Good for you. You guys did real good.”

“We did?” Mal said.

“What just happened?” Jake asked.

“Well,” said Simon, looking amused, “you win. You’ve won the contest.”

They were all thunderstruck. Winston had convinced himself he was telling a different story from his teacher. “We did? We really did?”

“You really did,” Simon said. “You confirmed exactly what your teacher told us, and since nobody else solved the final puzzle, the prize money is yours. We’ll make the announcement in a few minutes. No giant check for you guys, because we only had one and it has the other team’s name on it. Sorry about that. But you’ll get a
real
check, for your half of the prize. I’m sure you’ll agree that’s a lot better.”

“Yeah!” Jake said, still looking more startled than pleased.

“Congratulations to all of you. I’ll also send all of you a case of potato chips. What do you like? Oil and vinegar? Barbecue?”

“I want to try those square chips,” Mal said.

“You got it,” said Simon. He nodded over to his assistant, who finally let Mr. Garvey pass. He all but ran back to the picnic table, as if to undo whatever damage Winston had caused.

“What happened?” he asked breathlessly as he arrived.

“All is well,” Dmitri Simon assured him. “Your boys confirmed exactly what you said. Congratulations.” Simon shook hands with Mr. Garvey, who looked weak with relief. As Dmitri Simon walked away to tell his men the news, Mr. Garvey all but collapsed against the picnic table, a hand over his heart.

“I can’t have another day like this for a while,” he said.

“We won,” Winston said. He was still getting used to it. After everything that had happened, they’d looked down and discovered they had crossed the finish line. Incredible!

“We won
half,
” Jake reminded them.

Mr. Garvey laughed and groaned at the same time. The laughing finally edged out the groaning, but he also looked a little green around the edges—as if he was thinking, Did we have to offer the girls quite so much?

 

 

Winston was ready to fall asleep right there in the grassy field. He was exhausted from all the running around and the drama that had followed, and now on top of that, he was full of hamburgers and potato salad. Yes, he would be sleeping well tonight.

A couple more kids congratulated Winston as they walked by. The full story was out now. The people from the potato chip company had set up a microphone, and Dmitri Simon introduced Winston’s team as the winners of the contest and called the girls up, too, as he related the strange story of how the two teams came to split the prize. He also decided to give ten thousand dollars to each of the other schools—even Brendan Root’s school. “I made a few mistakes today,” Simon said. “I should have given you a way to get in touch with me so we could have taken care of this cheater business. Failing that, I should have at least allowed those computers to accept the last answer from more than one team. Yeah, I screwed up, but at least I can make amends to all of you. What do you think of that?”

Everyone in the crowd thought that was just fine. Even the teams with the sourest expressions were now delighted. The only person who looked at all unhappy was Dmitri Simon’s accountant, but Simon ignored him.

Bethany no longer glared at Winston. Right before she left, they traded e-mail addresses, and then they didn’t know whether to hug or shake hands or what. They settled on waving. Jake and Mal would have normally spent several minutes poking fun at him for that, but they had their own awkward and clunky good-byes with Giselle and Elvie, so nobody made fun of anybody—unless you counted Mr. Garvey, whose sideways smile told them he was deeply amused by all of this.

Finally the picnic was over, and everyone meandered back to the parking lot. Jake and Mal were up ahead somewhere, so Winston found himself walking along with Mr. Garvey.

“A good day,” the teacher said, tired but satisfied. “A lot of ups and downs but, all in all, a very good day. Wouldn’t you say?” He mussed Winston’s hair.

“I was worried when Dmitri Simon came over that maybe what we said wouldn’t match what you told him,” Winston said.

Mr. Garvey nodded ruefully. “You thought I left out the part about asking for help from the girls.”

Winston didn’t say anything. It sounded bad to have it said aloud.

“I won’t say I didn’t think about it,” Mr. Garvey said. “All I had to do was say we solved the final puzzle all by ourselves—which is
true
—and we’d have fifty thousand dollars instead of twenty-five.” He cleared his throat. “That’s a lot of money.”

Winston said, “But you thought they’d ask me those same questions, and our stories wouldn’t match?”

“Actually, that never crossed my mind. To be honest, I thought they would take my word for it, whatever I said.” He stopped walking. Up ahead, Jake punched Mal in the arm for some reason. Mr. Garvey said, “I made a bad impression on you kids.”

“What do you mean?” Winston said, although he thought he knew.

The teacher shook his head. “I see the way the kids look at me sometimes. In the classroom, in the hallway. They think I’m a bad teacher. I give homework on Fridays. I don’t let students off the hook when it’s clear they don’t know something. My tests are hard. Yes, some of my students . . . they think I’m a bad teacher.” He looked down at Winston and said, “I’m not used to being looked at like I’m a bad
person.
And I think I earned some of those looks you and Mal and Jake were giving me.”

Winston didn’t know what to say to that, but Mr. Garvey wasn’t done talking anyway. He said, “When I went back into the amusement park, I had the specific idea of trying to scare Rod Denham and his team out of the race. I acted all worried, like I was considering quitting myself—although, of course, I meant to do no such thing. I wanted
him
to get scared and quit. He didn’t. And in fact, I think he saw right through me. Two other teams bought my act, and they quit the race.” He took a deep breath. “Jake was right. I did the cheater’s work for him. I couldn’t have done a better job if I’d been working with him from the beginning. When I thought about it later on, I didn’t like myself very much.

“So when I went to talk to Dmitri Simon, I decided to tell the truth for a change. I told how the girls had helped us, and the promise we had made to them in return.”

Winston said, “You looked so nervous when he came over to talk to us.”

“Sure!” said Mr. Garvey. “I thought
you
were going to leave out the bit about the girls, because you might have thought that’s what
I
did. That would have been a damn foolish comedy of errors.” He chuckled. “I should have known you would tell the truth. You’re a good kid.”

He started walking again, and Winston followed.

Winston found himself dwelling on one small detail of the teacher’s speech. He said as they walked to the parking lot, “So, uh, you give homework on Fridays?”

Mr. Garvey laughed. “You’ll find out in September.”

 

THE TWO KIDS
sat in the living room. The coffee table held the remains of an explosion of puzzle magazines, snacks, and drinks. The television screen displayed a dingy castle dungeon. Two armor-clad knights advanced on each other, waving their swords.

“Okay,” Brendan Root said, fiddling with the joystick. “How do I play?”

I’ve got six puzzling desserts for you! The first five puzzles have a word as their answer. The sixth, “Make Your Own Sundae,” will tell you how to combine all those answers. The result will be a very sweet treat—exactly what you deserve!

What’s as American as apple pie? This puzzle, that’s what. Each of the clues below leads to a word or phrase that contains the letters USA, in that order. The shaded letters, reading down, will spell out a clue to a six-letter word.

Sure, cakes and cookies are yummy, but don’t pass by the fruit plate! You can find seventeen kinds of fruit in the grid below, reading up, down, left, right, or diagonally. After you’ve found them all, the leftover letters, taken row by row, will spell out a clue to a six-letter word.

APPLE
APRICOT
BANANA
CHERRY
GRAPE
KUMQUAT

LEMON
MANGO
MELON
ORANGE
PAPAYA
PEAR

PERSIMMON
PLUM
RASPBERRY
RHUBARB
TANGERINE

This jelly roll is filled with a bunch of yummy letters. Answers go in two directions—in and out. The starting and ending numbers for each answer are given to you. If you get stuck on the In clues, try the Out clues. By working back and forth, you should be able to fill the entire jelly roll. When you’re done, the circled letters, following the inward path, will spell out a word.