The Puzzler's Mansion Read Free Page B

solving puzzles? He wasn’t sure.
    Well, he had to go. He would promise them anything.
    He burst into the house, calling out for his parents before the door had shut behind him. “Shhh!” said Katie, from the living room. She was playing a video game with two of her friends, the three of them concentrating on the television screen, where cartoony race cars puttered about. “Dad’s working,” Katie said. “And Mom’s out.”
    â€œHe’s working?” Winston asked. “On a Saturday?” Katie didn’t respond, so he knocked on his father’s office door and stuck his head in. He was dismissed with a stern look and a wave of the hand. His father was pacing and talking on the phone, clearly in the middle of some urgent problem. Winston closed the door, sighing.
    The excitement of Penrose’s invitation was still with him, andnow it had nowhere to go. Winston thought about calling Mal or Jake, and was just about to pick up the phone when he remembered his father was using it. Perfect. He really needed his own cell phone one of these days.
    Winston didn’t want to watch his sister play video games, so he headed up to his room. He had begun the day not knowing what to do with himself, and now he was right back where he’d started, only this time with a whopper of a story that he couldn’t wait to share. Sighing, he grabbed a puzzle magazine. He had said he would back away from puzzles for a while, but this was an emergency. He took a pencil from his desk, threw himself onto his bed, and looked for something he hadn’t solved yet.
    The answer to each clue below is a palindrome—a phrase that reads the same forward and backward. For instance, the clue “a few intelligent male sheep” would lead to the phrase SMART RAMS. In each answer, the number of words and number of letters in each word is given to you.
    1. Pile up kittens
    __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
    2. Run away from Santa’s helper
    __ __ __ __ __ __ __
    3. Edge of a reflective surface
    __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
    4. Notice football officials
    __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
    5. Doctor’s assistants move hurriedly
    __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
    6. Bone in a robin
    __ __ __ __ __ __ __
    7. Black-and-white “bear” slept awhile
    __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
    8. Students make a mistake
    __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
    9. Stand up before you cast your ballot, mister
    __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __, __ __ __
    10. Smack friends who join me in exercising
    __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
    (Answers, page 242 .)
    Halfway through the puzzle, he remembered the CD from Mr. Penrose. He found it and looked at the case. It was Richard Overton and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra playing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Winston wondered why classical composers didn’t use proper song titles. It was always Symphony No. 5, followed by Symphony No. 6, which was followed a few years later by, you guessed it, Symphony No. 7. Would it have killed them to come up with some catchier names?
    In any event, he liked the name Rachmaninoff. He said it aloud, enjoying the rhythm of it. It sounded like a rubber ball bouncing offthe wall, onto the ground, and back into his hand.
    Winston popped the disc into his computer, turned up the speakers, and went back to his puzzle. Music filled the room—a piano, backed up by a roomful of strings. It was pleasant enough, and sort of interesting to know that the guy playing the piano was a friend of his friend and someone he might meet soon. But if Penrose thought that Winston would be blown away by the music, then Penrose was going to be disappointed. Winston doubted he would listen to this a second time.
    Still, it wasn’t bad. Winston let the music play while he continued solving.
    A few minutes later, he looked up from his puzzle again. The music had changed. It had become more dramatic. The strings were still there, hovering in the