The Puzzle at the Library

The library in my small town keeps a jigsaw puzzle on a table near the front window. Anyone can add a piece. When it's done, they start a new one.

I started stopping by on my lunch break. There's always someone there. A retired man who's great at sky. A teenager who does edges. Two little girls who come after school and argue about where pieces go. An older woman who only works on the faces of animals.

We've done a thousand-piece puzzle of the Grand Canyon, one of a field of tulips and one of a cat sleeping in a bowl of yarn, which was the hardest thing any of us has ever done.

Nobody knows each other's full names. We just know each other's puzzle styles. It's the most peaceful twenty minutes of my workday.