Lucky Break

In today's story, Lucky Break, Kyra and Thomas make Sunday breakfast

Today's prompt was inspired by a disappointing game of sudoku. As always, the story was free-written with no planning and very little editing. 

If you enjoy today's story, please share it with your friends and leave a review for Freely Written. You can also send me  a prompt suggestion, and I'll be sure to credit you in the episode. Thank you!

More about Susan Quilty

Susan Quilty mainly writes novels, including two standalone novels and her current YA series: The Psychic Traveler Society.  Susan's short stories for Freely Written are created during quick writing breaks and shared as a way to practice her narration skills before she dives into recording audio versions of her novels.

Website:  SusanQuilty.com
Facebook: Freely Written
The Freely Written Book: Freely Written Vol. 1
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Transcript

Below is the transcript for Season 1, Episode 136 of Freely Written, a podcast by author Susan Quilty:

Welcome to Freely Written where a simple prompt leads to a little unplanned fiction. 

[Light piano music]

Hi, friends! I’m Susan Quilty and today’s prompt is Lucky Break.

Today’s story is just a bit autobiographical. Well, not in the sense of having had the conversation I’ve written about, but because the prompt came to me after finishing a disappointing sudoku puzzle. 

While I love logic puzzles, it’s annoying when the answer comes more from luck than from skill. Like getting Wordle on the first guess… which hasn’t happened to me. But if it did, I’d feel so cheated. For me, it’s not about the guessing. The joy is in the puzzling. 

And so… this may be the closest I’ve come in this podcast to telling a story that could actually happen in my life. I think? After writing so many of these quick stories, I can’t quite remember what I’ve written about over the years. 

Still, this story was written with my Freely Written process, where I sit down with the prompt and write whatever comes to mind. No planning, very little editing, Then I record the story and share it with you. 

I hope you enjoy today’s story. I also hope that you’ll check out my novels and other books. Writing novels is a labor of love and selling novels is… well… not. It’s lovely to meet readers at book events. Otherwise, expanding my audience is a constant struggle. 

If you’d like to read my novels, you can buy them in both paperback and ebook editions through most online retailers. You can learn more at my website: SusanQuilty.com. Click the link in my show notes. And if you have enjoyed my books, please tell your friends and write reviews wherever you buy books. Thank you so much for your support! 

Okay, let’s get on to today’s story:

Lucky Break

Kyra set down her phone with a heavy sigh. Thomas looked up from his book, catching her eye as he asked, “Wordle?”

With an amused smile, Kyra shook her head and stretched her shoulders. 

“Sudoku.”

It was part of their Sunday morning ritual. Coffee in the sunroom while Thomas read a book and Kyra solved puzzles on her phone. Then breakfast and, weather permitting, a walk in the park. Over breakfast, Thomas often shared snippets from his book, while Kyra offered highlights of her games.

“You’ll get it next time,” Thomas said, his eyes sliding back to the book.

“Oh, I solved it,” Kyra said with a soft frown. She sighed again and looked out the window, gauging the weather for their walk. 

Thomas looked up from his book again, though Kyra didn’t notice. She was watching a mourning dove settle onto the deck rail outside the window. 

“Why the sigh?” Thomas asked, finding himself more interested in Kyra’s mood than in the rambling exposition in his new book. 

“What?” Kyra looked his way, pulling her thoughts back to their conversation. “Oh, it was a lucky break. Bowman’s bingo.”

“What?” Thomas slid a bookmark between the pages and set his book on the couch cushion beside him. 

Kyra blinked at him blankly before realization dawned. 

“Oh, Bowman’s bingo,” she repeated, understanding that the term needed explanation. “It’s a kind of last-ditch thing in sudoku when you run out of other strategies. You just pick a square and trial-and-error your way to the solution. I happened to guess right, so it wasn’t as tedious as it could have been, but still… it was a lucky break.”

Thomas considered both her words and expression. He had sort of followed her explanation but didn’t see why she was unhappy.

“What’s wrong with a lucky break?”

Standing, Kyra moved toward the kitchen to see what they had on hand for breakfast. 

“Well, it takes the fun out of it. You’re stuck with guessing and sorting and backtracking when you find a mistake.”

Thomas followed her into the kitchen. 

“Isn’t that just how you play sudoku?”

He had never seen the game’s appeal and was surprised at the look of horror on Kyra’s face. She shook her head, clearly not thinking much of Thomas’ suggestion. 

“Maybe how you play… but, for me, no. Not at all.” She took oatmeal and raisins out of the pantry before facing Thomas for emphasis. “Sudoku is a logic puzzle. You use logical strategies to solve it.”

Thomas put a pan on the stove and turned to retrieve two bowls. He thought about his limited experience with sudoku, trying to remember the rules. 

“Well, yeah, you check to see that you don’t have repeat numbers in the rows or columns. Or boxes. So, I guess there’s some strategy in that. But then what? Isn’t it guessing to make the numbers fit?”

He tried not to be hurt by Kyra’s wide eyes and slow exhale. 

“What?” he asked with a laugh. “What other strategies are there?”

Kyra hesitated, seeming to weigh her answer as she measured oatmeal into the pan. 

“Let’s see,” she began. “You have hidden pairs, pointing pairs, naked triples, crosshatching, x-wings, xy-wings, swordfishes…”

“Swordfishes?” Thomas broke in. “X-wings? Is this sudoku or Star Wars?”

Kyra smiled, stirring water into the pan to cover the oatmeal and raisins.  

“They’re methods for finding patterns,” Kyra explained. “Ways to limit where numbers can be in the grid. A well designed sudoku can have some beautiful patterns in it.”

Thomas thought about the sudoku puzzles he’d tried before. The easy puzzles had been so easy that the numbers just fell into place. But the harder ones left him staring at the grid and wondering why anyone would care enough to put the right numbers in the right squares.

They’d had similar discussions about jigsaw puzzles. Why take the time to put together a picture when you could already see what it was going to look like on the lid of the box? But then he’d bought Kyra a entirely blank jigsaw puzzle one birthday—all white pieces, no picture at all. He’d bought it as a joke, but she’d loved putting it together. 

“Okay, what’s a swordfish?” Thomas asked, deciding to hear her out. 

Kyra smirked, then said, “It’s an x-wing but with three rows or columns instead of two.”

Thomas opened his mouth to speak, then stopped as Kyra burst into laughter. 

“Do you really want to know?” Kyra asked. “I could show you.”

Thomas didn’t really want to know. He didn’t care about sudoku strategies, even if they involved spaceships or deep-sea fish. But he did like to see Kyra’s face light up when she talked about her puzzles. 

“Sure, why not?” he said, taking cashews out of the pantry to snack on while the oatmeal cooked. “Show me what you’ve got.”

Kyra turned down the heat on the oatmeal and picked up her phone. She eyed Thomas, knowing that he was just humoring her. But she also did want to show him what she loved about sudoku. 

“Okay, I’ll show you some basics,” she told him. “Then you can tell me about your new book.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Thomas moaned. “I haven’t gotten to the good part yet. It’s just throwing characters at me. I can’t keep them straight.”

“We could make a chart,” Kyra offered, remembering how they’d made lists of characters when they were in a book club that favored the classics. 

Their eyes met and Thomas laughed, embarrassed to admit how much he had enjoyed making those character lists with Kyra. But then he shrugged and said, “Yeah, okay. If you want?”

They brought their oatmeal to the table and settled in with a notepad, Thomas’ book, and Kyra’s phone. Thomas grinned at Kyra, thinking how nice it was to share these quirky little joys with someone who understood. 

“You know,” he told her softly, “the day I met you was my lucky break.”

Kyra smiled, her eyes glinting as she leaned close and said, “I like that kind of luck.”

The End 

Thanks for joining me. I hope you enjoyed that sweet little story. If you did, please share it with your friends and leave a review on your favorite podcast app. If you’re new to Freely Written, you can listen to past stories in any order. I never know what will come up when I sit down with a writing prompt, so you may find lots of different genres and styles. You may even be inspired to write a story of your own. 

Please don’t forget to check out my novels on my website, SusanQuilty.com, or wherever you buy books. Reading and reviewing my books means so much to me. You can also suggest future writing prompts for this podcast or connect with me on social media. I’d love to hear from you!

Until next time, try a little free writing of your own. Let go of any planning and see where your imagination takes you. 

[Light piano music]