Puz­zles often reveal more than they first appear to. For David, they weren’t just about match­ing strange shapes to cre­ate an image. Instead, they mir­rored the qui­et rid­dles in his life—like why kind­ness seemed to sur­round him so freely, and why Mr. Jack and Miss Hol­brook nev­er arrived togeth­er. He noticed this pat­tern ear­ly dur­ing his recov­ery, when vis­its to his sick­room became part of his heal­ing. On one such after­noon, while hap­pi­ly talk­ing about Jill and Joe, he sensed a sud­den change in Mr. Jack’s demeanor. The cause was clear—Miss Holbrook’s car­riage had just turned into the dri­ve. David, filled with joy, thought they would final­ly meet. Yet Mr. Jack, with hur­ried excus­es and unchar­ac­ter­is­tic ner­vous­ness, leaped out the win­dow, claim­ing an urgent need to speak to Per­ry Lar­son. The swift­ness of his depar­ture left David con­fused and dis­ap­point­ed, espe­cial­ly when Miss Hol­brook arrived moments lat­er, full of warmth.

Her sur­prise at not meet­ing Mr. Jack inside the house turned to bare­ly con­cealed frus­tra­tion when David inno­cent­ly described his leap through the win­dow. She tried to mask her reac­tion with cheer, brush­ing off David’s wish that the two would meet. He did not under­stand why his efforts to bring them togeth­er were always met with missed moments and awk­ward laugh­ter. Miss Holbrook’s gift of a jig­saw puz­zle shift­ed the mood, yet its nature was odd­ly sym­bol­ic. Pieces that didn’t look like they belonged could form a beau­ti­ful whole if placed just right—something David instinc­tive­ly grasped. As he immersed him­self in fit­ting the odd­ly shaped parts togeth­er, he tem­porar­i­ly for­got the ten­sion. But Miss Holbrook’s slight relief at this for­get­ful­ness didn’t go unno­ticed. Behind her smile lin­gered emo­tions she wasn’t quite ready to share.

David’s joy over the puz­zle showed his abil­i­ty to focus on small won­ders, though he still car­ried ques­tions he didn’t know how to ask. The puz­zle offered a qui­et escape, a dis­trac­tion that allowed him to engage his mind while side­step­ping the emo­tion­al puz­zle of the grown-ups around him. Each piece he clicked into place made the pic­ture clear­er, but life, he real­ized, was not so eas­i­ly arranged. He believed that two kind peo­ple who meant so much to him should nat­u­ral­ly get along. Yet every time they neared, one would vanish—like shad­ows that nev­er over­lap. He couldn’t make sense of the ten­sion, but he felt it and hoped it could be solved, like the pieces of his puz­zle. That desire, though unspo­ken, added weight to his smiles and glances.

While David puz­zled out the wood­en pic­ture, Miss Hol­brook kept her gaze on him more than on the pieces. She admired his qui­et patience and the way he could turn con­fu­sion into curios­i­ty. Though she tried to act indif­fer­ent about Mr. Jack’s abrupt exit, her tone betrayed her. David didn’t mean to stir up emo­tion, but his hon­esty often act­ed like a mir­ror for oth­ers. In the few words he shared, truths emerged, even if they weren’t entire­ly under­stood. Miss Holbrook’s laugh was light, yet her eyes occa­sion­al­ly drift­ed to the win­dow. What she tru­ly felt about Mr. Jack’s escape remained hid­den, but David noticed the hes­i­ta­tion in her voice when she men­tioned him. He want­ed them to know each oth­er, not for his ben­e­fit alone, but because he believed they would be hap­pi­er togeth­er.

This chap­ter gen­tly explores how much of life resem­bles a puzzle—pieces scat­tered, inten­tions unclear, and tim­ing imper­fect. For David, kind­ness didn’t need expla­na­tion, and love wasn’t some­thing to hide from. His world was sim­pler but no less mean­ing­ful. The con­trast between his open heart and the guard­ed emo­tions of the adults around him made his pres­ence feel like a qui­et force for good. With­out real­iz­ing it, he chal­lenged them to con­sid­er the feel­ings they were avoid­ing. He believed in bring­ing peo­ple togeth­er the way he brought puz­zle pieces together—with hope, atten­tion, and the belief that things belong when they fit. And although the pic­ture of Mr. Jack and Miss Hol­brook was far from com­plete, David held on to the idea that it could still come togeth­er, one piece at a time.