The Jigsaw Puzzle-Swappers

In 1969 a movie titled Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice made its way to the silver screen.  The movie openly explored promiscuity in marriage and spouse-swapping.  At the time, I was just entering my teens.  I recall the stir made by the movie, but I didn’t fully grasp the implications back then.

Fast-forward to 2016.  As much as I distain to mention this, I have degraded to point where I now engage in swapping with other couples.  Not spouses.  I and two other couples have become jigsaw puzzle-swappers.

This all started innocently enough.  A couple I know—we shall call them couple X—purchased a 750 piece jigsaw puzzle and took a few days to put it together.  That led them to a few 1000 piece puzzles.  Before long, their dining room table always featured a jigsaw puzzle.  Innocently enough, another couple—couple Y—stopped by to visit couple X.

You know the story from here.

In a matter of a few weeks, both couple X and couple Y had puzzles spread across their dining room tables.  Eventually, that girl and I were similarly exposed to jigsaw puzzles.  We purchased our first 1000-piece puzzle on impulse.

At present, three couples are at play with jigsaw puzzles.  If you enter any one of our homes, you will find a puzzle under construction.  The border will likely be complete, and the other pieces will be strewn about, looking like the remnants of a bombed-out city.   All of us are drawn to the puzzles.

I often stop by to visit couple Y on my way home from shopping in Helena.  I find myself immediately pulled toward the ever-present unfinished puzzle there.  I cannot leave until I have put in place at least one piece.  Sometimes I stay for hours, swearing at the pieces, sweating.  On occasion, I will find a piece or two that couple Y improperly forced into place in a late-night puzzle binge.

So deep have all of us fallen into the puzzle-building craze, we sometimes call one another on the phone to discuss puzzles.  Worse, as indicated by the opening of this blog, we have become puzzle-swappers.  We have all began to purchase, build, and swap puzzles once we have had our way with them.

I cannot say if this is normal behavior for couples.  At this point, our obsession is complete, and any analysis is moot.  We are where we are.  Posted today is a photo of the puzzle presently under construction on my dining room table.

--Mitchell Hegman