Marcus has cracked the first puzzle! 19,337

Finally my book appears to be headed somewhere. I made a Sudoku puzzle, three in fact, that held a clue in them. It was only a lucky conversation with a drunk Jack that enabled him to crack the puzzle.

I won't post that quite yet because I wouldn't want to ruin the fun of the puzzles when you are reading through my novel.

This one took Marcus a long time to figure out. I wrote him as been hopeless at puzzles. Not my best move because now there is some divine intervention heading his way.

That's okay soon he will be off to Pittsburgh to meet King Lightning and the Conspiracy builds.

Here's an excerpt from a scene from Marcus' past the beginning of his dark years in fact. Its pretty long so I shortened it to the important parts. Apparently I like writing my characters difficult scenes in his life. I guess thats true for most books. No one ever reads beyond Happily ever after. You might find the end has a familiar feel to it with a Scott Twist!

Marcus pushed the puck further up the side and went move around Gilles Rheaume who had hopped off the bench for the goalie and was charging into the play. Marcus tried to avoid him by deking left. He partially avoided Gilles’ hit and that’s probably the worst thing that he could have done.

Consider the Titanic hitting that bitch of an iceberg. Historians agree for the most part that if the Titanic had stayed on course and hit the iceberg straight on there would have been more damage at the front but the boat would have survived and even made the trip to New York.

The same goes for Marcus if he had taken the hit head on he would have been very shaken up but he would still be playing hockey. He tried to avoid the check and he probably would have it hadn’t been for the right knee of Gilles fucking Rheaume.

Gilles knew he was beat but wanted desperately to stop Marcus on a meaningless play, that’s why he stuck out his knee, that’s why he ruined Marcus’ career and almost his life. The knee was bad enough but the hit also spun Marcus around in the air and he collided head first on the post separating the bench. His head snapped back and Marcus crumpled to the ice. He would later be told he had been out cold for 15 minutes and his team fear that he was paralyzed.

A stretcher came out to take him off. He had an odd encounter with his first doctor who was about to emergency surgery on his knee.

The doctor was a tall black man with a degree from the University of North Carolina Charlotte. His name was of course Julius Pepper. This at the time had been hilarious to Marcus who was still woozy from the hit and a little high on the drugs.

Julius Pepper entered the room and introduced himself, “Hi, I am Dr. Pepper.”

Marcus roared with laughter, “You mean like the soda?” He said wittily.

Dr. Pepper slammed his clipboard hard on the ground cracking it, “Fine you jackass, operate on your own fucking knee.” He stormed off angrily much to the surprise of everyone in the room. A nurse rushed off to get him while Marcus was put under anesthesia. His last thought, note to self never ask someone if their name is like a pop.