The Cryptic Message

by Mike Krath

 

I received a cryptic message from a man who loved to send puzzles. Knowing him to be a man of mystery, I tackled the conundrum with eager intent. The letter began, "Dear Friend, three, four, nine, one…" I thought the next number would be "one" to signify a tragic blot on American history, but instead, it was a dancing cow.

The next pieces of the brainteaser were further numbers, "Ten, nine, eight; four." And then "nine", "three," "fifty-five," [or two fives] followed by a thumb print in black ink. I remained intent on deciphering the mystery. "Thirty-three," and then "forty-two" and then "forty-five." If that wasn't enough, I saw "ninety-two," and "ninety-two," and "ninety-two," again, and again, and again. But why would he have used these numbers? Why?

And then 3.51452 - not pi, mind you, but a number similar to pi without a repetitive symbol over the last number. After this pseudo pi was a picture of a chocolate cake. And then a car behind me with eyes like a cat in the dark of the early morning hours followed me down a street with equidistant light poles lining the perimeter of a large, empty factory sprawled out on shadowy grounds. And then a picture of broken asphalt leading to a cross-road where a green light beckoned me to turn down a road to another road before I could reach the factory.

And then I thought, "Why wasn't pi in this puzzle?" Pi always goes with cake, especially chocolate cake with dark frosting. And the asphalt, if covered with maple syrup, could easily be sucked up with rich, palatial delight. And the factory, abandoned for years, if dipped in frosted sugar, could be nibbled on from time to time entertained by a dancing cow near a thumb print in sweetened black ink.

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