Grumbly Box
Inventory Note
One clue is useful. More clues are better.
The inventory sheet led the trio and Smudge to a large wooden box in the middle of a narrow aisle.
The box sat by itself away from all the others, which was usually a sign that something interesting had happened. Or that something unfortunate had happened. It could be either. Sometimes both.
Lyra read the inventory sheet aloud.
Box 31
Identify contents.
Orin reached for the lid and tried to lift it.
Nothing.
He pulled harder.
Still nothing.
Then the box made a long, miserable sound.
“Grrrrrroooooaaannnn.”
Orin jumped back.
The box fell silent as if nothing had happened.
“Did the box just groan?” asked Orin.
“I think it did, you know,” said Zia.
Smudge crouched beside it and peered closely at the lid. “Perhaps it dislikes being opened,” he supposed.
“It’s a box,” said Orin. “That’s what boxes do.”
“Open?”
“Yes.”
“GROOOAAAN.”
The box did it again. Louder this time. And somehow more to the point.
Smudge nodded. “Not this one. This one’s a groany one.”
“A groany one?” Lyra repeated.
Smudge nodded again. “A groany one.”
Lyra looked at the box more closely. This time, she noticed a blank label attached to the lid.
Beneath it, written in tiny letters, was a short instruction:
LABEL CORRECTLY TO OPEN
The four of them stared at the instruction. They stared at the box. Then they looked rather puzzled.
“How are we supposed to label it correctly if we don’t know what’s inside?” asked Zia.
“Let’s have a guess,” said Smudge. Before anyone could stop him, he picked up a marker and wrote:
SNOOZY BLANKET
Smudge stood back with his fingers crossed. “Please,” he whispered. “Please. Please. Please.”
For a moment, nothing happened. Then the box groaned even louder than before.
“GROOOOOOOOOAAANNNNN.”
This time the groan was accompanied by a loud click. The lid creaked and ratcheted itself even more tightly closed.
“Shame,” said Smudge.
It was safe to say that the trio weren’t impressed with Smudge’s snoozy blanket guess.
Lyra shook her head, leaned in, and crossed out SNOOZY BLANKET. As she did, she noticed another line of tiny writing beneath the first.
FIVE WRONG GUESSES WILL LOCK THE BOX FOREVER
Beneath the warning was a small mechanical counter.
WRONG GUESSES: 1 OF 5
There was a brief awkward silence.
“In my defence,” Smudge said, “it could have been a snoozy blanket.”
Orin stared at the counter. “We have four guesses left,” he said. “Four. That is not enough guesses for Smudge-based methods.”
“Let’s think about this, shall we?” said Lyra.
Smudge raised a finger.
“Treasure.”
“No,” said Lyra. “Not like that.”
Smudge lowered his finger.
“She means think about how we can find out,” said Zia as she set about examining the box more closely.
The box was old and worn, with little gaps showing here and there between the wooden boards.
“There’s a crack down here,” said Zia.
She dropped flat onto the floor and pressed one cheek against the wood to see through it properly.
“I can see something… something smooth.”
“Smooth?” said Orin.
“And shiny.”
“Metal?” asked Lyra.
“Yes,” said Zia. “Definitely metal.”
She looked at the blank label. “It’s a metal plate.”
“That makes sense,” said Lyra. “Smooth. Shiny. Metal.”
Zia took the marker confidently and wrote:
METAL PLATE
The box gave a tired groan.
“Grooooooaaannn.”
Then came another loud click.
The lid ratcheted another notch tighter.
WRONG GUESSES: 2 OF 5
“No! Not a metal plate,” said Zia, with a sigh.
“So, it isn’t a snoozy blanket or a metal plate,” said Smudge. “Interesting… very interesting.”
A few moments later, Lyra found another gap near the back. “Let’s have a look through this one, shall we?”
She crouched down and shuffled into an awkward position before peering through it.
“That’s odd.”
“What is it?” asked Zia.
“A spring.”
Now they had three clues. Smooth. Shiny. Springy.
Lyra thought for a moment. “Maybe it’s some sort of wind-up toy.”
“That would explain the metal,” said Zia.
“And the spring,” added Orin.
The idea seemed to fit all the clues they had so far, so she picked up the marker and wrote:
WIND-UP TOY
“GROAN!”
Click.
Lyra winced.
WRONG GUESSES: 3 OF 5
“Another useful discovery,” said Smudge, undeterred.
“Only two guesses left,” said Orin.
The search continued.
Eventually Orin found a narrow split near one corner. He crouched beside it and squinted through the gap.
“Hmm.”
“What?” asked Lyra.
“I can see bristles.”
“Bristles?” said Zia.
“Like a brush.”
Orin thought about the clues for a moment.
“A wind-up, mechanical brush?” suggested Lyra.
“That makes sense,” said Zia.
Orin frowned. “Does it?”
Zia shook her head. “Not really. But it’s Smudge’s warehouse,” she said.
Orin considered this, which clearly caused him pain. “That is, annoyingly, a valid point.”
He held the marker above the label, hesitated briefly, then wrote:
AUTOMATIC BRUSH
The box groaned again. Not loudly this time. Disappointedly.
“Groooan.”
Click.
The lid ratcheted tighter yet again.
WRONG GUESSES: 4 OF 5
“Nooooo.” Orin crossed it out, looking thoroughly dejected.
After that, nobody reached for the marker. One wrong guess was all they had left and no one wanted to lock the box forever.
The four of them just sat on the floor beside it.
“So,” said Orin. “We know it’s not a metal plate, a wind-up toy, or an automatic brush.”
“Or a snoozy blanket,” added Smudge.
“Yes,” said Orin. “Thank you, Smudge.”
Zia recounted what they knew. “But it’s smooth, shiny, springy, and bristly.”
“Oh,” Smudge interjected.
The trio looked around to see Smudge peering through one final gap in the lid.
“What?” asked Lyra.
“There’s a button.”
“A button?” said Orin.
“A round button.”
The group looked slightly worried because Smudge had a history with buttons. Regardless, they thought about the clues again.
Smooth.
Shiny.
Springy.
Bristly.
And now: button.
Everyone still looked baffled. Everyone except Smudge.
“Oh,” he said, his eyes widening. “Ohhh.”
The others turned.
“Oh what?” asked Lyra.
“I remember.”
“You remember what’s inside?”
Smudge nodded. “Yep!”
He picked up the marker.
“Are you sure?” asked Lyra.
Smudge nodded. “Yep! Sure as a light switch turns the dark on.”
The trio exchanged concerned looks.
Very carefully, he wrote across the label:
BUTTON-ACTIVATED SELF-BRUSHING HAIR-TIDYING HELMET
“That sounds made up,” said Orin eventually.
“It is,” said Smudge. “By me. I made it.”
Smudge looked ever so slightly worried as the box remained silent. Absolutely nothing happened. For a moment, anyway. Then it all happened.
Click.
Click.
Click-click-click-click-click-click.
The lid exploded open with such enthusiasm that everyone jumped backwards.
“WOOHOO!” cheered the box.
A puff of dust burst into the air as the lid sprang open and slammed against its hinges.
Inside sat a strange metal helmet covered in tiny brushes, springs, and polished fittings.
There it was.
The smooth metal. The shiny surface. The spring. The bristles. The button.
Smudge picked it up. “Ah,” he said. “Version Three.”
“Version Three?” asked Orin.
“Yes. Deluxe.”
“And what, may I ask, does it do?”
“Tidies your hair while you think.”
Orin blinked. “Why?”
“Why not?” said Smudge.
“Does it work?”
“Sort of.”
“What happened to Version One?”
“Version One brushed too enthusiastically.”
“Too enthusiastically?”
“It removed the problem.”
“What problem?”
“The hair.”
Orin stared at him.
“And Version Two?”
“We don’t talk about Version Two.”
One of the brushes spun suddenly.
Whirr.
Everyone stepped back.
Smudge nervously held the helmet away from himself. “I’ll just pop it back in the box, shall I?”
Lyra completed the inventory sheet.
Box 31
Contents: Button-Activated Self-Brushing Hair-Tidying Helmet.
Owner: Smudge.
Inventory note: multiple views required to identify.
Safety: questionable.
Mystery: solved.
Looking Back
In this story, the team collected a range of perspectives to help them.
A perspective is a way of looking at, or seeing, something. When you collect more than one perspective, you can understand something more clearly than you could from just one viewpoint.
The box was a mystery. Nobody could open it. Nobody could see the whole thing inside. And wild guesses made the box groan, click, and become even more difficult.
Even though none of them could see much alone, each person found and contributed a different clue.
Each viewpoint revealed something new. No single clue was enough, but when they brought their different perspectives together, a clearer picture began to form.
Only with everyone’s perspective, including his own, was Smudge able to remember what was inside the box.
Smudge’s Takeaway
To understand something better, bring together different points of view.
Concept Check
Circle the best answer for each question.
Which sentence best describes perspective?
- A wild guess written in marker.
- A way of looking at, or seeing, something.
- A box making rude noises.
Why were the clues helpful even though they were incomplete?
- Each clue showed one true part of the mystery.
- Each clue proved the others were wrong.
- Each clue made the box sleepier.
Why is perspective useful?
- It means everyone must think exactly the same thing.
- It helps us lock boxes forever.
- It helps us understand something more clearly by seeing it from more than one angle.
How sure are you?
- I understand it well.
- I mostly understand it.
- I want to read the story again.
Try It
Smudge has decided to build a secret invention.
He says you can help.
This is excellent news, because Smudge inventions usually need someone sensible nearby.
The Secret Invention
Invent something special with Smudge.
It can be useful, silly, mysterious, magnificent, or slightly difficult to explain.
In the space at the top, draw your invention. Then give it a name and write a few words about what it does beneath.
Don’t let Lyra, Orin, or Zia see it yet.
Smudge says they are “nosey parkers,” and if they found out about it, they would almost certainly start talking about “rules.”
He’s going to put it in a secret crate that will never be found.
It will be nice and safe from fun ruiners and people who ask difficult questions like, “Is that supposed to have smoke coming out?”
The Discovery
Uh oh. That didn’t take long.
The trio have found the mystery crate, and they are worried. Possibly because it is humming. Possibly because it is wobbling. Possibly because Smudge is standing in front of it saying, “Nothing to see here,” which is never reassuring.
Smudge isn’t saying another word, but the trio are already circling the crate.
What will they notice from the outside?
Show what they’ll discover from different viewpoints around the crate.
Your Grid Fragment
That’s the Grumbly Box job complete. The clues have been noticed, the different perspectives have been brought together, and the mystery object has been understood… sort of.
Now you’re ready to collect your fragment and add it to your grid.
- Do you know what it is yet?
- Can you guess what it might become?
- What makes you think that?
Choose Next Story
Where Next?
Anywhere you like! Choose your next story from the grid.
Finished all nine warehouse jobs? Then you’re ready for The Symbol chapter.