Rubik’s Cube

If you stare at the flower, you won’t see it blossom. No, I was wrong. If you could hold yourself long enough, you’ll see it. But very few people really have done that. We are the real multi-tasking system.

Raising kids, we don’t see at which moment they grow one, one half, or one tenth of an inch. Month after month, we measure them and see the difference. We smile.

The best detail of growing hides from us. It happens when our attention is somewhere else.

 About three or four years ago, the big brother of a little girl started playing a Rubik’s Cube. He learned from the books, Youtube videos, his parents, and even himself. He’s not bad and has a lot of fun.

The little sister followed her big brother as usual. But she had no clue how to break the secrets in the books, the videos. Even her big brother couldn’t explain to her how to play the toy this time. Her brother thought it’s unexplainable, like all the human being who faces the problem of playing piano in front of a cow.

The girl is her father’s sweetest heart. Her father would pick up the moon for her if he’s asked.  This Cube is his showcase, he thought. Even he didn’t play any Rubik’s Cube when he’s a young boy, to help his daughter he would learn from the beginning.

He learned, practiced, and even tried to optimize the formulas of the Cube solution. He thought he should be able to teach a cutie cow some farmer’s music.

But he failed. The girl was frustrated. So was the father.

Life moved on. They all forgot about the Cube weeks later.

Sometimes, summer is boring.

Several years later, the girl found the Cube at the corner of a bookshelf in an empty summer evening.

She started to play. She also had her mom’s smart phone next to her. It’s easy to find the Cube’s formula online these days. But she couldn’t associate the formula with the Cube for whole night. At last, she took some notes of the online solution on a piece of paper for later reference.  

The note was left on her mom’s bed accidently.

Hearing her mom joking about the paper with notes, she jumped over, grabbed the paper and said “nobody even think about taking away my notes.”

Her mom called her dad that night. She told him that the girl was playing the Cube again that evening. Her dad said he still had not found a way to explain her how to solve the Cube. He sounded really sorry.

Next morning, when the girl and her brother went to a summer class, she brought the Cube and her notes with her. She knew that she’d have one hour waiting time after her class is over because her brother’s class is 60 minutes longer. She usually does her homework during that hour, but not today.

When her mom came to pick her up, she saw the girl sitting there with a fixed Rubik’s Cube in her hand. Instead of smiling, she looked tired at that time. The first sentence she said to her mom was “May I get one Rubik’s Cube for myself?”