Matching Memory

“Uh… I think this one was me?”

Katie was trying her best to figure out where each photo went, but she could only remember so much.

She tapped her selected photo and the one next to it, and Mira happily swapped them without revealing an inch of the other side, sliding them around on her flesh grid.

“What are you doing? Hey! Don’t move any!” Frankie blinked hard, panicking. “What are you thinking?!”

“Why not? That’s literally how you win!”

“I’m still looking at it! I don’t know where they all are!”

“What? I don’t know either!”

“So why are you freaking moving them?!”

The reckless big sister looked back at the game board.

“Okay, well, just remember, that one at the top right is me.”

“You don’t know that!”

Nobody wanted to admit it, but it was just about pointless. Frankie wasn’t actually half bad at games like this, but she was not ready for all the photos to mix like that. If only I’d been even just the second person in line, she thought, almost certain she could’ve handled it if she’d have just known what to expect.

“Okay. I think I’ve remembered as much as I can.”

Frankie examined the three-by-three carefully.

“The top right… is you. You’re right.”

“Yay!”

“The one next to that… is definitely me. I was watching it. And below it, the middle one… I’m pretty certain I saw another one of you.”

“…Anything else?” Katie could visualize the flipped pieces fine, though she didn’t enjoy anything being hidden from her.

“Yeah.” Her sister swallowed. “Er… I think the bottom left… and the bottom middle… are both her.”

Mira childishly giggled like a stuttering film reel.

“Are you sure?”

The puzzle-solver grit her teeth.

“Oh, don’t do this… not now…”

“You’ve got a time limit, by the way. Five minutes to go.”

“Five minutes?”

Both sisters were equally horrified, but only one was touching the board.

“Okay. So with those pieces in mind, that just leaves… one you… two me’s… and a Mira.”

Frankie started moving arounds the ones she thought she knew.

“I hope you’re keeping in mind where you’re putting these.”

“They have to be lined up horizontally, right?”

“Correct.”

“Will you let me move them anywhere on the board?”

“Swap whichever ones you like, I don’t care where they are.”

Frankie got to work.

Soon enough, she had it: the combination with the absolute best chance at winning, given what she knew. 

The top row: Katie, Katie, Unknown. The middle: Unknown, Frankie, Unknown. And at the very bottom: Unknown, Mira, Mira.

The solver finally let her hands shake as she breathed out a fog of anxiety. There were still four unknowns, but they at least had a chance like this.

She prayed.

“Are you ready?”

Both sisters nodded.

With a crook of her neck- to the right this time- the reels were reassembled inside that “hand-made” grid of hers, connected through a glue she secreted like sweat in the same places the knives had extended from. Soon, her hands became hands again, and she held three reels inside them.

“Heeeeere’s your results!”

Mira flipped the reels towards them.

The top row: Frankie, Katie, Katie.

The middle row: Katie, Frankie, Frankie.

The bottom row: Mira, Mira, Mira.

“Don’t worry! You can try again in um…” Mira checked the watch installed on her wrist. “Half an hour! Come back soon~”

Frankie cursed to herself.