No Escape by Julie Moffett
Chapter Forty-One
Gio
“Yes!” Alessa exclaimed, pulling the deep-purple weight with the number eight off the tube and handing it to me. “We did it!”
There were a few whoops as I handed it off to Winston, urging him and Father Armando to take it to the scale and see if they could get the scales to even out. Then I gave the tube back to Alessa to return it from where she’d got it.
“Shouldn’t we at least look at the map in case there’s another clue there?” she asked.
“Good point,” I said. I carefully slid the map out of the tube. In addition to the map of Pompeii, which I noted was based upon the archaeological record of 2015, there was an unsealed white envelope.
“I just hope it isn’t another riddle,” Stefan said sighing. “I’m pretty much done with that.”
I opened the envelope and pulled out a card written in English on one side and Italian on the other. “No such luck, Stefan,” I said before reading it aloud. “Not in the shade, but under the light / Balance the scale to come out right.”
“I think this means we’re getting close,” Alessa said. “It seems to be telling us to use the weights now.” She dashed out of the room with the riddle still in her hand.
“Let’s go check how Father Armando and Winston are doing,” Stefan said, walking to the threshold of the map room, then stopping, switching to Italian. “Aren’t you coming, Gio?”
“I guess so. But something’s telling me this has been too easy.”
“Too easy?” Stefan said in disbelief. “Are you out of your mind?”
“I don’t know,” I said, shrugging. “It’s just a feeling.”
“Well, we still have twenty-five minutes if we run into any problems. Come on.”
“I suppose you’re right.”
I followed him into the room where everyone was working on the scales. I peeked over Father Armando’s shoulder. He and Winston had put the nine, seven, five, and two weights on the left and four, four, six, and eight weights on the right. The scale lifted slightly. Winston put the last weights on, but after a moment, the left end sank back down again.
“It’s close, but we need to swap a weight to make it balance,” Winston said.
“Try swapping a four-pound weight for a five-pound one,” Clarissa suggested.
Winston switched it around, but now the scale tipped to the right. More suggestions came as they worked it, but no matter how many combinations they did, they couldn’t get it to balance evenly.
“We’re missing a weight,” Winston said, sitting down on the couch and running his hand through his hair in frustration. “That must be it, because we’re so close.”
“We’re out of clues,” Vittoria said, joining Winston on the couch and cradling her stomach. “What are we going to do?”
Clarissa stood alone at the table with the scale, not touching anything, but staring at the setup. “Why are the weights color-coded?” she finally asked.
Winston shook his head. “I don’t know. I hadn’t really thought about it.” He glanced over at me. “Gio, have any thoughts on that?”
“Not a one.”
“Well, perhaps we can use the colors to predict what color of weight we should be looking for,” Clarissa said.
“That’s an interesting idea,” Alessa said, standing next to Clarissa. “And what if we stack the weights the way they were originally? Heaviest to lightest on the left. Then we can stack the ones on the right similarly.”
“That’s not going to even the scale,” Stefan warned.
“Not yet,” Alessa corrected him. “We won’t know until we try.”
“Alessa is right. It’s worth a try,” Clarissa said, stacking them by weight. “The one thing I noticed is that when we stack the weights by color, it follows the pattern of the color wheel, going from red to green to blue to dark purple. Perhaps that’s significant.”
“We haven’t adequately addressed this riddle, either,” Father Armando said, holding up the paper with the short riddle we’d found in the Pompeii map tube.
Not in the shade, but under the light
Balance the scale to come out right.
“That’s right,” Alessa said, rubbing her temples. “‘Not in the shade, but under the light.’ Which light?”
“Maybe there’s a light switch we need to turn on to allow the scale to make a small adjustment,” Father Armando said, looking around the room.
“Everyone look for a light switch,” I ordered. “And fast.”
Vittoria found the switch on the wall just inside the door where we’d come into the room. It was currently on. “Turn it off,” I said. “Let’s see what happens.”
Vittoria flipped the switch, and the room darkened except for the lights in the map room, the table lamp on the small end table in the back of the room, and a pole lamp near the couch.
“I need someone on each light. Vittoria, stay on the room light. Stefan, take charge of the lights in the map room. Father Armando, stand next to the pole lamp. Winston, Alessa, and Clarissa, you watch the scale. Let’s try different combinations of turning the lights on and off to see what happens.”
We tried a variety of light combinations, but nothing changed in terms of the scale. “Nothing is happening and we’re running out of time.” Alessa’s voice was heavy with disappointment, echoing what we were all feeling.
After several minutes of trying various light switches, I called it quits. “Turn all the lights on for now. Perhaps there’s a hidden light or lamp we’re missing. Let’s see if we can find anything.”
Clarissa returned to the paper with the riddle and studied it. Then with a laugh, she set the paper down. “No need to do that. I’ve solved the riddle.”
I glanced up in surprise. “You did?”
“I did. It’s not in the shade.” She wagged the paper with the riddle on it at me. “Remember I told you about the wordplay? The riddle isn’t talking about the shade as in darkness, but the lampshade. The clue says it’s not in the lampshade. That’s because it’s under the light. Check beneath all the lamps.”
“Do it!” I ordered as everyone scattered, heading for a light. I sincerely wanted to plant a huge kiss on Clarissa’s lips, but instead, I ran to help Father Armando with the heavy pole light. The priest was already tipping it up to look underneath. Alessa had lifted the lamp on the end table, peering below it, while Winston ran toward the map room to check beneath the lamps in there.
“It’s here,” I shouted as soon as I saw the bottom of the pole lamp. “The base of the lamp is the final weight. It says ‘thirty’ on it. Someone, help me unscrew this thing from the pole while Father Armando holds it.”
Stefan knelt beside me, and we quickly unscrewed the bolt attaching the base to the pole. I hefted the weight and carried it to the scale. “Take off all the weights on the right side,” I said. Alessa and Clarissa quickly removed them, and I put the base on the right side of the scale by itself.
The scale leaned heavily in that direction.
“We need at least four weights on the left side to balance it,” Stefan said. “If we presume that all the weights are proportional to their numbers, then we need at least four weights equaling thirty on the left side to balance it.”
“Already ahead of you,” Alessa said, efficiently loading the weights onto the scale. “If we use the nine- and seven-pound weights from the original set, and the eight- and six-pound weights from the new batch, that equals thirty.” She put the last weight on, and the scale wavered back and forth…before it balanced perfectly.
“We did it!” Vittoria whooped, hugging Alessa, Clarissa, and then me. Everyone shouted and congratulated each other while I walked over to the red button on the wall and punched it. A glance at the clock indicated we’d finished the puzzle with less than four minutes to spare.
I returned to face Clarissa and Winston, who were standing arm in arm. I took Clarissa’s hand, lifting it to my lips. “Clarissa, I’ll always be in your debt. Your brilliance, and that of your husband and daughter, is much appreciated.”
I hugged Vittoria and gave her a kiss before facing the rest of the team. “Everyone performed beyond expectation. I don’t even know what to say, and those of you who know me well, understand that is most surprising. It’s truly an honor to have completed this challenge with you. I’m proud to call you friends and family.”
At that moment, the gamemaster walked into the room. His gaze flicked toward the open door of the map room as he headed for the scale. He carefully checked the scale balance and the weights before turning to face us.
“Congratulations,” he said. “Once again, I’m astounded by your excellent performance.” He handed me a golden disc with the number forty-five engraved on it. “You should know that over the years, others have solved this escape room, but you are the first to have done it by solving all the puzzles. How is it that you, a family without a single Nobel prize or scientific award among you, has managed to do something many of the brightest minds in the world have failed to do? Bravo.” He then turned to Father Armando and dipped his head. “I see you were a valuable addition to the team, Father. Most impressive.”
“It was my pleasure,” the priest responded, smiling. “Sincerely.”
“Well, thank you for those generous accolades, Brando,” Clarissa said, fanning herself. “However, if we’re done here, I’m hot and tired and greatly looking forward to relaxing and enjoying a wonderful lunch prepared by that genius chef of yours along with a glass of exquisite Italian wine to go with it. I’m quite famished.”
“Of course, my lady. Your lunch already awaits you in the dining room.” Brando swept out an arm toward the door. “Please, after you.”
Everyone filed out of the room, but I hung back a bit and fell into step with Brando. “So, did the other team solve their escape room?” I asked.
The gamemaster glanced at his watch before giving me a smile. “We’ll find that out in about six minutes.”