Episode 8 Mirrors and Mirrors
Hi this is an episode from my recent fiction novel. I was working on this novel for a long time and I just finished it. Sorry it is in Malayalam only. But in order to get some exposure and true comments I am trying to translate it in to English. I already published a portion of this chapter in social Medias. Depending on the feedback from social medias I am sharing a short summery about this novel along with the answer for the mystery of this chapter. As I said this is a fiction novel plotting around a fourteen year old boy named Henry. As the title suggest he is a genius who invented several machines during his childhood.
He lost his family and was brought up by his step mother and step father. One day Henry accidently climbs a forbidden mountain named “Helpo”. And he finds a series of mysteries, problems and wonders. Henry has to solve each mystery and problem to escape from the Helpo. Finally Henry find out an abandoned invention which he repairs and escapes from the mountain. Later he find a scientist in a lonely island. Together they make a vehicle and starts a journey to the space.
Henry reached in a room made of mirrors. The door closed after he entered the room. Of course it is also a mirror.
Awesome! Where ever he looks a number of Henry’s reflecting all of his actions. He mocked, jumped, laughed, thousands of Henry’s copied his action. The more he did, the more he got copied. After a long time of playing he found the sign board.
And so it is written
Open the right door else face the death!
Ah! The same thing again! How could it be possible? He cannot even find the door through which he entered. But still he started to examine the room, sorry the mirrors.
It took long than expected to find out a door. It was so brilliantly made by mirrors and was fixed in such a way that a normal eye cannot recognize it as a door. Once he identified the clues it was very easy to find out the rest of the doors.
But How?
The doors were embedded with numbers, which helped him. There were numbers of one to ten, as usual it was placed in such a way that you can’t identify easily. Also the reflections. In addition, there were no other specialties to identify them as doors.
Now the doors are there, but how to find the right one?
He examined the Sign board again. Unusually it was made of glossy reflective metal. Furthermore it was not fixed anywhere. He took it and look for clues, front back and sides. He was disappointed the outcome. Somehow he noticed the reflection on the mirrors. There was something reflecting in the metal. He look the metal board thoroughly. At a certain inclination the metal reflects something, a word. He found out that there were more.
Somehow he managed to identify one word, and it is written as
“ENDON”
He has no idea about that word. But the last incidents forced him to think differently.
“NODN3”
I think you have guessed how Henry find the word.
Henry guessed that it is the short form of No Door Number 3.
So easy, now he have to find the rest of the words. With a little struggle he found the whole words.
“NO WIFE NO SEX NINE’O NIGHT NO EVE FORUN NET ENDON TOWN NONE”
Can you identify the correct words? Can you find the correct door from these clues?
Anyway Henry has to find out the correct word, in order to open the correct door. I bet you will be surprised by the correct answer.
So here is the findings of Henry.
NO WIFE - if you arrange the letters it will become NO FIWE. Forget about the spelling. So it means No five, fifth door is incorrect.
NO SEX – No six. So sixth door is also a no no.
NINE’O - What does it means? Is it a yes for Nine or not. Well it is little confusing. So keep it apart.
NIGHT - Means No Eight ( common add the missing letters). So a big no for Eighth door.
NO EVE - if added the missing NO SEVEN.
FORUN - If it is arranged NFOUR. May be it is no four. Well it is also in doubt list.
NET - Easy. TEN. So it is a definite yes for door number TEN.
ENDON – Already solved. No door number 3.
TOWN – NTWO. So it is also in doubt list.
NONE - N ONE. Also in doubt.
So the possibilities for door numbers one, two, four and nine are a yes or no. Only door number TEN has no such confusion. So Ten will be the right answer.
(Just a minute. Have you solved this puzzle already? Have you found the same answer, in the same way?
Anyway Henry did it. He has to open the door. But how? There is nothing to open that door. )
Henry seems little confused.
Wait, is it the right answer? There won’t be any straight answer for these problems. So there is something missing. Henry remembered what happened in the hanging bridge (from previous episode). The way seems to be right is the wrong way. So you have to think in such a way that you will find the RIGHT. So definitely ten is not the answer. Henry began to examine the Sign board again.
“Oh. GOD Why I am so blind! Why this was not revealed earlier?” He murmured.
What is the oddest word in that sentence? It is NINE’O. Why? There is a symbol (‘) in that word. No other word contains such thing. So it is the right word and right door.
What does it mean? Henry was thinking deeply. Suddenly his eyes glazed.
“‘” means you have to twist something in clockwise direction. And what?
In order to find what should be twisted he has to examine the Ninth door. Let him examine it.
(Have you find this clue early? Have you guessed nine will be the right answer? Well there will be more problems to solve. So keep reading).
Henry seems little disappointed. He couldn’t find the thing to twist. There is nothing in that mirror. But Henry thoroughly examined the surrounding mirrors.
There it is.
He found a hexagonal shaped mirror of an area of 15 cm2. It was placed above the Ninth door. At first he didn’t notice it. (Henry you have to be careful in those reflections).
He pushed that hexagonal mirror. It went inside and came out. He twisted the hexagon.
Krrr……..kr……
Some strange sound heard. He waited. But nothing happened.
Actually there was a door opened slightly. Mr. Henry was expecting the Ninth door to open. He strongly believed that his answer was right. And there was no sound while the door opened.
Can you guess which door is opened?
Drop your suggestions, comments and answers.