Can you keep a secret? I’ve never revealed the hidden truth before, but now I’m about to tell someone. You.
First of all, here’s a clue about who I am – I’m at that special age: 12.
12 is one of my favourite numbers in the whole universe. In fact, it’s my perfect number. 12 isn’t just the sum of 10 (the base of our whole amazing number system) and 2 (the only even prime number in the cosmos) but it’s the first number with 1, 2, 3 and 4 as factors. I reckon that’s so cool.
But it’s not just numbers that are magic. Letters are my thing, too. People think I’m weird because I spend a lot of my time watching Countdown, playing Scrabble or doing Sudoku. They say that’s really odd when you’re 12. But I don’t care. I always say I’m never odd or even.
You’ll soon find out what I mean.
I don’t know when it started. Probably as soon as I could talk. It’s something inside my brain and that’s all there is to it. If you don’t like it, you just have to leave me alone.
That’s what Mr. Adam says. He reckons I’m a puzzle – which is cool because puzzles are my best thing of all. He said to me, ‘Eliot, how can you solve a Rubik’s Cube in seconds but never work out how to listen properly? You are an enigma!’
I, ENIGMA? IMAGINE!
I love anagrams like that. Anyway, I told Mr. Adam I don’t need to listen all the time because I just seem to know lots of stuff. He’s my form teacher, but he didn’t understand because I spoke backwards.
That’s something else I do. The thing is, if I weren’t good at puzzles, the police would never have solved the crime. I actually sorted it out for them. Mr. Adam said it showed that my odd brain shouldn’t be seen as a problem but a POUR IN POTTY . (That’s an anagram for OPPORTUNITY .)
He said I should write down what happened in a blog, to see if anyone else can solve the crime before I reveal a few hidden secrets. See if you can spot the clues and solve the biggest mystery that struck our school in the history of the world.
I’m going to tell you exactly what happened on the day a BURGLAR STRUCK (GRUB CART LURKS ).
You see, I just can’t help doing anagrams. That annoys a lot of people. Maybe I’m annoying you with my word puzzles – but I’ll try hard not to upset you too much. I PROMISE . (IRIS POEM – oops, sorry.)
Before I tell you all about how I solved a crime for the police, I’m going to give you a puzzle to solve. It was Mr. Adam who got me started. He once said to our class, ‘MADAM I’M ADAM’ and I knew what he meant straight away.
So in a few seconds I replied with ‘WAS IT ELIOT’S TOILET I SAW?’. How cool is that? That’s the puzzle for you to solve. Get it?
Mr. Adam had to explain to everyone else what palindromes are (which I immediately
made into PROMISE LAND , RANDOM SPIEL or ROMP IN DALES ).
I just love words and numbers that are the same backwards or forwards. That’s why I’ve called my blog NEVER ODD OR EVEN. (Or if you prefer anagrams: REDDEN OVER OVEN , DODO NEVER NEVER , OVER
END OVER END .) Sometimes I even talk in anagrams just for fun.
So now you know my special hobby, here’s my secret fact sheet. I call it Eliot’s stuff.
I like to think a lot. After all, there’s lots to think about when you’re 12.
Each night before I go to sleep, I work out sums in my head and try to answer some big questions. Before I get on to my story, I’ll give you my latest five big questions. I don’t have all the answers yet.
