Puzzletober 2025: Reckless
As they leave the room, he asks her about her scarf. "My mother weaves one of these every year for every patron." "Did she ever teach you?" "No, but I'm sure I could figure it out if I wanted to. After all, she taught herself." He pauses with the key turned the first way in the lock. "I thought she said her husband taught her." She looks at her shoes and says, "Samuel was a sailor, spent his whole life on the sea. She never told me he wove. Unless you think she was talking about knots?" He disregards the discrepancy and turns the key the other way, allowing the door to click open. He does not share her excitement. His room is a bit larger than hers, not even counting the connected bathroom on the left. The wardrobe against the right wall is empty and the sheets of the queen-sized bed alongside the back are untucked. She sprints over to the bed and sinks into the mattress. He lays his suitcase by the door, sits beside it, and begins to unpack.
Feeling at home, she sits up and says, "Well, enough about me. What brings you here?" "I was going on a road trip when my car broke down nearby." "That sucks. Were you going somewhere you've been before?" "No, someplace new. My plan is to visit as many national parks as I can without going in debt." She chuckles a bit. "Us Vandermeers know what it's like living on a budget." He puts down the extra shirt he's holding and says, "I used to know someone by that last name. He worked in a similar field as me." "What did he do?" He takes some time to think and says, "He was a writer." "And that would make you?" "A journalist." "Hmph. Who for?" "Washington Post." She mutters, "I have a friend on their staff. Surely they would've told me someone of your name was working there." He briefly buries his face in the folded shirt. He was getting too reckless. "No... I meant... a paper from the state, Washington. I doubt you've heard of it." She hesitatingly accepts this answer.
He springs up and opens the door to the bathroom. The glistening tile floor is the same pallid shade as the surrounding amenities. He rolls up a shirt sleeve and is about to check the pressure on the walk-in shower when a tile shifts beneath him and he loses his balance. He stumbles backward before managing to catch himself between a wall and the doorframe, within her field of vision. They exchange skeptical smiles.
Rules: Solve as a Nurikabe, except all numbers are off by one. Not off in terms of value, but, like, in terms of position, either horizontally or vertically.
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