“Just pick up the pieces,” said Mom, her voice steady but worn.

Liam crossed his arms, staring defiantly at 300 jigsaw pieces scattered across the floor. “No. It’s stupid. I don’t want to.”

“Liam, you begged for that puzzle, remember? And it’s brand new,” she said, picking up a few corner pieces. “It’s got to go back in the box. We’re not leaving this mess for the cat to chew on.”

“I don’t care!” he shouted, kicking at a handful of pieces, sending them flying farther across the room. “It doesn’t look like the picture! It’s all messed up and it’s boring anyway.”

Mom took a deep breath, holding back her first reaction: to scoop him up and make him sit there until he was done. Instead, she sat cross-legged on the floor, keeping her movements slow and deliberate. “You know, it takes patience to see it come together, Liam. Sometimes you have to keep trying even when it feels boring or hard.”

“I don’t want to keep trying,” he muttered, glancing down. “Why should I have to finish? I don’t like it.”

She picked up a piece with the bright edge of the puzzle’s border on it. “When I was your age, my dad always told me that I had to finish what I started. Even if I didn’t like it in the middle.” She paused, holding the piece out to him. “How do you think it feels to quit in the middle of things?”

Liam looked away, fidgeting. “Feels fine.”

“Really?” she asked gently. “When I quit things, I always feel like something’s missing. Like I left something behind, just waiting for me to come back and finish it.”

Liam squirmed. “But what if I can’t do it?” His voice was soft now, and the defiance had crumbled just a little.

“Then we do it together,” she said, smiling. “And if we have to take a break, that’s fine, too. The trick is, you keep coming back to it.”

He sighed and looked at the scattered pieces around him. “It still looks hard.”

“It does. But you know what else looks hard?” She picked up a piece with part of a mountain on it. “Mountains. And people climb them every day.”

He picked up one piece, a sliver of blue sky, holding it carefully in his hand. “So... it’s like, I don’t have to put it all together right now. Just piece by piece.”

“That’s right.” She reached over, squeezing his shoulder. “And by the time you’re done, you might even like the picture.”

Liam looked around the mess, then nodded, setting his piece down by the edge of the puzzle frame. Slowly, he began picking up the scattered pieces, arranging them in a small pile next to him.

“I’ll help if you’d like,” she offered.

“No, I can do it,” he said, a faint smile breaking his earlier scowl. “But maybe you can sit here. Just in case I get stuck.”

And as they sat together on the floor, piece by piece, Liam’s puzzle began to take shape.