Assuming the blankly innocent face of a felon in court, I hesitate. While I pretend to listen to her description of this latest Japanese fad, my innards rumble and my fingers twitch with a burning desire to begin today's puzzle.

Yes, I'm hooked.

Flip to the bottom of the TV schedule page in the Life, etc. section. Take quick note: which number appears most often. Begin.

Like many junkies, I start with only a few hits per week, the Easy Sudoku on Monday and Tuesday, controlled by a self-imposed limit of 20 minutes. By week two, I drift into Wednesday and Thursday's Medium demons, while the clock ticks past 20, 40, 60 minutes.

If both these rows have 8's, then 8 must go here in the bottom row.

"Logic, reasoning, new ways of thinking." So I defend my addiction to my "clean" husband when we have no milk or eggs, no dinner on the table.

Ah, I get it. Plug 9 here, 7 there, and...

Now signs of my depravity abound: the cats meow, unfed; the dogs languish, unwalked; phone calls go unanswered. Newspapers stack up around me.

Arghhh! I've made a mistake. This box can't have 3 in it twice.

I roam the city for a fix. At first I find only a few Sudoku puzzle books on one short shelf in my beloved Quail Ridge Books. The next week an entire dedicated section feeds my craving as well as those of others lurking nearby, pretending to skim "Misery" by Stephen King.

Sales of ready-to-eat sushi skyrocket as possessed housewives and retirees neglect their kitchens and patios and nurse Bent-Neck Fatigue Syndrome. Ballpoint pen blobs speckle my bathrobe. (Only cowards use pencils.) Rumor has it that SA chapters are forming in Salt Lake City and at Liberty College in Virginia. "My name is Bonnie, and I'm puzzled."

Either 1, 5, or 6 can fit here, but I can't be certain which one.

By 8 a.m., copiers jam with enlarged versions of the puzzle. Employees begin to claim they are "working at home" but newsprint fingers give them away. Jails fill with children and parents arrested in riots over the $19 e-version of Sudoku with an electronic touch screen. Instead of calling a lawyer, they demand pens and The N&O.

Finally! Finished a Hard Sudoku in record time -- 58 minutes!

My neighbor offers to show me puzzle strategies, yet I decline, admitting humbly that I have tried once or twice but I didn't inhale. She looks at me oddly as we both lean down to pick up the 6 a.m. delivery of today's puzzle. Oops, I mean today's local, national and international news.

(Bonnie V. Stone is a retired community college instructor and dean who now teaches part time at Meredith College and in N.C. State University's Encore program.)

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