...take a risk.

Alice had only seen the move done on the Internet--sweeping a single-block layer in a swift move. She swept her hand quickly and succeeded in removing the layer. After that, she spent her moves safely to box her opponent in. Move after move Alice took out the safe block, and move after move Ryan matched her. After only ten moves for each player, she could tell she would win if he did nothing.

By the time it got to the last few moves, Ryan had to try what she’d already accomplished. His hands moved quickly but he clipped the edge of the teetering tower. It crumbled to the ground.

Ding!

“Congratulations!” Laura told her as the crowd cheered. “Alice wins the match.”

“Alice,” Laura continued, “Come with me back to the wheel. Are you ready to spin the wheel for round six?”

Alice nodded to Laura that she was ready. The wheel clacked around before coming to rest on a white section.

“For fifty-five thousand,” Laura said, reading the card, “you will have one minute to sink ten three-point shots.”

The stagehands busied themselves with bringing out a couple of racks of basketballs and setting up the hoop. Alice was shuffled over to a mark in the floor that designated the right distance.

“Alice, are you ready to begin?”

“Let’s do this,” she responded, grabbing one of the balls.

“Three. Two. One.”

Ding!

Alice jumped and shot the first ball. Before looking to see where it had gone, she grabbed another from one of the racks and shot another. The first bounced off the rim and the second bounced off of the backboard and into the net for her first basket. The next two were misses followed by three more baskets, bringing her total to four.

A beep indicated that there were only thirty more seconds. Alice was acutely aware that she was behind and tried to shoot more quickly. She got a lucky bounce on the rim and another two to follow. Three more to go. She jumped and the ball slipped from her hand.

With fifteen seconds left, Alice grabbed a ball and tried her best to make a decent shot. The ball left her hands and she immediately grabbed another and loosed the ball towards the hoop. Both managed to find their way through the netting.

There were only five seconds remaining on the clock. The only thing on her mind was sinking the final basket. She picked up the ball and readied herself. She jumped and shot. From her position it looked like a decent shot when it left her fingertips, but as it came down, she could tell it was going to be close. The ball bounced off of the backboard and then off of first one side of the rim and then the other. Slowly, it circled the rim, teetering on the edge for what seemed like an eternity. Alice’s breath caught in her chest as she watched.