I’d never seen my son show so much interest in… anything. His level of focus as he manipulated the cube, spinning the rows from one side to the other, was absolute. No one had told him what the rules were, but he seemed to understand intuitively that the same colors go together.
I pulled out my phone and bought him his first Rubik’s Cube that very minute. When I got home, I looked up how to solve it, and spent the weekend watching YouTube videos with Danny so that we could learn how to solve it.
Today, 11 years later, Danny is among the fastest Rubik’s Cube players in the world.
The progress he’s made has been incredible to watch, and not just as a Rubik’s Cube champion. I had no idea about this when Danny started, but there are actually whole communities and competitions that bring people together. People will travel the world to play this game, and Danny has. For a kid with developing social skills like him, meeting friends like this has been a godsend.
Of course, it’s also how Johan entered his life, and mine.
Before they’d ever even met, Danny idolized Johan. We’d found him on YouTube, where he posted videos of him speed cubing in front of his webcam. Danny had never seen anything like it. Johan was solving these puzzles in seconds, sometimes one-handed, sometimes blindfolded. It was like he was some kind of sorcerer on the screen, casting his spell over the cube, and by extension my son and me. As I made dinner, I would watch over Danny’s shoulder as he sat in front of his iPad, playing with his cube, trying to solve the puzzle as fast as this blond German boy living in South Africa.
As Danny watched more and more videos, I came to know a bit more about Johan.
He was five years older than Danny, the son of a German diplomat and his South African wife living in Praetoria. He was the reigning champion and world record holder in several speed cubing events, including the coveted 3×3 title. In addition, his YouTube videos were wildly popular, and he was probably as close to being a celebrity as you can be solving a Rubik’s Cube. To Danny, whose whole world revolved around the Rubik’s Cube, Johan was practically a god.
Of course, he was still just a shy, gawky 13-year-old when Danny met him for the first time at a tournament.
The thing that impressed me more than Johan’s cubing was the kindness that he showed to Danny. He was so generous towards him, gracious even, in a way that teenage boys rarely are. He befriended Danny despite his autism, and despite the age difference between them. They were bonded by this shared love of speed cubing.
Or so it seemed. I don’t really know anymore. After what happened, I can’t stop second guessing things.
Johan and Danny became closer and closer friends, talking online, seeing each other regularly at tournaments. And Johan was more than just Danny’s best friend: he was his mentor, his rival, his older brother.
And the closer they became as friends, the faster Danny got with the cube in his hands. Pretty soon, my son was the one setting records and winning world championships, and Johan was coming in second… or worse. After a few years of this, Danny had broken almost all of Johan’s world records, except one: the 3×3.