Six Word Short

Terrence looked at the computer, puzzled by the results on the screen. Slowly, he turned to the calculator at his right hand and re-keyed the sequence, hoping for a matching result, at least, but hardly expecting it. The cruise ship was slowing, following its owner’s lead, as the computer worked harder to try to figure out the sequence it had been fed.

From the doorway, an exclamation indicated that Tucker had once again bumped the cactus on the way in. “You really should remove this stupid thing, Terrence!” he grumbled. “I’ve held my temper the last eighteen times I ran into it, but I’m no saint! My patience is coming to an end.”

Terrence’s chuckle only served to annoy Tucker further, but he continued across the room to see what Terrance was doing. “What seems to be the problem?”

Terrence shrugged and responded, “There’s no rhyme or reason to it. The numbers add up, but the program doesn’t work. Any idea what the problem is?”

“I have no idea,” Tucker peered at the screen, “but this part here kind of looks like a turtle!”

The six words were cactus, saint, computer, turtle, cruise ship, and calculator.