Tales from the Cooinda Cycle: Memory Four

“It’s your move…” I said.

It had been a few minutes since I moved the Knight and took one of his Pawns. In these moments it was never clear if he was thinking, or had forgotten whose turn it was.

“Oh, sorry… sorry,” he said. “Uh, ummm.” He thought as he grasped a piece, a Bishop.

Then he released it, not having moved it on the board. Looked around a few places and fumbled different pieces, till he returned back to the Bishop and moved it down a diagonal line of chess board squares, taking my Rook.

“He’s out for blood now,” I said, joking with him.

The cafe was empty apart from myself, and The Chess Man, this afternoon was Chess Club. It started when a few of us placed in the centre together discovered this resident loved to play chess, but rarely got a chance. So we started playing games whenever we could with him, in particular, The Young Man who had only learned the game during our time here. The Other Guy and I were already versed in the game, although it became clear that The Other Guy was far superior at it than the rest of us.

Early on even The Chess Man would beat The Young Man, but soon there were days that the resident was being beaten in chess three times a day if we didn’t plan well. I started to try and subtly throw games against him, not to let him win all the time, but to try not to crush his spirits.

Living here would already have crushed mine.

Chess Club was made to be an open event, for any and all residents. However so far only The Chess Man ever came, sometimes the others from our group would be free or come past to play a game, but often it was just the Chess Man and me. Some of the staff questioned if it was worth it to have the cafe open for one resident to play chess, but having the cafe open later on Chess Club day sometimes meant other residents came down for a tea or snack too.

It didn’t matter to me, Chess Club and other events at the cafe created for me a sense of purpose and usefulness. They also I believe gave me the fortitude to carry on in the centre, it drained me of so much every time I was there, doing things like Chess Club helped stem the flow.

I moved my Queen, preparing to complete my gambit. If I could slowly get all the pieces in the right place, it would be unstoppable. After I finished moving my piece, I got up to make coffee for myself for afternoon tea.

“Would you like a tea while we play? On the house,” I asked as I placed a pod in the coffee machine.

“Oh, go on then. Thank you,” said The Chess Man, moving a piece on the board.

I finished making the drinks and came back to the table, placing his tea in front of him, a biscuit on the plate, and my coffee in front of me. I picked up my biscuit and took a bite,

“Mmm, biscuits, what are those?”

“They’re Tim Tams,” I said. “Free for members of the Chess Club.”

I moved another piece, but something looked odd on the board. I couldn’t place it, but something in the placement of the pieces was… wrong.

“Really? that’s good.” He said.

It wasn’t actually the case, there was no budget for Chess Club, I just opened a pack of Tim Tams from the shelf so we could have one with the hot drinks. I put money in the till at the end of each week to cover for extra costs of things like ‘free’ biscuits and drinks for those that didn’t have visitors to bring them money so wasn’t too concerned.

He picked up a Knight, and went to move it across the board, it took me a moment but I realised he had picked up my White Knight.

“Oh, that’s my piece.”

“Sorry, sorry,” he said, embarrassed. “Didn’t mean too.”

“That’s okay, easily mixed up.” I said, then thought what I said didn’t make any sense.

However it dawned on me why the board had looked wrong, there were white pieces in places I had not put them. He had been playing my pieces on some moves, as well as his own sometimes. I had no idea how long this had gone on, but we had essentially been playing a game together against him. Another symptom of this place, I think, is that it took me a long time to notice.

After he placed my Knight back down, he took a sip of tea from the cup, and then placed it back down on the saucer. Then came another period of silence, both of us examining the board and what moves to make, however I now had to adjust all my moves based on where he had placed some of my pieces.

There was another few minutes of silence, until I guessed why he wasn’t making his move.

“It’s your move…” I said.