Chess not checkers

"All I know is that if there is a God, he doesn’t like me.” I admitted to my grandfather, who immediately stood up from the couch and jumped in my face.

"Don’t do that, Mikey, okay? Just don’t.” He pleaded with me, fixing his glasses. My grandfather is one of those older black men from the South who don’t play about God, so I must have been depressed to express it that way to him.

“I mean, if there was a God, why would he allow so many bad things to happen to good people? How would he allow this to happen to me?”

“Did he tell you to get on the motorcycle, Mikey? Did he cause you to lose control?”

“No, but he didn’t save me either.” I snapped back quickly.

“You here, ain’t you?”

“Not all the way.” I shot back again, quickly spinning in my wheelchair to remind him that I had lost both of my legs in the crash.

“Mikey, listen, that’s like jumping out of a plane without a parachute but being mad that someone didn’t lay a pillow down to stop your fall.” He said, heading down the hallway and going into a closet.

“I wasn’t in a plane, Pops. I was on my bike. I’ve been riding the same bike for three years. I’m just saying I’ve done everything that’s been asked of me, and I don’t see why or what I did to deserve this?”

“Roll up to the table.” My grandpa said, opening up a chess board and setting up the game.

“What we playing?”

“I’m setting up the chess board real quick. I want to show you something.” He answered, still setting the board up. “God plays chess, not checkers.”

“What?” I asked my grandfather, confused. I thought this was just another one of his crazy sayings.

“I said God plays chess, not checkers… You know the difference?”

“No.” I admitted, shaking my head.

“Checkers is how most people think... I’m going to fight the battles in front of me that I can see. Jump over as many people as I can so that I can get to the end and be a king, so that I can get an advantage, right?”

“Right.” I agreed, as I thought about all of the friends that had come back into my life now that I was crippled.

The moment I got successful in my career and got popular with women, a lot of the friends I had who once had more than me started to disappear. I took it as my fault at first, like I’m not good with keeping up with people, and life happens, and we’re all good. But the moment I went down, they started calling.

I thought it was love. But quickly I saw they were just happy I was doing worse than them at the moment. They wanted to tell me about all the things they were doing, stayed around the whole time I was sulking, and the moment I stopped sulking, they were gone again.

I vowed to never cry again with people who won’t celebrate with me.

“So what’s the difference, Pops? In chess you want the king too, right?” I asked, now interested in where this was going.

“Watch, and let me show you.” He said, starting to move some of the pieces. “Chess is about strategy. Which means the best chess players are the most strategic, and creating a strategy is more than just reacting to what’s in front of you at the moment, like checkers.”

“Okay, Pops, you’re losing me?”

“They think ahead… The best are at least three moves ahead.” He said, taking a pawn from the black player. “So sometimes in the strategy, you know there will be losses and sacrifices. God you know Mikey is a good man, and you know he just had an accident and lost his legs. And even though we plan for losses and sacrifices, they still hurt when they happen, right? But you stay with the strategy, and eventually you see the board taking shape… Check.” He said, as he finished showing moves on the board that showed even though the black player was losing more pieces, that the white player was actually the one in trouble because the black player was in the perfect position to strike. “So while the devil is getting excited taking pawns, God is setting him up for the real win.”

Now I could see the final blow and made the move myself. “Checkmate!” I yelled, smiling. “Thanks Pops, I understand.” I said smiling. “How am I gonna find a wife now, though?” I joked.

“I don’t know son, I guess learn how to deep sea dive and go find you a mermaid.”

The End.