Haircut (Beth Harmon X Benny Watts)

Chapter 37

Benny and I walked towards our room in silence. Townes dead eyes kept flashing in front of me. It made me nauseous. I wanted to push the picture away, but it was stuck in my head.

He looked even more fucked up than that one afwul night. When I met him in his hotel room, I was shocked at first. Who would have thought that Townes, the most charming, nice and passionate man of Kentucky would end up in a depression. Or minor mental issues, like he called them.

He told me that night he was having problems with drinking just like me. But I never looked like someone who just been through world war two. Twice.

I knew he did more, dangerous shit. But I didn't ask. It didn't matter then and it wasn't any of my business.

We both just wanted to stop hurting.

And that clearly hadn't worked out for the both of us.

I've only just noticed we were standing in our hotelroom, when Benny let out a load groan, as he set down in front of his chessboard. He quickly set the pieces in their positions and played through his game between him and Collin.

My mind too full with questions to concentrate on the board, so I decided to change clothes and lay down for a while. But before I could even touch the bed, Benny groaned again.

He had thrown his coat on the bed and rolled up the sleeves of his black blouse. His eyes looked frustrated and he was moving the pieces on the board with such fierce, that it was a miracle they didn't fly of it.

After a minute he laid his hands on the table next to the board. His mouth hung open for a bit.

"Beth... Come look at this." He waved me over, not breaking his eye contact with the board. The look on his face was a mixture between confusion and anger.

"Look at this move." He pushed the knight up, what didn't make any sense at first, but as I looked at the board more closely, I saw how sane it was. Genius even. Closing in the opponent's bishop and defending their own pawn at once.

"It's genius." I said, leaning my hands on his shoulders, so I could see the board better.

"I know. Also really uncommon. It was one of Collin's 12th move." He sighed. "And it threw me of."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"This." He moved around with the pieces some more, showing me how he ended in the position in which he was when I started watching his game.

"You should have moved your rook."

"I understand that now, Beth." Benny answered irritated. "But what I don't understand is this."

He made the next few moves untill Collin's mistake. "How can somebody make such a genius move and than screw up like this. He had me. He knew he did. It doesn't make any sense."

We both stared at the board. Benny was absolutely right, it hadn't made sense at all. "Collin isn't a dumb person."

"No, I'd noticed that last night when I was talking to him during dinner."

I sat down in the chair opposite of Benny. "Do you think he did it on purpose?" I asked.

"Why in the fucking world would he do that? He could have been champion." Benny ran his hand through his hair.

I didn't know what irritated him more, the fact that he made a dumb move or the fact that Collin let him win.

I wanted to say to him that it didn't matter in the end, because he had won, even though I knew that would have been a stupid. It wouldn't have comforted me either.