Running on Sunday

Chess and Silence

A fresh track from Vuutrin tires leads to behind Luna's Pole Barn. The screen door rattles into silence. Luna sets her belongings down and sits in the kitchen near her knives. She clears her throat loud as though her home a part of her throat to clear out. She hears a soft thudding like a muffled metronome drum in between a sound like sandpaper sliding slow against concrete, against a wall and the floor with a breathless-slurring voice, "Wh'sss e'boood-ugh?" Luna grips a knife handle tight against her hip concealing the blade. She watches as Gelsh slumps, collapsing on himself, in the middle of the kitchen facing her as if his body is not connecting with his mind-- as though no active function is processing within him. She stares at him as though tiring of watching a lifelessness she bears with no actual benefit to her-- as though completely unentertained by a routine that had once been laughable and with time had become detestable. He looks up momentarily at Luna; they meet eye-to-eye as though neither can figure out the reason for bearing a weight they don't need to bear; Gelsh holds a look of pleading, not willing to die and not willing to change, for more time to do and feel as he wants, and Luna looks as though she holds a life in her grip, tight enough to still-- not tight enough to kill. Gelsh sets his head down unable to bear the weight of himself. His breathing is heavy and slow. Luna sighs,

"Are you here for me to stare at you? Throw you in a tub? Throw a hot towel on your face? Feed you?" Luna stands, approaches Gelsh, and whispers against his loud groan, tightening her grip on the knife handle, "Take care of you?" She glares at his glazed-lost bulging eyes aimlessly staring, "Have you given up so much?" Gelsh moans long and loud. She calms looking around her, finds a broomstick and begins prodding Gelsh. He groans rolling about the floor unable to push the broomstick away with feeble swats of his hand. She forces him to drag his way toward the direction she pushes him until his face pushes open the screen door. The top of his head hangs an inch above the ground outside the door and Luna pokes at the rest of his body resting inside her kitchen on the floor in the doorway. She drops her broomstick talking aloud, "I'd use the bristles but some messes need stiff solutions." She kneels closer to his head, shaking her own, and a burst of frustration screams from her at him, "You fool! You, of all people! should not have thrown their life away. You should have stayed with me! Look what I've done here. If you could make friends like yours in Delth, what makes you think you could not have done so elsewhere? Friends with more positive influence." She calms. She looks at his watch, his fancy clothes, his shoes, thinks of his car, and sighs then says, "It doesn't all measure to the quality of your soul. The fulfillment of your potential outlasts... Ugh." Luna leans on the wall behind the door gripping her face with her left hand as she ponders aloud in a softer voice as though knowing anything she says is more for her contemplation wavering between hope, reality and security, "I'm a rare one, a very rare one, not because I put up with your nonsense at all, not because I loved you, not because of all I do on my own-- because I am me! You'd think you'd appreciate it and not just know it! My worth! If it had been of any value to you, you would not have valued anything in replacement, comparison is far different than replacement, you tried to replace me! You're not supposed to try replacing people with your addictions!" Luna kicks Gelsh in the shin. He coughs then throws up outside of the door. She closes her eyes and opens them then picks up the broomstick. She prods him from underneath one of his butt cheeks for more leverage until his hip goes up then over and he rolls out the door with his head elevated by the bottom of the door post. He is snoring. Luna rolls her eyes as she reaches for her cell phone then pauses, looks at Gelsh, and talks as-a-matter-of-factly to herself, "Normally, I wouldn't but I've got to know as much now of what I couldn't know before." Luna finds Gelsh's keys on his body and walks to his Vuutrin. She looks at the key hole, finds the matching key, and sighs as she inserts the key. A mechanism slides toward the key, a slot opens for the entire key ring and auto locks after the keys are set inside then the Vuutrin's driver door slides open. Luna looks inside and her eyes widen staring at a cellphone in the passenger's seat. She grabs the cellphone. It lights up at her touch. She speaks low to herself staring and tapping at his phone screen, "Who would think, his car is his lock on his phone." She goes to his messages: her eyes widen as she is more fixated with every millisecond. She sends herself copied messages and photos from Gelsh's phone then deletes the sent messages from his phone. Luna sets his phone down then steps out of the Vuutrin and pulls his keys from the lock when the car door shuts. She hurries inside to retrieve her phone, calls Daria, receives no response then calls Cally,

"Cally." She runs her fingers through a ray of sunlight beaming into the store onto the counter as she listens to Luna,

"Tiny won't meet you at Ont's shop." Luna checks around her house for anything out of her original order. She walks into the bathroom to find a mini-bowl with the outer texture of burnt-iron like an unbreakable avocado skin. She pauses, runs to grab a pot from the kitchen, throws a towel over the mini-bowl, throws the mini-bowl into the pot with a lid over it, finds heavy tape and seals the pot before continuing to Cally, "Dear. I've secured another. We've the cauldron and the mini-cauldron. They're a sloppy bunch. How can they afford to be so reckless?" Cally shrugs casually thinking to Luna,

"You know how pawns can be strategically useful in Chess when a player knows how to use them?" Luna closes her eyes setting her palm on her forehead to slide down her face. She walks into the kitchen with the sealed pot and looks at Gelsh knocked out in the door way on the ground then acknowledges Cally,

"Yes. They're all players. They've all chosen their roles but all that controls them is their addictions. That deals with one angle but this is a game like chess with many angles. Cally, tell Robert we'll catch up later. We'll talk soon." Cally nods responding,

"Cally out." Luna calls Tiny,

"How near are you?" Tiny chuckles,

"Close."

"Good, I'm going to need your help setting up the Pole Barn with an Illusory-Sensor perimeter."

"We're going underground?" Luna purses her lips in the side of her face staring at Gelsh,

"Yes and we've got a few hours to do so in the clear."

"Got it."

"Good. We've a lot to discuss."