I sat in my little beetle driving along through the various grey highways nothing but the grey sky above us, the radio on so low I couldn't even tell what it was playing. The odd scent in the air of pine from the tree's outside the car, the smell of the engine working hard behind us, as well as the strange chemical scent from the open bottle of cutex on the dashboard the bottle's lid and bush in her hand as she painted her nails with this pearly purple colour that matched her lipstick. All this going on as we plaid chess together telling each other our moves.
She was winning.
four to two.
But I think she was purposely putting me off at times.
"What got you into chess?" I asked her
"Hum?" she asks as I broke her concentration
"How did you ever get into it?"
"Ohhh what would you like my tragic backstory?"
"Yeah go on then."
"Alright, Well One unbearably hot day in New Mexico I made my grandeous entrance into this world, loudly or so I'm told. Life wasn't easy on the ranch learnt all the important stuff young had to or the horse would kick your head in. We didn't have a lot No radio, paper rarely got delivered but one of the little things we had was my granddad's old chess board, so on evenings we'd all sit in the house or the barn and play chess and I got good at it." she explained "Then I lost my mum so I was left with the boys and I just... worked and plaid. After a few years, I decided to get off the ranch every now and again so I signed up for chess tournaments to make a little cash and get to see some places more than just backwater New Mexico"
"That.... explains more about you than I assumed it would."
"It does?"
"Kinda. yeah."
"your turn" she smiled finishing up with her nails putting the brush back into the bottle and throwing both into her handbag
"What?"
"Tell the tragic backstory of benny watts"
"It's not that tragic."
"Go on then"
"Alright" I rolled my eyes. "On what I think was a very terrible night for most involved. My mother was living in kent over in England helping with extended family out there due to the whole... goings on. and she ended up pregnant by a fellow American who was over there some sort of intelligence worker I don't know what. and one very dark rainy night in 1940 during an air raid I decided to arrive. I use to get told the story of how my mother, In labour! ran from the shelter at the family home two miles to the shelter where the midwife was in order to give birth through the rain, the sirens, and explosions from afar. and after a year she decided it wasn't safe for me there so sent me over to new york to live with my great uncle. but that didn't last long, He had a heart attack when I was three. my mother couldn't come over to get me and I couldn't get over there on my own so I got stopped up into the system with a bunch of the other kids. not like it mattered anyway she got sick and died just a year later. They couldn't find anything about who my dad was so I never met him. I hated the system and everyone in it. I just spent all my days reading the old chess books they had and playing with the little plastic board in the game room of the house. Once they saw how good I was they started putting me into tournaments paying the fees for me and taking my winnings to fund the orphanage. Once I got old enough to know what they were doing I started signing up on my own and keeping the money for myself by the time I was sixteen I got out of there got an apartment and... here we are."
"Hummm fascinating" she smiled
"How so?"
"Explains a lot about you"
"does it?"
"Yeah,"
"Like what?"
"That'd be telling" she smiled
It wasn't long before we arrived at my apartment I packed up and headed down letting her follow me down, I unlocked the door having to give it a push and a shove as it had been sticking for months now clicking the light on setting my hat and jacket beside the door, heading in and clicking the rest of the lights on seeing everything much how I left it. She came down and had a little look around.
"It ain't much-" I began
"I like it"
"What?"
"It's nice. I like it" she smiled "I like a cool little basement"
"Really?"
"Its cosy" she smiled
"Uhhhhh okay, well make yourself at home"