Chapter Text
“She’s quite something, isn’t she?” Alma asked, voice low, eyes glistening with excitement. She had no idea chess could be so much fun. It was captivating, like watching a battle. Though, instead of guns or swords, they used their intellect. The only sharp object they had was their wit and their instinct. To think that her child could take down men twice her size with a mere flick of her wrist and a pawn.
“She’s extraordinary,” Mr. Shaibel answered beside her, gaze not leaving the board.
Alma didn’t know much about chess, admittedly. She read all the chess magazines that mentioned her daughter and read a book or two of chess for beginners. Still, she felt like she would never truly understand it. Of course, she knew almost all the names of the squares. A few moves here and there, some openings and variants she could actually name. But the essence of it, the mental calculations and foresight needed to outsmart the other and win -- that, she didn’t possess. Not the way Beth did. In all honesty, she doubted there were many people in the world who understood chess the way that girl did. To her, it seemed easier than breathing. She didn’t waver, not once, when she played. It was as if she were playing a tune she knew by heart, every time she sat in front of a board. All the movements practiced, like she had already played the game before and now she was merely following a script.
It was mesmerizing.
It was terrifying.
“She said you taught her,” Alma muttered.
Mr. Shaibel snorted through his nose, shaking his head, “I didn’t teach her anything she didn’t already know,” he hushedly answered, and Alma missed the complicated look in his eyes.
Alma pondered for a few beats, half-heartedly wondering why she would lie about it, but quickly forgetting the thought as the man in front of her daughter nervously scratched his neck. She had witnessed enough games before to know that Beth had him by the balls. “There’s something special about her, isn’t there?” She marvelled.
Mr. Shaibel remained silent, but Alma didn’t mind. She was well acquainted with the man’s odd personality.
Heaving a sigh, she softly said, seemingly to herself, “I just feel like I’ll never understand her.”
At that, Mr. Shaibel finally took his eyes from the stage and turned to Alma.
“I think that for her, you trying is enough.”