Perpetual Check (7 page)

Zeke glances at the three games in progress. Buddy Malone has his hands against the table, leaning back and balancing his chair on its two back legs. It appears to be his move, the way he's fixated on the board. His opponent, Serena Leung, has a confident smile, as if she's just made a significant move. She's dressed in black jeans and a black polo shirt, with untied white sneakers and splayed-out feet. Her short hair is gelled, and there's a small silver cross on a chain around her neck. All day long she's been applying ChapStick between moves.

Pramod seems to be making short work of Silvio Vega, managing to look both bored and amused as he waits for Vega to move.

Randy and Ahada are deep in concentration, both looking exceptionally young and out of place among the other quarter-finalists.

The Regional Director looks at his watch and whispers to Zeke, “You can have four more minutes if you need.”

Zeke nods. “I'll be right back,” he says.

He heads straight for the bathroom. He really does have a stomachache now. Nerves and breakfast sausage.

Zeke asked a girl to the junior prom last spring. Waited too long, though. It seemed like a sure thing back in February, when they spent a lot of time joking around and talking about sports in study hall. He figured he could put off asking her until March. By mid-April he finally got up the courage, even
though they hadn't really said much to each other in weeks. She was sweet about it, but she'd already accepted another offer.

Zeke finally takes his seat across from Jenna. Pramod's game seems to be nearing completion, but the other two matches look like they could go either way.

Jenna smiles and offers her hand. “Good luck,” she says.

“You, too.” Zeke does not smile back. He sets up the black pieces and chews on the side of his lip. He's been waiting to hear from the state colleges at Kutztown and Bloomsburg. Jenna's been offered a full ride to Princeton. The odds of him beating her are minuscule.

He turns his head toward his father and gets a thumbs-up in return.

All those practice serves,
Zeke's thinking,
all those push-ups and wind sprints.
They're not a lot of help right now. Worth about as much as a misshapen M&M. “You have any idea how rare that is?” someone once asked him. “Very rare.”

But sometimes very rare things happen.

SIX
Nobody Dances Well

Randy keeps track of his brother's game as best he can, ascertaining that Jenna's using the same opening as before. He tries to catch Zeke's eye to make sure he's caught on, but Zeke wouldn't acknowledge Randy for a million dollars. So Randy shifts his focus back to his own match, which he senses is moving in the right direction for him.

Lucy Ahada reminds him a lot of his girlfriend, Dina— slight build, airy demeanor, ambiguous ethnic background— so he automatically feels a sense of affection for her. She studies the board for several seconds before every move but never hesitates once she's decided what to do. She catches Randy's eye, then looks at the board again until he's responded.
She always gives a slight, polite smile after Randy's move but never betrays concern or pleasure.

She hasn't altered her strategy much from the narrow defeat she handed Randy in last month's dual match. So while she pays perhaps too much attention to bringing out her knights, Randy puts two pawns in position to limit the knights’ effectiveness in the center of the board.

Dina went through the Catholic grade school, so Randy hadn't known her until they started high school and he sat behind her in American history. She was always turning around and rolling her eyes when the obnoxious teacher said something particularly annoying, and she seemed to enjoy Randy's made-up words. And Randy sometimes did childish things like fastening paper clips to Dina's collar or flicking tiny wads of paper onto her desk. He heard through another girl in the class that Dina wanted him to ask her out. But he was very passive about things like that. Scared, in fact.

So Dina waited until mid-October, then turned around one afternoon and said, “There's a dance after the home coming football game on Friday.”

“So?”

“You planning to go?”

“No.”

“Well, make plans.” She gave him a very sweet smile. “How about if we go together?”

“I don't dance very well.”

“Nobody does.”

So Randy warmed up to the idea and got his mom to do the driving. She liked Dina right away, especially since she's a straight-A student and babysits for three different families. Mrs. Mansfield said she had spirit and fortitude, and that it'd be great if some of that could rub off on Randy.

Lucy's mouth is slightly open, and she's making circles on her chin with a finger. The way Randy's just positioned his queen has left her with a difficult choice—retreat with her knight and surrender a bishop, or save the bishop and lose the knight. She reluctantly moves the bishop, which Randy was hoping she would do. He takes the knight. Within three moves, he has the bishop, too.

He takes another quick look at his brother's table and wonders if he's detecting some concern on Jenna McNulty's face. Zeke's expression is slightly smug, and Randy hopes he's smart enough not to get overconfident and blow it.

The way Randy sees it, Zeke is probably as smart as he is but manages to get blinded by ambition too often. And his arrogance never helps. When Randy takes a hard look at himself, he realizes that a certain degree of Zeke's conceit might not be a bad addition to his own repertoire. But the volume of ego that Zeke possesses—and their father, too—generally leads to a downfall.

Randy has figured out that he usually beats Zeke because Zeke is too stubborn to give each move the consideration it deserves. Zeke still tells himself—despite having beaten Randy only six times in their most recent one hundred
matches (twenty-nine draws)—that defeating his brother simply shouldn't take a 100 percent effort. That Zeke is superior enough that his normal game will suffice.

Randy has his hands folded now and is looking kindly across the board at Lucy. She has two pawns and her king remaining, and Randy has her in check. She can get out of it this time, but on Randy's next move, one of his pawns will reach the end of the board and be promoted to queen. Lucy will be in checkmate.

She frowns, then looks up with a gracious smile. She tips her king onto its side in concession, lets out a sigh, and reaches her hand across the board.

Randy shakes her hand and they stand. He gives her a half hug with his arm around her shoulder and nods to the Regional Director.

Randy looks around and sees that neither of the other two games seems to be near completion. (Pramod has already won his.) He carefully turns the knob on the conference room door, and they step into the hallway.

“Great game,” he says to Lucy.

“You throttled me.”

The door reopens noisily, and Randy's father steps out. “You're on your way!” he says to Randy.

Randy shrugs. “Maybe.”

“Listen to him,” Mr. Mansfield says, turning to Lucy. “He's the man and he won't even admit it. The kid's going to win this thing.”

Lucy gives him a tight smile. “He played very well.”

“You said it.” He points his thumb back toward the conference room. “Now we'll see how the other one measures up.”

“He's playing Jenna?”

“Yep. I don't see why they don't have two different divisions. Men and ladies. Seems that'd be a lot fairer for you girls.”

Lucy shifts her eyes just slightly and catches Randy's. “I think we're holding our own,” she says.

“Sure. You gals are terrific. Best of luck to you.” And he goes back into the room.

Randy puffs out his cheeks, and his eyes get wider. His dad always manages to stun him. “He's … excited,” he says.

“He should be. You guys are doing great.”

“Yeah. You gonna stick around?”

“Might as well. I'd love to see Pramod get his butt kicked in the semis.”

“Wouldn't we all?”

The Malone match seems closest to a conclusion, so Randy keeps his eyes mostly on that one. Serena Leung has only her king and a rook, but Buddy is definitely in trouble. He still has a bishop and two pawns, but the bishop is in a useless position given how his king is trapped by Leung's pieces.

Leung puts Buddy in check with her rook, and Buddy makes the only move that he can, bringing his king to the first rank. Leung shifts her rook forward one space, resulting in check yet again. And Buddy responds with his only possible move, putting his king back where it was.

Leung lets out a sigh and says, “Perpetual check,” which sounds like it might be a good thing, but all of the players know better. It means Malone has forced a draw. Leung can put him
in check with every move, but Buddy can safely get out of it with the next one. And Buddy can't bring his bishop into play because he has to respond to every check.

With the right placement of material, such a frustrating scenario could go on forever.

So Malone has survived. They shake hands and agree to take the permissible five-minute break before starting over.

Randy notices that there are three and a half doughnuts still sitting on a tray near the windows. None of them look particularly appetizing—the ones with sprinkles or fillings are long gone—but he picks up an all-chocolate one with a gooey white glaze and takes a large bite while heading for the exit door.

It's fairly warm for a January day in Scranton, around thirty-six degrees and sunny. Pramod is standing on the walk in front of the hotel, talking on his cell phone. Serena Leung is sitting on a low cement wall about forty feet away, eyeing Pramod. Buddy is standing in the lobby, looking blankly out the window.

Randy nods to Buddy as he walks past, his mouth too full of doughnut to say anything.

“You win?” Malone asks.

Randy wipes his mouth with his sleeve and swallows. “Yeah. Barely.”

“We gotta play all over again,” he says, jutting his chin toward Serena.

“I saw.”

“I never even heard of her.”

“Me either.”

“Your brother still in there?”

“Yeah.”

They stand quietly for a minute, watching traffic on Jefferson veer off toward the Central Scranton Expressway. Pramod steps into the lobby and grins at Malone. He points to his watch and says, “What's the holdup?”

Buddy shakes his head. “She's good.”

“The Shark Lady? You must be losing your touch. She's not even seeded.”

“So what? She can play.”

“Maybe I'll find out.” Pramod smirks. “If you can't handle her, that is.”

Randy steps toward the doors. “I'm gonna get some air.”

“Can't believe that little kid's still in it,” Pramod says, loud enough for Randy to hear.

Randy sits on the wall next to Serena, who's leaning forward with her elbows on her knees. She turns her head slightly toward him and squints.

“You seem to be surprising people,” Randy says.

She gives him a defiant look. “How so?”

“Nobody expected any unseeded players to get this far.”

She shrugs. “They were wrong.”

“What grade are you in?”

“Eleven. What are you, like fifth?”

“Fifth seed?”