Sitting in front of Magnus Carlsen in this dark/red-ish room, just the chess board between us, felt a little unexpected, but special. Of course, there was no doubt he was going to kick my ass, but maybe there was another game to be played after this one. He moved the horse and a few moves later, it was a checkmate. We kept talking about the game a little bit, but obviously, i was out of my depth, however, i said: “You know i had this idea once, that the chess board could mean much more, i mean, come to think of it, if you wanted, you could map all the moves and permutations and logically always win, but what if the board is just a way of getting to knowing our adversary?”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
And we started playing and i started moving my pawns up, and he started taking the pieces, and he took about 7 or 8 pieces up until i got angry, made a mistake and lost my train of thought and started taking two pieces of his, a rook and a pawn respectively.
“i lost my train of thought,” i said “The game is done, i couldn’t keep up to what i had originally planned, unfortunately. There’s no point in playing further”. And then we jumped on the boat, the red boat, which had street lamps for lights and moved through the raging river, filled with capsized red boats and big balls of soft hay, going somewhere.
Our boat was being chased. We soft-knew it and we soft-knew that these indigenous people were on a murder spree. We sort of knew that if they caught us, we wouldn’t be able to deliver the cure, but it wasn’t a certainty, just something in the back of our heads.
“We need to deliver the cure!” i heard the voice of my friend behind me, and i was occupying myself with keeping the boat on course, but soon-enough we found ourselves in the water. Everything slowed to a halt, i dragged myself and my companion to the side of the river, which looked like it was made of cement when touched, and looked briefly at this building on the bank of the river which resembled a white plane hangar. We didn’t have time to get out of the water, so we submerged ourselves under the piles of hay, leaving just a little room for us to breathe, right before they came.
The indigenous people stopped and made camp right there, in their boats, on the water. They didn’t move further. They searched around and even walked on top of us, but didn’t find us. There was this feeling of being scared of what they would do if they caught us. My friend was hurt from the bullets, but he stayed quiet next to me, enduring, as voices were being heard, and i could see the people wandering around, but not leaving and making camp, for food.
After a few hours of them not moving and us being stuck there, underneath, as stupid as it sounds, one of them randomly came on top of us and started relieving himself on top of the place where we were hidden, and we just couldn’t take it anymore and came out. They took us to the camp, in one of their small nimble boats, where we were given the opportunity to talk.
They brought the two white men in the underneath cave, where there was this lake surrounded by stone. It shone blue lights and the water seemed endless. The warriors came and brought the men before them ready to be slaughtered, as they were guilty, but the two men begged to let them show where they have been and what they have found because it would have been such a mistake if they carried on with their thoughts.
“We have been on a journey to find a cure, that is all that we wanted. We thought that the people going behind us on the river were enemies, that’s why we hid under the piles of floating hay. Let us show you what we have found.” And much of this has been lost, but the chieftain was one of the ill, and there was this white thick substance they had him drink, and told him to jump into the water and stayed there. The man kneeled and looked at the chieftain and told him that he is among friends and told his friends to stand around him so as he’ll never forget. The chieftain stood in the blue flickering water with the eyes open wide, and then the white man directed the energy from the prism of his hands, towards the chieftain. Nobody could see anything happening but the two of them could feel it and they knew he was healed.
In the underwater cave, they all felt relief, and happiness, as the man came out of water healed. It really worked. Their people were saved and these two men sitting in the middle of them, which they previously hunted really came through and didn’t mean no harm, but truly wanted to save them. They spend their time picking up the bullets from their bodies, these tiny wooden bullets, that sprayed their skin, but it didn’t matter anymore, because their people were saved and all it took for that to happen, was to drink the white drink, jump into the water and let the man channel the energy towards him. Not fight, nor resist, keep eyes open, and whatever seemed to happen around him, to always remember that he’s surrounded by friends, in the water that shone blue flickering lights. And surrounded by friends he was, because all the families were there, women and children and they all stood around him, motioning him to stand still in the water, and healed he came from within.
And on a train they embarked and left behind the dusty cities, with dozens of train tracks going here and there, up and down, parallel and perpendicular, with carriages and wagons moving on them, and the wooden houses, all painted white, and the sun that burned brightly behind, and the dust that rose behind, covering up what was a great story. But forward laid the future, a future he would never forget, and the future that came in an embracing manner, with open arms. A future where he’d come to meet her and feel happy.
Seeing her for the first time, barging in his office on the moving train, in her dusty green man clothes, with that dusty hat on top of her head, and her blonde hair neatly tucked underneath but with a sliver of it rebelliously coming out, he couldn’t take her eyes off her figure. She talked with such fervor and passion. At first about her father, and then about something he lost and she wanted to find, but then the words just started to melt away, as well as the sounds, as all he could see was her face and her lips moving, and he knew right then and there, that it didn’t matter where he went, as long as she would be alongside him.
“Always and forever, i don’t want to do anything else other than go on an adventure with you” he said. And she stopped and looked at him.