𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐞𝐧'𝐬 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐢𝐭 ♕From Beth the Eyes of Beth Harmon

XVIII - Some Things Never Change

Episode 5

Fork

Part 2

Kentucky, 1966

Some Things Never Change

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"Okay. Tell me, what was your endgame." Harry said flustered, tipping his king.

"You just- saw it?" I said as if it weren't obvious.

"What was your plan." He said, rolling his eyes.

"To beat you?" I said, aggravating him even more. He gave me a look. I shrugged. "I don't know what it was."

"Exactly, you're still just improvising."

"I just wiped you out five times." I said composed. Harry gawked for a second, struggling to find words.

"I'm a master, and I've never played better in my life."

"So modest." I laughed as I shifted my other leg onto the couch.

"But I'm nowhere close to what you'll be up against in Paris."

"I could beat Borgov with a little more work."

"You can beat Borgov with a lot more work. Years more work. Borgov's not some Kentucky ex-champion like me, He is a world champion who could've beaten both of us when he was ten. Do you even know his career?"

"No." I whined.

"Well..." Harry shuffled through the pile of books on the coffee table. "Read it. Read the games from Leningrad 1962. Look at the way he plays rook-pawn endings. Look at the games with Luchenko and Spassky. You might learn something." He then got up and made his way to the bathroom with a few missed turns around the house.

I picked up the book. Vasily Borgov, My Life in Chess read the cover. It was rather thin for a chess book, especially considering the fact it was supposed to outline Borgov's entire chess career. The face on the cover stared at me with the same cold eyes that stared at me during our game in Mexico, the same day mom died.

I turned on the radio. I was getting pretty bored with Harry's game plan nonsense. It wasn't a bad point, everything he said, I was just in no mood to care for it now. The atmosphere needed a little spicing up. My favorite song was on and I got up and started dancing while Harry wasn't looking.

I turned around and he was just standing right there, unbeknownst to me. He caught me in the middle of taking off my sweater.

"Summer's coming!" I yelled over the radio. He just looked at me with those puppy dog eyes.

"Are you coming?" I asked. It was like he was in a trance, just standing there. He shook himself out of whatever daze he was in and joined me at the board sitting on my couch.

♕♛♕♛♕♛

I walked into Alma's bedroom in an oversized button-up shirt. Tonight's the night I guess.

The bed was neatly made and I undid a corner of it to get in. I guess I never noticed it before, but her room was very floral. Floral enough to overpower someone who doesn't love floral print. The comforters, lamps, and wallpaper were all the same green and pink flowery pattern. But I guess this is how Alma liked it.

I grabbed a cigarette from the pack sitting on her nightstand. That night I didn't light it, just simply held it loosely between my lips. But some nights I did. Most nights I did.