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

XXI - Benny's Bunker

Episode 6

Adjournment

Part 1

New York, 1967

Benny's Bunker

♕♛♕♛♕♛

"There's one thing you gotta do

To make me still want you

Gotta stop sobbing now."

Benny and I sang along to The Kinks in his tiny mint green Volkswagen bug. Driving from Ohio to New York City was long, but Benny's company made it bearable, and actually, kind of fun.

Something about him made me feel comfortable and at ease, at least when we weren't competing against one another in a chess tournament. Our brains work so similar that neither of us really have to try around each other. Everything clicks between us so there's no tension or awkwardness, just ease. It was a great feeling, something I haven't felt in while.

We played chess in our heads, reciting the moves to each other. It was a good mental exercise and it helped the time go by faster. Benny mentioned something about Scharz and what he had to say about Levenfish, the opening I played, in the footnotes of some book. I never read the footnotes, and he told me I should.

Having spent half my life cooped up in an orphanage and the other half flying from place to place non-stop, an 8 hour drive was actually kind of interesting. When we weren't singing, talking, playing chess or practicing Russian, I leaned out of the passenger side window and rested my head on my forearms. 

Wind hitting my face at a certain speed you can only reach while driving was a new feeling for me. The air never seemed so fresh and different. Everything seemed different. Pennsylvania trees and roads seemed different than Ohio trees and roads, which seemed different than Kentucky trees and roads.

Daylight slowly disappeared and night fell over the sky. Benny and I were getting tired but we were almost there. I wanted to rest my sleepy eyes, but something glittery caught them in the corner of my window.

Lights. Street lights, building lights, city lights twinkled and sparkled in skyscrapers and on the streets. The heart of New York City lay just beyond the freeway bridge we were on. I almost reached my hand out the window to touch them, it seemed as if they were just out of reach. 

I never saw New York City in person before. It was always photographs that I saw, and people spoke of it like it was some sort of glamorous heaven where people went to watch their dreams come true. I never cared for it much, but now I understand why. Something inside tugged me to it, like my soul wanted to be closer.

Benny's car rolled to a stop on a street filled with neat brownstones. All the same shape and design, there was a sense of sophistication and order to the neighborhood. I stretched my tired legs to get out of the passenger seat after what felt like a millennia of sitting, and I had to regain my balance when I finally stepped onto the sidewalk and breathed in the night air. I eagerly took a few steps up the stairs to what I assumed to be Benny's apartment, but apparently I was mistaken.

Benny slung his leather duffle bag over his shoulder and led me down the stairs to what seemed like some basement bunker. The hallway was lined with bags of trash piling up from weeks of forgetting to take out, giving it a rather odorous stench.