Dead Stones [manxman] [boyxboy]

Lazy Bum part II

The club was unlike the club at the Cheese and Mints Café.  It was open ten hours a day everyday in a strip mall.  On the wall hung a sign, ‘no gambling and no smoking’.  The Saturday crowd was full of smoke and money piled next to Go stone bowls. This was the club for strong players, those who relished unvarnished aggression, those who could face the bellicosity of beady-eye Asian men with their own patented brand of belligerence.

Hao pushed Luke ahead into the babel of Korean slurs. Hao palmed his nape and massaged it like he was preparing a boxer for the ring.  Luke sucked in smoke and Hao’s glassy stare

Seo-won peeked up from his table of attentive players and beckoned for Hao. Luke knew him from the previous tournament as a 6-dan Korean professional.  The stout man had a resolute comb over on his head.  He stood up to greet Hao.

“And why weren’t you at the tournament?” Seo-won said.

“Busy.”  Hao removed his corduroy coat, laid it on the table, and folded up his sleeves.

Seo-won broke into a short grin. Hao pointed to Luke, “That’s the student.”

“Since when did you start giving lessons?”

“Since I was bored.”

“Bored? Not enough dick?”

Hao pushed back a seat, and the sound of wood against tile neighed uncommonly loud. “Life is suffering.”

Seo-won colored around the temples.  “Not making enough money?”

“The student pays me too little.”

“I saw his games at the tournament.  Won three games, lost two.” Seo-Won said to Luke who only nodded sheepishly.  “You play sneaky like this rich bastard—can’t believe you made me pay a thousand bucks the last time.”

Laughing in stride, Seo-Won arranged for Luke play a Japanese woman, Reiko.  She sat with her arms closed together over her narrow lap as though rejecting the masculine brusqueness permeating the air.  Intermittently, she coughed delicately to the surges of smoke.

Her game style matched her gentle demeanor, not overly aggressive but very thorough and deliberate.  The game was a miserly exercise in territory hoarding—no whirlwind fights, no suspenseful invasions.  She did not allow herself to be embroiled with his little traps all over the board. 

Luke was less so frustrated and more distracted with Hao looking over the game.  He had the dead look of hyper concentration, standoffish yet pugnaciously wanton.  And then Hao walked off suddenly and asked Seo-Won for a game, leaving Luke to sputter fearfully.  His heart gonged the death peals as he perused the board for his inadequacy over the sinuous strings of stones. Hao had always said the difference between good players and bad players was just a desire, a ruinous desire to win and prevail.  Feeling preternaturally the rays of Hao’s presence behind him, Luke queried board long and hard for this titan desire to win, but came away empty and exhausted.

“You win by five points,” Luke said to Reiko.

“Good game,” She said with a fine small voice. 

"Thank you for the game."

The pain of losing was slow to overwhelm curiosity or the uneasy strictures for good sportsmanship. Luke glared off Reiko’s starry eyes and said, “I don’t think I saw you at the tournament.”

“No, my husband thinks I play too much go as it is.”

Luke nodded, proceeded to clear the board, but Hao swirled in from his chair and stopped him.