start
if i could sit you down at the kitchen table one more time. if i could set up the board between us. it was the pirates of the caribbean chess set dad brought home one day, the one i learned on, the one that witnessed my first victory three games in. and if you could sit next to me the way you used to. chin in hand. watching me think.
if i could teach you chess.
you never really learned. you watched me play and called the knight "the horse" and the rook "the castle" and you tried to understand castling and en passant, and that was the extent of your chess education. you didn't want to play. you wanted to watch. you said watching me concentrate was like watching me pray.
but if i could. if you were here and the coffee was hot and the morning was early and it was just us - the two of us, the only ones awake, the way it used to be on the weekends before anyone else got up.
let me teach you.