Stanley enjoyed playing chess. He played it every day. When the weather was nice he would play it in the park. Sometimes there would be some old people who would play against him, and he beat all of them every time. But mostly he played by himself. When he played against himself he would take turns letting each side of the board win. He saw the little pieces like living things. He believed that if one set (the white pieces, let's say) lost too often, then they would not try so hard to win in the future.
Stanley believed his chess pieces were very wise. He'd had them for a very long time. In fact, they were the only chess pieces he had ever played with. They were a gift given to him by his father when he was just five years old. Two years later Stanley's parents were killed in an automobile accident. They had been hit head-on by a drunk driver while on their way home from Stanley's father's company Christmas party. They had not been killed instantly. They had been trapped in the car and burned to death. No one was certain if they had been rendered unconscious by smoke first. Stanley was never told any of this, of course. Stanley was an only child. His only living relative was an old aunt of his mother who simply wasn't able to take care of Stanley and his special needs, so Stanley become a ward of the state.
Stanley was autistic. He wasn't the most severe kind of case, but it was definitely severe enough that most of the medical world believed he would never be able to function on his own. Until the age of thirteen Stanley lived in special ward of the Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. Two weeks after his thirteenth birthday, Stanley was finally given to a foster family.
The Walkers were a very kind family and from the very first day that he arrived they had treated Stanley like one of the family. Nancy and Donald had two younger children, Sylvia 3 and Dennis 7. Both children adored Stanley. After all, Stanley was the easiest person in the world to get along with. He was mostly impartial to everything, with the exception of chess, so he never fought over which show to watch on the television, or who got to sit next to the window. His manners were automatic. He always said "please" and "thank you" and "yes, ma'am". Every time. He never lied. He simply was unable to say anything but the truth. There were never any alternatives that came into his mind. If anyone were to ask him a question, he would answer, immediately and without thought. He either new the answer or he didn't. If he didn't know, he would say, "I don't know, sir."
By the time Stanley was nineteen years old, the doctors and the Walkers believed that Stanley probably was able to live on his own, if they could get him the proper job that he could support himself with. Stanley began working in the children's hospital. Technically, he was an orderly, but he mostly did very simple tasks like moving things from one part of the hospital to another. Stanley could often be found in the wards with the cancer patients and burn victims. Stanley could see no difference between those children and any others and so the children in those units enjoyed his company. They thought he was kind of funny the way he talked, but they really liked him.
Stanley had been working at the hospital and living on his own for nearly fifteen years. Every day that was nice enough, Stanley would take his chess board and a sandwich that he brought from home, and go down to the park during his lunch break. If the weather wasn't nice, he would just play in the hospital cafeteria.
This day happened to be terrifically hot outside. It was the middle of the summer and in Houston that means the humidity was so bad you'd be completely soaked through your underwear if you were outside for more than five minutes. Stanley was just arriving at the reflection pond in the park. The benches he sat at were under these enormous oak trees, so there was plenty of shade, though they didn't help any with the humidity. There were no other older people there that day to join him in a match. He setup his board, white facing him this time. It was their turn to lose. The side that Stanley sat on always won.
"In a little while from now," he said as he began placing the pieces into their positions on the board. "If I'm not feeling any less sour, I promise myself to treat myself and visit a nearby tower," he spoke in his conversation voice. "And climbing to the top, will throw myself off, in an effort to make it clear to who ever what it's like when you're shattered, left standing in the lurch at a church, where people saying, 'My God, that's tough. She's stood him up.' No point in us remaining. We may as well go home, as I did on my own, alone again, naturally."
He was singing this Gilbert O'Sullivan song because he'd heard it a short while before on the radio in the store where he was waiting in line to purchase an orange soda and some stamps. He had no idea what the song was about. In fact, he was not really aware that he was reciting the lyrics. He'll remember those lyrics for the rest of his life, but he'll never recite them again unless he's prompted to.
"To think that only yesterday." He moves out a pawn from the opposing side.
"I was cheerful, bright and gay." His black king's knight ventures out.
"Looking forward to well wouldn't do." And on he goes, reciting lyrics for each move. If one were so inclined, one might think that it sounded like Stanley was holding a conversation with himself. Though nothing in his voice actually changed, it certainly might seem that his inflection was different when he spoke before one side's move than how he spoke before moving the other side's pieces.
Stanley was very happy on this day. He didn't know why he was happy. He was happy because he had seen a baby that morning, but he didn't know that was why he was happy. He didn't question why he was happy. He didn't acknowledge that he was happy or seek the source of his happiness. If he were sad he would not wonder why he was sad either. But he was happy on this day and it showed in his face as he recited his lyrics and played his game of chess.
"To think that only yesterday, I was cheerful, bright and gay, looking forward towell wouldn't do, the role I was about to play." And it was at this point that a large blackdog came bounding into Stanley's table, upsetting everything and causing the pieces to go flying in all directions. Stanley was thrilled by this little surprise (he loved animals), butwas quick to begin collecting his game pieces.
"Oh, my gosh! I'm SO sorry!" A young woman was rushing up to Stanley. Shewas thin and blonde and otherwise very attractive. Since it was such a hot day, and shewas obviously out for some exercise, she was wearing only small black shorts and an exercise top and a black ball cap that said "Princess" in hot pink lettering. Stanley didn'tnotice her at all.
"Duke! Stop it, Duke! Get down!" the woman was shouting at the dog, who wastaking turns licking Stanley's face and playing with the game pieces that were scatteredabout the ground. Stanley smiled when the dog licked him but did not stop collecting his pieces.
The woman had finally caught up and grabbed Duke by the scruff of his neck. She had a leash with a collar hanging from her other hand. Apparently Duke hadescaped.
"I'm so sorry, " the woman apologized again once she finally had Duke's collarfirmly in place again. "He slips out of his collar sometimes," she said as she began tohelp Stanley collect his pieces.
"Thank you, ma'am," Stanley said without looking at the girl when she placedsome of the pieces in his box.
"I've seen you here before," the woman said to Stanley as he was searching forone last missing piece. He was looking underneath the bench he was sitting on. "You'realways playing chess. You come here everyday." Stanley was still searching and beginning to get frantic.
"White queen is missing," Stanley said.
The woman noticed that Duke had a piece in his mouth. As quietly as possible,she retrieved the piece from Duke's wet maw and wiped it on her shorts.
"Here's a piece," the woman said and Stanley jumped out from under the bench toexamine the piece. He looked at it briefly and then put it in the box with the others. Hetook his seat again and began placing the pieces back on the board. He placed them exactly where they were before the game had been upset by Duke.
The woman watched in amazement. "You remember exactly where each piece was?"
"Yes," Stanley said flatly and then moved the white queen. He noticed it was wet and wiped his hand on his pants after the move.
"Would you show me how to play?" the woman asked, not sure if the request was inappropriate or not. It was obvious that the man had some sort of mental issues, but since he was always here alone, she figured he couldn't be too bad off.
"Yes," Stanley replied with the exact same tone as before. He moved all the pieces back to their starting positions and, without waiting for the young lady to sit down, he began his lesson.
"Chess is the oldest skill game in the world, played in China, India, and Persia. It was brought to Europe during the Middle Ages by the Moores, who had learned it from the Persians. It is now believed that the game originated in China over 1500 years ago."
The young woman's eyes popped open and a smile of astonishment came to her face as she took her seat.
"In the latter half of the thirteenth century the Spaniards codified the rules of the game and gave chess pieces the names we know today." He paused a moment and pointed to the row of pawns in front of the girl.
"The pawns represent the serf class. That's why there are a lot of them and they have the most limited movement." The girl nods her head in understanding.
"They can only move forward one square, except on the first move, when they can move two spaces. They can never move backward." The girl nods her head again, though Stanley doesn't look at her.
"The pawns can take another piece only in a diagonal move, like this." Stanley setup two pawns diagonally and illustrated the movement. The girl nods again and smiles.
"The back row is setup symmetrically, with two of each of the following. The rook, which looks like a castle, goes on the outside. The rook can only move in straight lines, but can move as far across the board as you want, until it reaches the edge of the board, or another chess piece.
"The knight, which looks like a horse, is next. it has the most peculiar movement of any of the chess pieces. It can move in an L-shaped pattern of two squares out, and then one square over." He shows a couple of moves so the girl understands. She nods her head and smiles.
"The bishop is next. I think it looks like icecream. Bishops can move diagonally only, but can move as far as you want on the diagonal until it reaches another piece or the edge of the board. It's like the rook, except it moves diagonally while the rook moves on straight lines.
"The queen has the ability to move like a rook or a bishop. The king can move in any direction, but only one square at a time. Those are the basic movements."
"Okay," the girl said with a bit of shock.
"The objective of the game is to 'check mate' your opponent's king. This means that you position your pieces in such a way that your opponent cannot move her king without placing herself in check. When you king is in check it means that if you don't move your king, it will be taken by one of your opponent's pieces. When your king is in check you must either move your king out of check, or move one of your other pieces so that it blocks the check."
"Okay," she said.
"Are you ready to play?" Stanley asked without looking at her.
"Uh, yeah. I guess," she replied hesitantly.
"Good. You can go first. The only pieces you can move in the first move are your pawns or your knights."
"Okay," she said and stared at her line of pawns.
"A good opening move is the Ruy Lopez. It's a favorite of Kasparov. Move your King's pawn two spaces to e4."
The girl placed her fingers on the pawn in front of her Queen.
"No," Stanley said abruptly.
"Sorry," the girl said with a slight giggle of embarrassment as she took the correct pawn and slowly moved it forward two spaces.
"Now I'm going to move my King's knight forward to halt your advance."
"Wow! It sounds so exciting when you talk like that!" The girl was thoroughly entertained, but Stanley didn't notice her excitement and continued with his tutoring.
"What you're trying to do is establish control of the center of the board. Now you can move your King's night to f3. That's the space in front of the pawn in front of the bishop that's next to it."
The girl moved her pieces as she was told. The two continued in this manner until Stanley held her in checkmate five minutes later.
"That was really fun!" the girl exclaimed as she turned her King on it's side. "I mean, you totally kicked my ass, but it was so much fun! I always thought chess was such a boring and geeky game played by old men or nerds. You made it sound like a battle, with such strategy and energy! I mean - wow!" She was as happy as she'd been in a very long time. Stanley was resetting the board.
"Do you want to play again?" he asked without excitement once all the pieces were in place for a new game.
"I wish I could! But I have to be going. It was so nice of you to take the time to show me. Thank you so much. Oh my gosh! We don't even know each other's name! I'm Becky," she said and held out her hand to Stanley who took it gently and shook it.
"Stanley."
"Well, like I said, I have to be going, but maybe we can together again? Would that be alright?" she asked hesitantly.
"Yes," Stanley said as he began his new game.
"That will be nice. Maybe I'll see you tomorrow." She paused a second to wait for a response but none came.
"Goodbye, Stanley," she said.
"Goodbye, Becky," Stanley said as he made another move.
Becky took Duke's leash from the bench leg it had been tied to and she and her dog departed at a light trot towards the reflection pool. Duke made his best efforts to capture a duck or two along the way.
Stanley did not look up.