Left-Handed Engineers From MARZ
Reg tries playing chess
Shauna entered the break room carrying an old chess set. She placed it
on the table in front of Reg, who had just eaten lunch and was waiting for
Zephyr to finish making coffee.
"Oscar told me to bring in some board games," she explained to Zephyr. "All I
had was this spare chess set. I hope it's all right."
"Excellent," Zephyr said. "Our equipment-testing equipment increases by
50%."
"What do you do with them?" Shauna inquired.
"We play them using the stuff we build, to test our devices before we give
them to the clients. You'll get lots of opportunities to help, I'm sure.
It's a lot of fun."
"I'm sure it is." She glanced at Reg, who was eyeing the chess set curiously,
and turned back to Zephyr. "Does he play?"
Zephyr shrugged. "Beats me. Then again, I've never played chess, myself.
Reg is more of a Scrabble man... but who knows." He fetched the French
vanilla creamer from the fridge, and by the time he turned around, Shauna
had pulled the board out of the box and was putting the pieces in their places.
Reg watched intently as she lined the white pieces up in front of him and
then gave herself the black pieces.
When she had finished, he picked up the left-side rook and turned it around
and around in his hands. Shauna gave Zephyr a questioning glance, but Zephyr
had nothing to say, and the coffee had finished percolating and needed his
attention.
"Do you want to play, Reg?" Shauna asked.
Reg ignored her and continued turning the rook.
"Guess not." She stood up to go. Reg put the rook back in its place and
Shauna pushed the board down to the far end of the table, slowly so as not
to knock over any of the pieces. "Mind if I leave it set up? If nobody
ends up playing, I'll put it away later."
"Sure," said Zephyr as he poured coffee into his oversized, double-handled mug
and into Reg's caffeine molecule mug. He gave each cup a splash of cream and then
carried them one at a time to the table and made himself comfortable across from
Reg. When Shauna was gone, he grinned at Reg over the steaming mug.
But Reg wasn't looking at him. He was looking at the chessboard. In fact,
he was practically ogling the chessboard.
Zephyr reached over and drew the board back into its original position between
them, shifting the mugs over to make room. Then, as he learned to do many years
ago, he sat back and watched.
Reg reached for the same rook that had interested him earlier and again
turned it around in his hands. After holding it for a full minute, he replaced
it and picked up the knight next to it. He did the same thing with the knight,
and then replaced it and picked up the next piece in line, the bishop. Zephyr
began to notice several consistencies in Reg's technique - every pore and
feature was explored, and each piece was given exactly one minute. When he
got to the end of the back row, Reg did the same for the pawn row, starting
this time with the far right pawn. Zephyr sipped his coffee and watched.
When he reached the end of the pawn row, Reg took the pawn in front of
his queen and moved it two squares forward. Then he rested his hands in
his lap and looked at Zephyr.
"Geez, I barely know how to play," Zephyr told him. But he put his coffee
aside and moved one of his own pawns forward in a similar fashion. Reg moved
his queen's bishop to the opposite side of the board and Zephyr took a moment
to figure out the mechanics of the move.
"Okay, that piece moves diagonally. Got it. And the pony moves one and
two, or two and one, right?"
"It's a knight, not a pony, Zeph," Marsh said as he entered from the door
behind Zephyr.
"Hey, Marsh, come help me."
"Can't. I have to grab my coffee and go," Marsh said. He poured himself
a cup and left. Zephyr shrugged and pondered another pawn.
****
Upon returning, Marsh dropped by Zephyr's office. "How'd the game go?"
he asked.
"I killed three of Reg's pawns!" Zephyr claimed proudly, beaming up at Marsh
as he leaned back in his chair.
"He nailed you to the wall, huh?"
"You... could say that. Not as badly as he usually does with Scrabble,
though."
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