Knight

The confusion of soaps, shower gels, shampoos, and mousses distracted Avdo. Should he use Ivory or lemon soap? Should he use Paul Mitchell or herbal shampoo? He laughed, thinking of his life in Bosnia, of hiding out in a burned-out building in Sarajevo. He and his family had had no water. They had gone weeks without bathing. Everyone stank. He had seen his sister killed in the street. No one had buried her. The street was bombed again before they could.

Her soul, her soul, his mother had shouted.

No one here had seen deaths like that.

His mother, brothers, and sister had died. He never talked about it. He never thought or felt anything about it unless something made him reflect. He stayed busy all the time: hehad his job at the bank; he went to movies and Shakespeare Club meetings. He had told Ben he had no people in town. He pretended they lived elsewhere, in an unknown midwestern city.

They lived in Omaha.

Avdo looked at the bathroom. A bathtub with brass fixtures. He climbed into the tub, turned on the shower, poured lemon shower mousse on a washcloth, washed himself, and washed his hair with green tea shampoo.

He toweled himself and put on clean jeans, a shirt, and sweater Ben had lent him. Avdo was slim, 5 feet ten and only 140 pounds, with a sharp, Slavic face. Ben was much taller. The sturdy clothes were too big.

Avdo went downstairs, looking like Willem Defoe in Spiderman, only younger.

Rose was now gracious. She had made buckwheat pancakes with warm syrup. She didn’t talk as much as Ben, but she wasn’t unfriendly. They sat at the kitchen table and looked at the river and Ben asked Avdo about Christmas in Bosnia. Avdo was Greek Orthodox.

Really? Rose grew alert. Do they swing incense and sing?

Yes, he said.

We don’t have a Russian Orthodox church here.

I go to the Catholic church.

You converted?

Yes.

After breakfast Ben and Avdo played a game called Battleship. There was a divider on the board. The object was to bomb the battleships. it didn’t feel like real war, though. Ben and Avdo were amused by the game. Avdo found it relaxing, so unlike war was it. It had nothing to do with Bosnian history. No running around Sarajevo with guns, no hiding in a burnt-out building with one’s mother and brothers, no lining up for food, no bombs, no refugee camps.

Rose walked through the room to pick up her book and said, That game disgusts me. Can’t you play something else?

Ben yawned. We like this. I think we’ll play Chess later.

Rose was a Chess fiend. She couldn’t get enough Chess. She was impossible to beat. She didn’t often play with people she didn’t know. She didn’t want to discourage them. She had won a state chess tournament in high school. She was still good though she hardly ever played.

Maybe I’ll play later.

Oh no. Ben laughed. We’re not losing to you, Rose.

Why won’t anybody play chess with me?

Avdo bowed. I’ll play chess with you. He had played chess in the burnt-out building with his mother, both covered with blankets they had found in an abandoned house. His quick-witted mother had often beaten him. He had learned some good tricks from her. His mother didn’t cry while they played chess so they played game after game He remembered the stink of the chamberpot while they played. Some people shat in the courtyard. The streets were dangerous and his mother had gotten up in the middle of the night to help the neighborhood baker so they would have loaves of bread. Chess kept them going.

After Battleship I’d love to, Rose said.

But by the time Avdo and ben had finished Battleship she was absorbed in a book, a collection of Colette’s short stories. Ben and Avdo laughed to see her curled up in bed, wearing her old thick glasses, stretch pants, and slippers, reading so hard she didn’t see them.

Oh, you startled me. She took off her thick glasses guiltily. Usually she wore small fashionable glasses, but she liked her old ones for reading.

We’re ready to play chess.

Later? she begged.

What’s so good about the book?

It’s a great book.

Later she came downstairs and whispered something in Avdo’s ear. He laughed. No. I can’t do that.

Ben groaned. She sees moves on the chessboard no one else can see. That’s why no one plays with her.

Rose laughed and went into the kitchen to pour more coffee.

Avdo laughed and moved his knight.