"Hi' I said, and he turned slowly as if he knew I was walking up to him. He showed no surprise.
"You always eat lunch outside?"
He turned further to look at me. "I spend as much time as I can outside. We're locked up in there too much of the day as it is. Why eat in a noisy big room when you have this?" he asked, nodding at the lawn, the frees, the birds, and the blue sky
"You're right, Mind if I join you?"
"The world belongs to all of us if it belongs to anyone," he said.
I sat and opened my brown bag. All I had in it wa
s a stalk of celery and an apple. He glanced at it, but he didn't ask anything or comment. I took a bite of the apple and then a bite of celery. I was sure he could hear the crunching.
"Noisy food." he said. "You wouldn't hear that in the cafeteria with all the chatter."
"Sorry."
"That's okay. I don't mind that sort of noise. It's the yakity-yak that drives me mad sometimes. We should all be charged for how many words we speak a day. People would spew less nonsense."
I started to laugh and then thought about what I would say. Would he think that was nonsense. too?
"I read a little more about chess. Those descriptions confused me at first."
"What descriptions?"
"E2 to E4, G-1 to F3."
"Oh. And what did you learn?"
I leaned over and with my pen drew a square in the dirt. "The left of the board is thought of as numbers one to eight, and the bottom is letters A through H, so when they say 'E2 to E4,' that
would be the pawn moving two squares forward."
He stared at me suspiciously for a moment and then, with a half smile. asked. "And what's behind that pawn on letter E?"
I thought a moment, envisioning the board. "The king." I said, and opened my eyes to see a wide smile spread across his face.
"Very good." He sat back and continued to eat his sandwich. I thought that was the end of our conversation, but he extended his arm toward the sky and said. "We all tend to think the clouds are random, but if you study the sky long enough, you see patterns. That's why I love chess, too, the sense of order, the clean sense of order. So much around us is chaos. It's nice to find patterns and order in anything."
I sucked in my breath and sat quietly. It was one of those moments that required no words. He glanced at me, and then we ate without speaking until we heard the warning bell.
"I can take you home again if you Eke," I said quickly when we both stood up. "I know the way now."
"Why?" he asked, looking suspicious.
"Why? Because... I could get some extra help with my chess lessons," I offered, trying to make my invitation sound selfish.
He held his smile back. but I could see it in his eyes. "Okay. That's a fair trade. You'll come in and spend an hour on the board," he said.
Come in? Into his house?
Maybe in his mind, it was a trade or an assignment or work, but to me, it was like being on my first real date. We walked back into the building together and parted in the hallway after we arranged where and when we'd meet in the parking lot. I hurried to class, my thoughts only on Peter's soft smile. I didn't hear Dolores and her girlfriends come up behind and beside me.
"We saw you out the window," Dolores sang. "You and Chief Smoke."
"Don't call him that," I said.
"Why not? He's an Indian, and a chief is the top Indian, isn't he?"