Then it dawned on me. He been fixating on my pieces instead of his own, but moving his own instead of mine which had caused the mix up. Note to self Kevin gets the black pieces from now on.
We continued playing game after game and then he beat me! I stared at the board and his finger pointing to my checkmated king. I hadn't lost a game of chess since I was a very young kid. I wasn't an average chess player. I'd been taught by masters of the game and I was very good at it. I looked up at Kevin and he met my gaze with his usual, vacant of emotion, gaze.
It hurt to lose in something I prided myself about, but I got over it, just barely. What was important here was Kevin's amazing mastery of a complex game he'd never played before. I nodded my head and toppled my king over. Game on little boy!
I won the next game, but it was no cakewalk. I lost the next three. The kid was a genius! I should know, as my own IQ put me fully within the parameters of being one and this kid was mopping the floor with me! What else was he capable of?
Anna got out of the cab in a bit of a panic. She told the taxi driver to wait and hurried away from the curb and into the park. She really had only bought a few things, but the stores had been busy and then she'd gotten caught in rush hour traffic. Now three and a half hours later she was back and very anxious over what she would find or who she wouldn't find.
One always had to be watching Kevin. He wondered off without a moment's notice. Had she put too much confidence in Tyre to watch over him? Oh God she hoped not! What kind of mother was she? A terrible one that was what! If anything had happened to Kevin it would be all her fault!
She stopped still abruptly her hand flying up to her mouth as she gazed in shock at the two chess playing opponents at a nearby park table. Kevin was kneeling on his seat as he leaned on the table with his elbows.
It was such an odd position to see him adopt, almost normal appearing for a boy of his age. Incredulously she watched him pick up a piece and knock over one of Tyre's. Her eyes shifted to Tyre. He was a mass of coiled tension and deep focused concentration. His face had a hard edge to it that looked like he wanted to mangle something into pieces. She wasn't worried for Kevin's safety though.