Chapter Six
Checkmate
Kevin sort of just roamed the small city park. When he got too close to the street I took his hand and steered him back into the park. At any moment I was prepared to tackle him to the ground should he suddenly try to dart off, but he didn’t and I gradually became aware that in his own way he was enjoying the park even though he appeared to be just aimlessly wandering around it.
Even with the autism I could sense that there was a very bright intellect at play behind his eyes. He stopped suddenly and stared intently at something. I followed Kevin’s gaze to where two men were playing a game of chess on a park bench. Now this I could do!
I approached the men pulling out enough money to do the job. The men quickly moved off, their hands full of the money I’d given them. Gathering up the chessboard and pieces I led Kevin to a more secluded table and got him seated.
Kevin’s form of autism rendered him nonverbal and instead of talking to him I found myself silent as well, favoring instead to just show him what I needed from him in order to play the game. The silence didn’t bother me as I was quiet by nature myself.
I laid all the pieces to the side of the board and took each piece and showed the specific movements that piece could make on the chessboard. I did this for both colors and I grouped like pieces together and divided by color.
Maybe I was shooting up the wrong apple tree, but heck I figured it was worth a shot and it was keeping him interested. I set the board and began to play. I played both sides illustrating further the possible moves of the pieces. I played three games by myself and I was getting a little tired of it.
I started to reach for a piece on his side, but his hand was already on it. I withdrew my hand and he moved the piece correctly. He didn’t do so well on his next moves though. I had to keep him from double moving in a turn several times and I was starting to think that I should just let him move the pieces however he wanted to, but I didn’t give into that thought.
He may be suffering under a handicap that most people didn’t have to deal with, but he should still learn and be taught how to do something right. Anything else wasn’t fair to him. We got through the game and started another.
On a whim of thought I turned the board game around and gave him the black pieces, which was a concession on my part because I favored those over the white pieces personally. His moves were correct and he stopped trying to move twice in the same turn. He’d gotten radically better in just one game and I couldn’t but feel excited for him. I was sort of proud of myself for sticking with it to. What had changed?
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.
Tyre was just a serious kind of a guy. Tyre was something much more than that though. He had a good heart. She’d hoped that he would be willing to tolerate the difficulties associated with Kevin’s condition in order to have her, but what she was seeing hinted at something much more significant. Something that she hadn’t even really allowed herself to dream or think of, because she’d thought it gone from the list of possibilities. Tyre was acting, without knowing it, like a father to Kevin and that was perhaps the biggest turn on yet, that she had felt in concern to her quiet gentleman stalker.
She closed the distance between them and laid a hand on Tyre’s shoulder, “You’re teaching him how to play chess!” She exclaimed in hushed awe.
I held up one finger my gaze never leaving the board, “Correction. I taught him to play chess. Now he’s teaching me something.”
“What?” Anna exclaimed in question.
“Humility.” I said grimly.
“Kevin beat you!” Anna exclaimed gripping my shoulder tightly.
I held up five fingers. I might as well as added another one. This game was well on its way into the tank. I’d tried everything including a complete shift of my playing strategy, with the same results. I’d learned something about Kevin in the process of losing though.
“Anna.”
“Yes?” She responded still sounding dazed at the evidence of her son’s progression.
I looked up at her, “You do realize that your son is a genius?”
She smiled at me. “Yes, Kevin is very gifted, many autistic children are. They tend to fixate on one thing and can get very good at that particular thing.”
“No Anna, I know about that, Kevin is different.”
“How?” She asked uncertainly.
I thought about how to explain it to her. “He’s specialized like you said, but it’s the level of depth that he possesses.”
I told her my IQ level and her eyes got big.
“I didn’t tell you that to brag. I don’t think Kevin fits anywhere on the classification chart for IQs or if he does he’s a new level of it.”
I pointed at the board. “Chess is a wonderfully complex game. There are endless strategies and more combinations than many games combined. Kevin isn’t employing any of those strategies to beat me.”
“How’s he beating you then?”
She said not understanding me so I began to explain, “In 1997 Garry Kasparov the reigning world chess champion was beaten by a supercomputer named Deep Blue made by IBM in the first classical chess match up to that date. Kasparov was perhaps the finest chess mind ever alive. He lost the six game match to the computer. The computer evaluated the probabilities of the next best move at two hundred million moves a second.”
“So you think Kevin is like this supercomputer?”
“Only partially, mostly he’s much better.”
Anna looked at me frankly disbelieving yet curious, “Can you explain that?”
“That computer in 1997 was downloaded with every chess strategy known to man. Plus it used its own probability software to run each scenario move to determine what strategy was best to counter move and it did it really fast.”
“How is Kevin better?”
“I haven’t taught Kevin any strategies or move combinations. I showed him the functional moves that each piece can make on the board that’s all. He isn’t using any strategy I know of, to defeat me. Strategy doesn’t even come into it, everything he’s done relies on a probability rating with the ability of making a real time analysis of the data and a corresponding choice. His strategy of play is endlessly variable and completely undefeatable.”
She looked very confused now, “I don’t understand? What makes him more special than the computer?”
I thought about how to explain it, “Ever watch the poker games on TV and see the probability rating percentages that they assign each hand?”
She nodded yes.
“Well imagine that each piece on this board is like a poker hand. Kevin is monitoring every piece all the time. He’s getting data specific to each piece. Mine and his and more importantly he’s making real-time decisions that are spread over multiple platforms of layering. The first move I make is a signal that I’ve already lost the game bearing a miracle taking place. With the movement of my pawn forward he has an instant probability rating for each piece on the board like the computer does, but he goes deeper than that. He has a probability figure for every conceivable move all the way through to the end of the game, based off of one move. His probabilities aren’t high in the beginning, but by the time we actually start taking each other’s pieces I’d say he has a one hundred percent probability of victory. His path to that victory can change, but the result is the same. I can project what the ballpark probability for the pieces on the board are at any given point in time. That’s basic chess playing, but what he’s doing effortlessly, is on a whole different level. I could start him out with half the pieces I have and he’d still likely win, it would just take longer.”
Anna stared at Kevin for a moment as he watched a bird in a nearby park tree. The depth of Kevin’s smartness, which she had known existed but not to the degree that it was, still surprised her. People in general tended to view Kevin as less in terms of ability and worth. To find out that he was actually more advanced than perhaps anyone was a mother’s dream come true. But with that dream came responsibility.
“What should I do with his talents?”
“Teach him to play high-stakes poker.”
“Tyre!!!”
Anna exclaimed and I chuckled and sat back from the table, “What? He’d make a killing at it.”
“Be serious, please!” Anna said with her hands on her hips.
I sobered up and gave her my full attention, “If you want my honest opinion I’d advise you to hide his capabilities. People would do worse than simply kill in order to gain control of an intellect such as Kevin’s. Child protégés are nothing new or the abuse of them for the profit of others.”
Anna nodded and watched Kevin for a while.
“Whether he becomes a high-stakes poker player or not it’s time that I got Kevin his dinner and him settled down for the night.”
At those words Kevin turned to look at her. “That’s right you’re sleeping tonight in your bed if all you do there is to lie awake and stare at the ceiling!” Anna said firmly.
Kevin didn’t like it, but he quieted down when she pulled the iPad out.
“If you lie in your bed and behave you can have this. Mommy is going to be busy tonight and she does not need you underfoot.”
Kevin mollified with the iPad relinquished his objection to going to bed. We all headed back to our apartments. I saw them to their door. After Kevin had gone in Anna turned to me and hugged me fiercely for a long moment before letting go and stepping back.
“What was that for?” I asked.
“For being such a wonderful man!” She replied softly her gaze on me entrancing.
I blushed and started denying there to be anything that could be remotely wonderful about me, but she cut me off with her question.
“What are you doing this evening?”
I wasn’t sure how to respond. I certainly knew where I would like to be, but I didn’t think it right of me to ask.
She stepped forward her hand gliding along my cheek, “You need to learn to ask for what you want Mister Tyre. What is it you would like Tyre?”
The words came slow to me as if I was fearful that they would reveal something weak about me. “I want to hold and kiss you like we did last night.”
She gave me her characteristically cheerful smile, “Very well then Mister Tyre it’s a date. Give me two hours to get Kevin fed and settled in and myself smelling better and I’m yours for the evening. Sound good?”
I just nodded and her smile never dimmed as she started to close the door. “See you later honey.”
The door clicked shut. I had two hours to kill, before I got to experience what real living felt like again.
I started to knock even as the door opened. Her hair was down and still partially wet from her shower. She saw my look and colored a little, “Sorry about the wet look. I forgot my hairdryer.”
“I like it!”
She shook her head, “You just like me and don’t care how I look.”
I reached out and grasped several strands of her damp hair and looked her directly in the eye, “I like your hair down.” I said firmly.
Her gaze turned a little bashful and she said, “Okay I’ll wear it down more often for you then.”
“I’d like that.” I responded with.
“Well Mister Tyre I would very much like to start kissing you again. Won’t you come in?”
The minutes passed into hours as we kissed. We were both shaking with how much we wanted each other. Anna drew back and rested her forehead against my shoulder and groaned aloud with frustration.
She pushed back from me and her eyes were pleading as she asked, “When are you going to make an honest woman out of me Tyre? This is torture!” She said as she held her ring finger up in the air beseechingly.
It had been the opening I had been waiting for. I fumbled the ring out of my pocket and into my hand and reaching up I slid the ring down her finger before she knew what was happening. She stared in shock at the glittering display of the diamond ring on her finger. She was breathing hard in fact it was close to hyperventilating and I was beginning to wonder if I needed to go get a bag!
She looked at me with her heart in her eyes, “Really?”
“Yes!”
It was like she couldn’t believe it even though I’d told her and the proof was on her finger. Her hands seized my head then and she began to kiss me harder than ever before. She pulled back from the kiss, her eyes passionate and I saw her fingers rise to start undoing the buttons of her shirt.
Breathing heavy my hands settled over top of hers and stopped them. Her eyes questioned me and I responded, “I can wait. I think we should wait.”
Her hands fell away and she leaned forward against me again and whispered, “Me too.”
I rubbed her back as I held her against me. “How does 3 p.m. at the courthouse in two days from now sound to you?”
“You’re serious?” She exclaimed excitedly.
“I’ve never been more serious before in my life!” I said in exasperation with her. I hadn’t given her a ring for nothing.
“That sounds divine Tyre! It’s a date!”
A sneaky look came over her face and in apprehension I awaited for her slyness to unfold. Her fingers closed around the back of my neck and I felt the noose tightening.
“You know in order to make this marriage legal I’m going to need to know your real name. Out with it secretive man!”
She had me I reluctantly had to admit. I had debated about getting married under one of my aliases, but I knew that wouldn’t fly with her.
“Nikolai Gravitausky.”
Her eyes widened, “Your Russian?”
I responded to her question with a sentence spoken in flawless Russian and her hand went to her mouth, “I had no idea!”
What did that mean?
“Me being Russian, is that a problem?” I asked suddenly unsure.
“Heck no! It just makes the mystery of you more captivating.” She leaned close and looked me directly in the eye with one of hers and in a conspiratorial tone asked, “You’re not a former Soviet spy are you?”
“I’m a little young for that don’t you think?” I responded with.
“You did not answer the question comrade! Are you a spy?” Her fake Russian accent was so terrible that it was comical.
I answered her in Russian. Her eyes alive with interested curiosity she asked, “What did you just say?”
“Now wouldn’t you like to know?” I said smiling.
“Hey!” She exclaimed punching my shoulder as I chuckled.
I rolled her off my lap onto the sofa cushions beside us and quickly slid over top of her pinning her to the sofa. Her eyebrows rose markedly, but her smile remained open and inviting. This was easily the most domineering that I had ever been with her and I could see that she liked it.
“Now Miss Anna Courtman soon-to-be Anna Gravitausky I’m going to kiss you for a little while longer, but then I must go for the evening. What are your plans for tomorrow?”
“I need to go collect some more things from my old apartment, but other than that not much why?”
“I have business to attend to in the morning and I just want to know where you’ll be.” I said before I started to lean down and kiss her, but the petulant look she gave me stopped me.
“What?”
“What did you say a little while ago in Russian? Please tell me!” She begged softly.
“I said that the green sparkling fire of your eyes reminds me of why it’s good to be alive.”
Her smile deepened and her eyes got smoky with passion. “Nikolai you forgot to ask me what I’ll be doing for the rest of the night after you leave.”
“What will you be doing?”
“Dreaming about what it will be like to become all yours in just two days.” She said huskily, as she pulled my head down for our shared kiss.