One late Sunday afternoon, while I was closing up, a man wearing an expensive suit walked inside and observed his surroundings. His beady eyes fell upon the displayed chess set.
“I’ll buy that set, old fellow,” he announced ostentatiously, showing off his polished shoes. I stiffened at his insult. Old fellow? You could hardly call twenty-six old!
For some reason, I hesitated. “I’m sorry, but I’m saving that for a friend; a child is saving up to buy it-”
“A fine storeowner such as you shouldn’t be giving away items to stupid children,” the man said sadistically. “I’ll pay you one thousand dollars for the chess set.”
“You should have refused!” the girl gasped in horror. I waved my hand and continued.
“I’m afraid that my greedy side took over. I glanced at the man and shouted, “Give me two thousand dollars for it.”
“Deal,” the man nodded and handed me the money. He grabbed the chess set and headed for the door. Abruptly, little Gwen collided with the man.
“Get out of the way, you sniveling brat,” he snarled and dashed out the door. Gwen was carrying two large jars. One held a jar of change and another held a bunch of bills.
“I got here as fast as I could,” she said breathlessly, her cheeks pink. “I don’t know why I was in a hurry but I finally got enough money to get the chess set so that I can play you to see how good you are-” She suddenly stopped as she stared at the empty display.
“The chess set!” she breathed, her eyes widening in shock. “It’s gone!”
“The man whom you bumped into bought it,” I announced, counting the one hundred dollar bills with satisfaction. “He bought it for two thousand dollars.”
Gwen turned to face me, disbelievingly. “You sold it?” she asked her voice high and panicked. “You sold it?”
“Yes,” I replied indifferently, busy with the counting of money. “Sorry about that.”
“I HATE YOU!” Gwen screamed, her eyes filled with tears. “YOU’RE THE BADDEST MAN I’VE EVER MET! I WISH THAT YOUR STUPID STORE WOULD CLOSE AND THAT YOU WOULD KNOW WHAT IT’S LIKE NOT TO BE RICH. OF ALL I’VE BEEN THROUGH, I FEEL SORRY FOR YOU.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked warily.
“You only care about money,” Gwen said angrily.
“Money is everything!” I declared indignantly, appalled at her violent behavior. “I think that you’re overreacting.”
“If you love money so much, then here!” With great force, Gwen threw the glass jars on the ground. Coins and bills spilled out all over the floor. She dashed out the door.
I shrugged and then went over to pick up the money. “It’s business, Gwen. Money’s everything.”
Soon after that afternoon, it seemed as if everyone in town knew about the chess set incident. Whenever I walked in public, people would stare and shoot angry glances at me. I didn’t pay much attention because I had more things to worry about.
Business was bad; I had no customers. No one wanted to buy anything from my store. In less than two weeks, I was broke. I was forced to sell my store.
The money from the store kept me going for about a month. Then I was really broke. As I stepped outside on the first day of being a beggar, I stumbled upon shards of broken wood. After further inspection, I realized that the wood was from the chess set that I had sold less than three months ago.
And so, I became a beggar and that’s how I’ve lived my life to today,” I finished tiredly.
“What happened to Gwen?” the girl asked.
“I don’t know,” I sighed. “I think she moved with her family or something. Oh, if I could just go up to her and say, ‘Gwen, I’m sorry.’”
“You said sorry to her before,” the girl pointed out.
“Yes, but I didn’t mean it then. I want to say a real, sincere apology. I want to let her know that I’m sorry for what I did to her.”
“Really?” the girl inquired, looking thoughtful. “Even if she were all the way on the other side of the planet?”
“I’d trek all the way to Mars if I could say sorry to her,” I laughed, smiling at the thought of me huffing and puffing as I stowed away on a rocket that was heading for Mars.
“I have something for you,” the girl suddenly said, reaching into her backpack. “Now close your eyes.”
Intrigued, I closed my eyes. I could hear the rustling of papers as the girl rummaged through her backpack.
“Okay, you can open your eyes now.” I opened them and stared. A chessboard lay in front of me. The board was cracked and mended together as if it had once been broken into many pieces. The girl was setting up the badly mended chess pieces.
“After all these years, you still manage to remember everything you went through at that time. Say, I’ve just realized that we never got to play chess with each other,” she said, rubbing her hands together.
“Gwen?” I began tentatively. For the moment, a wave of courage swept over me and I swallowed, gazed up and stared straight into the girl’s eyes. “Gwen, I’m sorry.”
Gwen looked up and her eyes seemed to flash a message to me. She smiled and moved one of her knights.
“Your move, Mr. Roland,” she finally said.
the end! please review!
