Fiction Short Story

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Fiction Short Story

by Jutta Jordans

Chess

It was a bishop who told the two new pawns not to speak to each other any longer. And only when they asked him why was it that they learned about their fate.

"We are all pieces in a game," he told them, "and one day the lid of this case will open and we will be marched into battle. You cannot tell, because it is dark in here, but some of us are white and some of us are black and there will come a day when we will fight each other because that is our destiny. It is better not to get to know each other too well. It makes things easier on all of us."

The two pawns listened in silence. It took a while before one of them dared to speak.

"But what do we fight for?" he asked.

The bishop answered with pride, "We fight so that the right side may win."

Now the other pawn asked shyly, "Which one is the right one?"

The voice of the bishop thundered through the wooden case, "Well, the white one, of course!"

Suddenly there was a great commotion around the two pawns. Pieces started moving and rolling hither and thither, punching and kicking their way towards the bishop or away from him, the whole case erupting in a screaming, moving and cursing chaos. The two pawns tried to hold on to each other, tried to avoid getting separated or moved about uncontrollably. Finally things settled down, the pieces drawn together on either side of the box. Only the two pawns lay in the middle numbly.

"What happened?" one of them asked.

"I don't quite know," the other one answered. "It seems to me that they have taken their sides."

"Well, what side do we belong to?" his friend inquired softly.

"I do not know. I'm not even sure that I want to belong to a side at all."

"Neither do I," was the whispered reply.

The lid opened. Light streamed into the wooden case, illuminating the green felt, the wooden inlays and two piles of chess pieces, neatly separated into black and white. In the middle between them lay two pawns, one black, one white, singled out. A hand started to take out pieces and set up a game on a wonderfully crafted board of ebony and ivory. It did not notice the struggle of the two pawns when it lifted and carried them to separate sides. It did not hear their silent screams of, "Put me down!" and "I don't want to fight my friend." Ignorantly it put the two pawns in their place on the checkered board, because the great game had to begin.

One of the white bishops looked at the white pawn that was set down in front of him.

"I told you it would come to this. We do not choose our sides ourselves. It is chosen for us from the beginning. There is nothing we can do about this, no alternative is given. There is no such thing as a gray pawn."

And then the battle began.

Copyright © 2004 Jutta Jordana

About the Author
Jutta Jordans is 33 years old (and tends to get older from time to time) and lives in Muenster, Germany. After studying various subjects like physics, history, English and computer science, she now works as a software developer. She writes poems, short fiction and children's stories, mostly in German, but sometimes also in English.