The Book of Life

Edie sighed as the tourguide droned on about the building when her phone buzzed in her pocket. Quickly turning behind Edward she looked at the text message,
Ediebee. Please, I'm sorry. It was a lapse in judgement. I love you. Please, come see me and we can talk this out. I'll call you later.
"Oh my gosh... Edward... Anthony..." Edie stammered as she tapped Edward's back. "What should I say? Should I reply?"

John sighed as soon as he he was done with the sit-ups. "Well, that helped me take away some of the stress that I've been feeling lately," he said before sitting back down.

Edie nodded and typed in the message. Soon her phone vibrated again and another message from Anthony popped up.

I can never leave you alone. I'll see you soon.

((Hey, Brilliand, about how old are 'Fred and Bob?))

((Somewhere in the 30-40 range or thereabouts... I hadn't decided. Take your pick.))

bump

((*Adds to her bump* Bump *SMACK* My Blaziken adds a punch for no reason at all))

Brilliand said:

Alfred turned away from the stand, shake in hand, to see Bob approaching. "Bob! Fancy seeing you here. Up for a rematch?"

Bob's jaw dropped. "Uh... Here? In the grass? Won't it mess up your chess set?"

Alfred shrugged. "Well, I had it on a stump at the other end of the park, but it'll be fine. So, how about a game?"

Bob looked at the chessboard warily. Obviously Alfred had been practicing, and Bob hadn't. But perhaps for the sake of camaraderie...

"Well, OK." Bob plopped down on the grass, one leg underneath him and the other bent in front of him, so that the knee nearly touched his chin.

Alfred glanced at the fruit stand, then walked around Alfred and sat down where they wouldn't get in the way of customers. He dumped out the pieces, then sat down cross-legged and set down the board. Alfred and Bob began setting up their pieces.

Click to expand...

Deedra watched the geezers (at least in her eyes, being in their mid-30s.) go at it. She'd never played chess, but it seemed like an interesting game. You needed strategy, memory (for the peices' movements), and a dignified response to losing and winning. She wondered if she had that ability. How much longer is this going to take? Patience also wasn't a strong suit of hers...

Alfred started off by brazenly sacrificing his queen's pawn, a move that Bob had never really understood the purpose of. After both players had castled, Bob moved his queen out toward Alfred's king, threatening to checkmate in a few moves. Alfred responded by capturing Bob's queen with his bishop.

Bob immediately recognized the move as illegal, but he hesitated. That move looked familiar. Bob carefully picked up the story he had written and looked through it. Yes, there it was - he had gotten the pieces mixed up in his head, and there was no way Alfred could capture his queen.

But it had happened. Intrigued, Bob let it go, and instead sent both his knights forward, protected by pawns. Alfred captured one of them with his bishop. The obvious response was to capture the bishop - but no, that wasn't what the story said. Bob left the bishop alone. From now on, he was following his own script.

As the game progressed, Bob's king got pinned in a precarious position behind a pawn. He was hopelessly behind in material - seven points to twenty points, to be exact. With an air of finality, Alfred grabbed his rook and sent it forward to support his queen. "Mate in one move," he grunted.

Bob took another look at his script. "Rook to H4." Bob put his finger on his rook and slid it to the other end of the board. "Checkmate." Alfred's rook had been the only thing defending his back rank, and his king had nowhere to run.

Alfred hung his head briefly, then frowned and looked back at the board. His frown turned to that of perfectionist putting the finishing touch on a project as he slid Bob's rook from H4 to H5. "You switched columns there," he said politely. Then he put out his hand to shake.

Bob set down his paper and shook hands with Alfred in awe. Alfred grinned. "Well done, Bob. Care to play again?"

Weakly, Bob answered, "No thank you."

Alfred scooped the pieces off the board, then flipped the board over and tossed them into the back with a practiced motion. "Some other time, then. I'll be itching for a rematch." With that, he stood up, closing the board at the same time, and walked off.

Yuzuki listened but the dumb story about a crappy building that never got finished was boring her to death.

The non-customer, "Bob" had won. From his dazed look, it seemed he had neve won against the other guy before. He had kept looking at the paper. was it a cheat sheet? No, he wouldn't have been so stunned. Whatever it was, it seemed to have helped. Wait...it looked a lot like the paper she had picked up. Deedra shook her head, a strange notion that it could have made that much difference...She returned her attention back to the stand. But out of curiosity, she had to find out if it may be true. She took out a page and pen from her apron and wrote "A male customer wearing hot pink leg warmers will order a banana-grape smoothie with chocolate powder." No way that could duplicate as a coincidence.
Five minutes later, a jogger, wearing hot pink leg warmers, came up to the stand.
"I'm craving a banana-grape smoothie, please. Oh, and can you add some chocolate powder?" He asked.
She was speechless. So...whatever is written on the pages comes true!
"Ah HEM! Did you hear me?"he was irritated.
She shook herself out of it. "yeah, sorry. $4.20, please."
After she handed him his smoothie and change, he continued to jog. She slumped into the bench. "Whoa. just think of all I could do with these pages!" She thought, stunned.

Edie slid her phone in her back pocket, Anthony wouldn't dare to even look at her since he was put in juvie, would he? With a sigh she rested her head on Edward's shoulder and inwardly grinned at the dirty look she recieved from Lauren and two other girls. They were the least of her problems. For now though all Edie wanted to do was sleep. She closed her eyes and blocked out the tour guide's voice,
"that poor woman, she should get a raise."
Edie thought dimly as she slipped into a light snooze.

John struggled to stay awake but couldn't and fell asleep.

Yuzuki felt sorry for the poor woman, but a dumb building really wasn't interesting at all. Yuzuki noticed Edward was writing something. She merely glanced at it for a moment then looked around. Then the memory became clear, and she realized what it said. Strange. He must've been just writing something he wished would happen.

((And what if we need to reply and CAN'T right anything but a one liner?))

((AHA! Beat you at your own game! That was a one liner!DD BUWAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAH take that))

((My family is so weird, my mom and sister are wrestling. And now my brother is about to get squished by my dad...Oh what fun this will be!))

"What're you writing?" Edie looked over Edward's shoulder, "Aww... you do have a sweet side!" She stood and yawned, stretching her arms over her head as she looked out the window at the street below, "Is this how God feels? Looking down at us from heaven? Like, do we look like ants to him, or are we able to look him in the eye?" Edie turned back and smiled, "Sorry, didn't mean to get all mental, that's your job Edward. Let's go to the cafe you guys."

(Neh! Not one line!)