Chinese Chequers

"I've never played it."

"You must have. What about as a kid?"

Everyone had rotated their chair so as to form a rough circle around the coffee table. The glasses and ashtrays had been shifted to the edges of the round cedar table and the books, pieces of paper, plates and a half empty packet of biscuits transferred to the shelf beneath; the smaller debris was scraped into small piles on top of the table. The woman with the long dark hair had made herself Red and those at the table watched intently as their identities formed on the board. The coloured marbles slipped into the points of the star. The host became white, the hostess Blue. The man stoking the fire was Black, his vacant chair claiming the colour for him. The two brothers, newly arrived, were the elder, Green and younger, Yellow.

"Here are the rules," said Green. He waved the lid.

" 'Each player places ten....'mmmn

'The object of the game is to move and jump your marbles across the board'....right. Here we go.

'Moves and jumps are made in any direction forward, or backward, to the left or right diagonally, but always along a line. Moves (without jumping) are made only one hole at a time. Jumps are made over your own or opponent's marbles, one, two, three or more in a turn and in any direction, but always along a line.'"

"Don't you take one if you jump it?" Yellow interrupted.

"No," said Blue, "it's not that sort of a game. It's just a matter of getting to the other side."

Black said, "Lucky the rules aren't in Chinese. I can never understand the instructions on those Japanese video games.."

"What about the one where the big bird comes along and shits on you," said Yellow enthusiastically.

"What?" said Red, sitting forward.

" 'No player is allowed to leave a marble in an opponent's triangle to prevent another player from moving in to finish the game.

'The first player to get all his marbles in to his opposite triangle WINS THE GAME.' Great. Let's go. Who starts?"

"You can." said Blue.

They all sat forward, knees sticking up, ready for action.

Green stared at the green balls in silence. Red yawned. Finally Yellow, his younger brother, coaxed him with, "Come on will you", and he moved a corner front row marble one space. Yellow did the same. White jumped a white. Blue jumped a blue. Red jumped a red. Black moved forward a space.

"Round one completed," said Green in hushed tones, staring at the board, pulling at his beard, considering the complexities of his second move. White hadn't shaved for two days, Black you could say had no beard, and Yellow as yet did not have to make the choice between none, some and beard.

The silence launched them into space until Blue said, "Nothing much happens at the beginning," and White added, "You've got to move them quickly." They had played the game before and were acquainted with its rhythms. It moved on.

"You make a good fire," said Blue to Black.

Black looked at it and nodded. Satisfied. The flames leapt ferociously. The logs sang softly to one another.

"The palings came out of the skip at the end of the road." Blue said. "The logs came from Dave's parents place in the country."

Outside was grey and the rain and the fuchsia thrashed against the window. Yellow was pleased to be visiting and there was quite a crowd here. Blue wondered if every one really wanted to play...they all looked quite content. A winter Sunday afternoon in Melbourne. A day of rest. For the unemployed too, she told herself. Who wants to look for a job on a Sunday? Even the leisured poor have to relax. Blue, White and Red were 'unemployed', Yellow had started work two weeks earlier, Black was 'employed' and Green was 'between jobs'.

"Mm, I might roll a joint," said Yellow, looking around to check the impact of his statement. Satisfied, he picked up the lid and placed it on his knees. Black left the room and White seeing that things were livening up, pulled his legs out from under the table and slid over the back of the sofa. There wasn't much room. He put on a record. The marbles were slowly leaving their home territories, jumping those of their own colour.

Black returned with more firewood. Conversation moved from 'How are you?' to 'How is your car?'

"Did you see in the paper there's going to be a blitz on unroadworthy cars this month," said White.

"Yeah."

"Bastards."

Red put on a news reader voice. "The inspector after consulting the astrological calendar has decided that he must scrutinize intensively the health of motor vehicles during August."

"Is that your Magna out there?" Black asked Green.

Green nodded. "They're great."

"And did you drape a red flag over it on May Day?" Red asked.

Laughter. Then Green nudged Yellow. He looked up from his work, refocused his eyes, glanced at the possibilities, and picking up a marble made a quadruple jump over a yellow, two greens and a red marble. Everyone whooed in admiration and looked at their own marbles, the routes they had travelled, and planned paths through an indeterminate future. White jumped white. Blue moved forward a space. Red jumped one of her own. Black moaned and moved forward a space, and Green seizing the opportunity to jump three spaces, did so, despite the fact that he ended up in Red's area.

The lighter flashed on. Yellow filled the circle with smoke and passed the object to White.

Blue started another record revolving.

"Who do you think is winning?" Red asked.

"I've been blocked for ages," said Black, "Yellow keeps jumping mine and wrecking my moves."

Green looked at the number of marbles each had near their home base. Blue had three, Yellow had three. White one. Black one. Red two. Green two. he looked at the number of marbles each had left in the starting triangle. Blue two, Yellow three, White four, Black four, Red four, Green three. The rest was a mystery.

"Blue, I think." said White.

"Oh I don't know..." said Blue, "it's hard to tell."

Everyone aspired to long jumps. They planned moves and found them destroyed and shortened by the moves of the others. Sometimes though the alterations would suddenly open a path unexpectedly for one of them. Should I take it thought Blue and enjoy the flight forward: Or is it a trick: Will my other marbles be abandoned or lost for eons? Take it. Green moved a marble one way, another way, back again looking for an exit or an entrance. He would sit with his fingers on the marble until someone would say, "Leave it there. You can't go any further."

The conversation had lulled. The marbles told a story. Triangles emerged and changed into symmetrical arrow heads pointing to a line of white, now a line of blue. The line split in two and flashing red-white-blue and green-yellow-black creatures snaked their way across the star. Cell like structures formed and dissolved at a rapid pace. One yellow moved from its starting triangle jumped blacks, reds and greens into the opposite triangle.

"You can go further." White suggested.

"Right."

And the yellow marble completed the move into the very point of the triangle. White followed a meandering route around the edge of the central hexagon and Blue reversing a few steps, followed another zig-zagging path towards home. The joint, like the second hand of a clock moved around the board keeping time. When someone took too long to move, the others encouraged them with, "I can see a good one for you".

The record finished again.

"If they didn't go round and around they'd last a lot longer," said Yellow.

Red changed the record and Black took Red's turn.

"Hang on. Hang on. It's not your go," they all screamed.

"We need some pointer so that we know whose go it is," said White looking around the room.

"Whose go now?" asked Blue.

"I think I had my go last. It must be yours." said Green.

Blue left the room.

"Me too," said Black getting up as she returned.

Green asked, "Have you got any hats?"

"Hats?'

"So we know whose go it is."

Out of the room, Blue stretched her shoulders and took long sliding steps along the polished wooden corridor and turned into her bedroom. There she was faced with another decision. Which hat?

A white floppy sun hat with a large brim

A blue and purple Turkish style hat.

A sombrero.

She heard Black going back.

She looked at the hats, enjoying the privacy for a moment and the escape from the rules of the game. The music and voices were muffled and she could hear the kitchen clock ticking. Was it her turn yet? She imagined the others conspiring against her; moving the blue marbles backwards. She laughed and looked for the black beret — the hat she had chosen on her way there. The Turkish hat was too small and the others weren't really suitable for a group of people clustered around a table on a winter afternoon. She found it and returned.

They were all leaning back.

"It's your go."

She put the beret on and the weight pushed her head towards the star. Concentrate. She looked at each possible move in a few seconds, jumped five places and passed the hat to Red. Every one else watched.

"Now we just have to remember to pass the hat on," said Green.

The black satellite made an orbit around the table, marking each player like a priest in a church.

"Its even got an antennae," said Yellow, indicating the tassel protruding from the centre of the hat.

"That is for tuning in to the God of Reason," said Green.

Around and around. They each planned their moves with the aid of the thinking cap.

"I had a teacher at high school who used to make you wear a dunce's hat if you played up," said Yellow. "You had to wear it until someone else did something wrong."

"How horrible," said Red.

"I bet you never wore it," said Black, grinning at Yellow.

Yellow continued. He wanted to finish his story. "It was one of those classic dunce hats, you know, tall and cone shaped with a piece of elastic to go under the chin. You felt really stupid wearing it. And I must have had a small head or something in form three because when I got it, it would fall right down over my face and start the whole class laughing."

Black laughed the longest. He always laughed when people dropped things or missed their mouths.

Yellow lit a second joint, inhaled, and passed it to Green. The beret moved to the left and the joint moved to the right, crossing each others paths.

Red forgot to pass the hat on. Black waited staring at the board. What was wrong? Something was missing?

"Hey...Give me the hat!"

Red forgot a few times.

"The hat! The hat!" they screamed.

Then Black forgot and Green began to move without the hat.

"Wait! Wait!" they hurled at him. But the hat took the blame.

White took a few puffs and leaned back. He looked at the white marbles from a distance. From here, the shapes formed by the lines of colours took on a life of their own.

"Look at the patterns."

They looked. Except for Green, who was wearing the beret.

"There's a diamond of blues," said yellow pointing to one area.

"And here's a crescent moon," said Red tracing it with her finger.

They stared at the coloured marbles. Green passed on the hat, and Yellow stared at yellow again.

Red remembered a garden she had seen while on holidays with her parents, years ago. The flowers, red, pink, blue, white, yellow...They had formed the letters of a word… What word?

Fleas, thought Black. He had recently seen a slow motion sequence of fleas jumping and landing randomly on a television doco.

It's like the thoughts of six people spread upon a table, mused Blue. Thoughts forming a metamorphic maze, in which walls appear and disappear as we walk through it, forcing us to change direction. You venture along a path in your own mind and find you can go no further. You may change direction and find another way round, or another day attempting the same route again, you discover the answer shimmering on the leaves and the hedge evaporates, and you can choose from another set of paths. You find one filled with fragrant flowers and soft underfoot and you walk down it, and it leads you to the centre of the maze. You slip through a hole and find yourself in the space between the board and the table. The marbles are far above you — planets of red, green, blue, and yellow… And I ( she changed the subject of her thoughts) lie on the grass —its so sunny and warm here — laughing aloud while tears drip from my eyes, dazzled by the sparkling clarity of my love for you.... until the paths and hedges appear again and you wander off in another direction...

"Your turn." The beret fell on Blue's head.

"Lost my marbles there for a moment..."

The centre of the star was filled. Six colours jostled around looking for a way out.

"I was going to land there..."

"You've mucked up my go."

"My God. This is a long game. How far through it are we do you think?" Red stretched.

They all thought.

"Half-way," said Blue laughing,” It should ease out again soon. It sort of reaches a peak."

"The Chinese would probably laugh at us playing this," said Green, frowning. he didn't enjoy moving one space at a time.

"Mm… they probably play it like chess. Work out their moves in advance and play in certain styles," said Yellow.

"But there are so many possibilities. Especially with six people." said Red.

"Yeah. I've been blocked for the whole game," Black complained.

"But is it really Chinese?" asked White.

"Well it says on the lid, 'the age old oriental game'," said Yellow pointing to the words, "and there are lots of Chinese looking things on it."

People sitting cross-legged in long white shawls with coloured triangles on their heads.

A bowl with symmetrical coloured designs painted on it and steam lines emerging from it.

A Chinese house, presumably.

They were growing weary, but couldn't escape the roads, intersections and the desire to make it home.

White moved without the hat on.

"What's going on?"

Green surrendered the hat.

"I think Blue will win," said Green.

"Oh, it's pretty close," said Blue. "Yellow is almost there."

Green took longer over his next move, hesitating and changing his mind. Then swiftly he moved one around the perimeter of the board, landing in Yellow's area, adjoining his own destination.

"Hey get out of there." demanded Yellow.

"No. You're allowed to stay there until the last move. I'm being tactical."

Around and around. The hat. A record. A joint.

They concentrated quietly on leaving the congested centre, and gradually the colours escaped. The ones already home shuffled around making room for their brothers and sisters. Black had given up the idea of winning and plodded on home stoically. White was panicking. Three were a long way behind and there were less marbles to jump. Yellow was close to home, but worried about the Green intruder. The reds and greens were neck and neck, although the greens were beginning to worry about the state of the lone guard in enemy territory.

Round and round.

The rain fell heavily on the roof and White gave up panicking, climbed over the couch again and played with the dimmer. The room went dark.

"Hey!"

The room was illuminated again. Bright. Dark. Bright. Dark. Bright.

"Okay. Okay."

Blue laughed.

White rejoined the game.

Colours jumped their own kind or moved one space at a time.

Green stubbornly remained in Yellow's hole forcing him to change plans, deviate...

Blue marched on.

"Come on. Get out of there!" demanded Yellow.

They were counting the moves home now. If I go there, then there, or jump that one first or just move one space this time round....

Finally Green had to move or remain hemmed in forever.

"I'm out of it," said Black.

Round and around.

The hat had become a hindrance, but nobody wanted to relinquish it.

Suddenly, it was obvious who could win.

The hat went round. One time. Two times.

The space yawned. The ball rolled in and Blue leaned back.

"Thank God."

"What a game."

Yellow pushed his last one in. The others were left in disarray.

"A cup of tea?"

"Another game?" asked Green.

Groans.

"You're kidding," said Black.

A joint went round and round.