After a good night of sleep at Chibuzo’s apartment, the rental property he was letting me live in rent-free, the apartment had a strange almost eery feeling of home. I kept hearing Chelsea’s voice ring in my ears “You have a week to register to vote…” the sounds of a ticking clock starting in my head and would not stop of days.
My bags were not even unpacked yet and Chelsea was already pushing me onto some hefty project. Chelsea likes to create projects; I like to finish projects. Sometimes it feels like the only common ground we have is Taco Bell and computers and yet the friendship works.
I notice however the sound of a ticking clock is playing in my head, mentally. Only I can hear it. I spend the day relaxing and unpacking the few things I have before getting ready (hair, makeup etc) for Chibuzo to pick me up for dinner. The ticking noise that plays in my head continues as I strap one of my old watches with a leather band to my wrist thinking the irony—as adding a watch to my body while the sound of a clock plays in my mind.
The ticking in my head is not a biological clock, it’s a countdown clock or timer and it is counting down to something.
The Benko Gambit
“Someone who plays the Benko is not looking for a quick, sharp, tactical knockout, but instead is trying to wear down their opponent”
In his car, Chibuzo picks me up at his rental property I am staying at so we can sit down for a dinner. Next to an indoor fireplace to keep warm, we order pizzas. There’s a TV in the corner of the restaurant with nothing interesting on it.
Me: So I didn’t tell you but, the girls, you know Chelsea, Kelly and them think I should run for city council…
Chibuzo: Checkmate
Me: What?!
Chibuzo: I said, that’s late
Me: No, that’s not what you said. You said CHECKMATE
Chibuzo: why would I say checkmate child? You are trippin’
Chibuzo casually takes another bite of his cheese pizza.
Perhaps it was all the stress I was under? Maybe I did mishear Chibuzo the way I kept hearing a clock tick in my head? Although, I am sure that Chibuzo said checkmate, just as sure as I am that the ticking noise that is following me around is I my head. Both things can be true at the same time.
I let it go. I ask Chibuzo for further for advice and test whether he said its too late
Me: Too late, to run a campaign? Too late as in the election is already rigged? What do you mean too late?
<mumbles under breath> …if you didn’t mean checkmate… <Chibuzo doesn’t hear this>
Chibuzo: I think it’s late in the game to try and start to get partnerships or allies. The union leaders make their decisions months and years in advance. Assuming you COULD run, and would be mental enough to WANT to run, it could be too late to get the votes and you need for a serious outcome.
Not that I know politics really. Again my specialty is more like tax laws and forms not marketing or making deals with the pope… or Korean union workers or whoever has the most influence these days
Chibuzo certainly had another point I did not think of yet, or the girls mentioned is timing. Could I have the steam to ramp up a campaign quickly and actually like, win? What is the fastest possible for a campaign ramp up?
Did I even WANT the job of being on city council for Los Hellas or did I hate Amy Huang enough to run merely to take a spot she would otherwise easily walk into? Was I on the right track? Are my motivations… good? Authentic? What makes me any different than Amy Huang?
If Amy Huang was already bothering Chibuzo for being the “file leaker” without realizing those files came from me, and Chibuzo already a city target and he and I are close, wouldn’t I have more to gain by running for city council than to lose?
It seems Chibuzo and I were pawns, to something, and we were placed right next to each other on this board of life.
Doubled Pawns
While I sit at dinner with Chibuzo across town unbeknownst to me, Amy Huang was have her own meeting with her real life chess Queen, Mary Poros. Only this meeting, in Poros office at night, with half eaten sushi takeout on her desk and handing an iPad to Amy Huang, Poros shares her own vision.
Poros: Here take a swipe, I’m curious if you can figure this out?
Amy: Figure what out?
<Poros gestures again for Amy to take her iPad, Amy finally grabs it>
Poros: See if you can figure out what the game is, I’m curious how long it would take you or anyone? One of the reasons I angel invested in this startup gaming studio was to get premier access to new online games. And also first dibs on their media space for ads at a discount.
Amy takes a look at the iPad with a colorful board, like checkers, and different icons and coins around on the digital screen. She taps a bit
Poros: in other news… how’s your campaign? Maybe set the iPad down a minute. I’m curious your traction and if you have this election more or less done already
<Amy hands back the iPad with the checkers game on it to Mary in relief and less excited to discuss anything with Mary>
Amy: Well, I mean it’s not like I have competition. It's basically just me picking up ballots, and paying that one non-profits who basically give you hundreds of thousands of votes
Poros: is that paid off?
Amy: almost. We put the deposit down and I have a business that will make a direct “payment” to the non-profit company so that I don’t exceed campaign limits for things
Poros: you are a good girl, Amy. What else?
Amy: Nothing. My PR campaign will start in a few weeks once the candidacy window is closed and thats that. The election is in a few months, most voters have a short memory anyway so more marketing has shown will be less effective
Poros: makes sense. Did you have time to do that thing I wanted next week pretty please?
Amy: thing?
Poros: you know <gestures eyes and looks at a clock across the room> thingsssssssssss
Amy: Oh right. Ruffle up that African with an office in Soma? Yeah next week for sure. I will make sure he’s piled in tickets too don’t worry. I think him sharing those files was a one off thing. We don’t know the source, he seems not to be an issue tbh
As I was chewing on warm pizza, Amy Huang was preparing to chew on Chibuzo since the files she was ranting about on the news he had leaked elsewhere, and I was the one to originally find them. Amy still does not know the file origin is me and I’m considering being her new nemesis without the backing of a Poros or major corporation.
Begs the question: who is actually running the city?
Chibuzo drops me off from dinner and my mood feels a bit conflicted. I get back home to my small apartment in Los Hellas, admire the decor in Chibuzo’s property and take a few deep calming inner breaths to myself.
I see the voter registration form on the kitchen counter and begin to fill it out with a pen. If no one is actually running the city, shouldn’t being a politician here in theory be easy? Less competition?
I put the completed form into an envelope to mail in the morning and set it on a shelf by the door. I reflect again on how I thought Chibuzo said “checkmate” at dinner. I know he said that?
What could that mean? Am I being sent… signs?
Realizing how absurd I sound to myself, while a ticking clock noise is stuck in my mind like an ear worm as I walk back from the shelf at the door I step on something
OUCH.
I look under my foot and sure enough, there is a small chess piece from Chibuzos chess board from the other room. Really? I look around. I am definitely being sent signs.
A Brilliant Move
“A brilliant move is when you find a good piece to sacrifice”
Waking up on the couch with voter information and city council forms around me I realized I fell asleep in exhaustion while looking up all the information to register to vote and if indeed, I wanted to run for city council of Los Hellas a la against Amy Huang from Fremont. Amy and I do not particularly know each other, however she gains professionally by not liking me as it gets her more investors and now she’s getting in deep with city mafia and real estate connections meant to cause havoc and take as much public funds as possible.
Amy Huang, is not the smartest tool in the toolbox and yet is always lucky. When she applied for an internship for Los Hellas, back when the now exiled Bogdan Brown was merely a public defender, the only reason she got the job was because her file fell out of Bogdan’s arms at the time he was placing candidates on someone else desk. Then she immediately started sexual favors with Bogdan at the office to secure about another year working in city hall. From there Amy was just “in the pipeline” of not that many candidates so she continues to fail up.
Now Amy was up for city council, Bogdan kicked out of office from a recall, and with Bogdan gone like a chess piece, my only real competition would be Amy.
In a brief moment of insanity I piece together the opposite of the last two days—the signs regarding chess, clocks, time, ticking noise.
Life seemed to be a riddle—Chibuzo definitely said ‘checkmate” I definitely stepped on a chess piece. Bogdan, who served as human a Knight to Mary Poros was now gone (captured by a political recall) there seemed to be a board of sorts and someone, something was sending me signs.
If we add it all together, it's clear that I am running out of time and the game is only about to start. I’m not at the end or a Checkmate. Nor at the endgame.
If Chibuzo and I are pawns near each other, and Mary Poros Queen of the other side, Amy Huang a minor piece for Mary then that would make right now…
think Ella think…
…A DISCOVERED CHECK