Playing Chess in the Grass

It isn’t much, but I hope it makes your day, like you made mine…

Annique and Lila lay in the grass, a chessboard resting between them. They were as silent as the sun as they concentrated, eyes fixed on the board. “Checkmate!” called Annique, after moving the queen two squares away from the empty edge. Lila searched out her king. She found it prone in the grass, stoicly tickled by the green blades. She placed it on the vacated square in direct line of the queen. The king was surrounded now by fatal fields that dared not be touched. In response Lila allowed one of her pawns to take a diagonal retreat. Annique added a bishop directly in that square, and Lila backed the pawn away a further space. This time Annique slid the queen a few squares down, with Lila placing a rook in the regal woman’s wake. Back and forth, more and more pieces appearing. With each turn, the population on the board increased – the pawns, rooks, bishops and knights falling back into their original constellation, like an explosion seen in reverse. Finally the pieces rested on two opposite sides of the chessboard, in two solid rows each. “We won!” Annique and Lila exclaimed together. “Now let’s play again!” Lila suggested in a delighted tone. “Yes, let’s” Annique agreed, as she turned the board 180 degrees. “But this time,” Lila continued, “I will be white, and you will be black.”

Thank you so much! I love it! And it’s really amazing how much you can put into such a short story. So fascinating to see what my picture has inspired you to write :) Again, thank you so much, it did indeed make my day. And I’m still smiling.

Excellent to see artists and writers sharing their talents like this, thank you both for this.

;))))

Excellent Tabita, and that’s wonderful to see the ‘art on demand’ ;)
Cool story too Inde!

Lovely! So great to see the true spirit of artist collaboration! Very exciting and kind of whimsical…

A very nice collaboration, well done to you both:)

Good drawing. I like the hatching. I also like commentary by Indeterminacy. I have seen your work on that other site you mentioned in your Profile and I’d say you should start upoading some of your drawings onto Redbubble.

I love the drawing and the story. Works great together.

Lovely!

This is the kind of thing that makes me really appreciate creative people, and what they love to share with each other. Thanks and well done =)

Beautiful work Tabita! I really like this style, and I also hope to see more in the future.

indeterminacy, great tribute with your story.

Both of you wonderful!
Tabitha you draw exquisitely and Indeterminancy you wrote the story that came to my mind but with a much better twist I loved it!
Will you two please put these together for sale? I would love to buy a copy – I teach and it would be excellent as an inspirational piece in a teenagers otherwise Boring English class. Perhaps other teachers would use it as well!
Thank you ~ adg

Thanks Tabitha
wow a choice – for teaching it would be good to have a card with the picture on it and the story on the back of the picture – kind of like a post card
I talked with Indeterminancy who seems to think it better that I just copy & paste his words not that I’d want to do that if I did I would of course site him
But Now also having looked through your work I am more than ever a fan!
Thank you keep up the good work!
Keep Happy! ~ adg

Lovely image and great coloboration on that and the story!