A tizenegyedikes online angolórákon az volt az egyik feladat, hogy egy olyan kedvenc témáról kellett írni, aminek semmi köze az iskolai tananyaghoz, erre készített Szakál Balázs egy videót arról, hogy mi a „deep fake”, illetve kreatív írás gyakorlatként hat alapötletből kellett egyet választani, és adott terjedelmi korlátok között egy szabályos novellát (short story) kerekíteni belőle, ebből a sok jó közül Piegl Flóráét osztom meg. Nem telt haszontalanul az idő.
Rohály Krisztina
Szakál Balázs video-esszéje
Piegl Flóra: Who’s playing who?
One summer when I was sixteen or seventeen I went down to my Grandpa’s house. When I was little we used to visit him on every holiday, but then after that certain year we didn’t go anymore. Mum was very sad, she even got ill. We were coming to the end of school, only two weeks were left, but I didn’t feel excited. I actually had no plans for the summer, my parents had to work, so they were sending my little sister to a camp for the whole holiday. I could have gone but nobody of my age would go to camps anymore, everybody would have laughed at me. They were laughing at me anyway, because everybody else had plans, like family vacation, or playing football all day every day. I was feeling very down about everything. One morning we were having breakfast and the postman came, I got a letter.
I had never received a letter before.
I was ever so curious to tear the envelope apart and read it, but I acted calm, excused myself from the table, like I saw my father doing and ran upstairs to my room.
The letter was from the countryside, I read:
„Dear …,
I would like to invite you to stay with me for the summer. I would like to spend some quality time with you, also I thought it would do you good, getting out of town and all that. I was thinking of sorting out Grandma’s things, but I could never do it alone, I thought you might like that. I’ve got your old room ready for you.”
And signed:
Grandpa.
I didn’t know what to think of it, I hadn’t seen him for years, it came so out of the blue, … but anyway, I wasn’t going to say no, or lie that I had other plans. I got packed and at the end of the last school day I hopped on a bus that took me down the countryside all the way to the big house.
Grandpa was waiting for me outside on the porch, he was having his afternoon coffee with his afternoon cigar.
We greeted each other like old friends, he shook my hand and smiled his usual warm smile. He offered me a seat across him and a cigare. I took the seat but shook my head.
The next day was busy, we started on Grandma’s things right away. Well, actually, right after breakfast, coffee and Grandpa’s morning cigar. Our strategy was to go through the house from top to bottom. The attic was dustier than ever, Grandpa said he hadn’t been up there for five or six years then.
We were looking at all her things telling old memories, laughing, a few tears were shed. Grandpa wanted to keep quite a bit of her things, he said ’for memories’.
I was also allowed to take whatever I felt like keeping. That’s how I came in the possession of Grandma’s old chessboard. It was very delicate, and very detailed, so carefully carved by hand, she always mentioned this before we played.
After Grandpa’s afternoon coffee and cigar, I went up to my room, I wanted to look at the chess pieces, I set them up carefully one by one admiring them for a long time in my hand. This took so long that in the meanwhile it got dark outside, also I was getting tired so I went to bed.
Next morning, when I woke up I realized a piece had been moved, she, her whiteness had made her first move. I moved. Our day was just as the one before, morning, cigar, sorting things, afternoon coffee with cigar. The first day I checked the board almost every hour to see if she had moved another piece, but I had to be disappointed over and over; by the end of the day I started to think I had imagined things, and that I had moved the white pawn myself, I just didn’t remember.
I lost all hope, until next morning when she moved again.
So I concluded it was useless waiting around all day, I had to wait till the next morning. I hadn’t told grandpa about my grand chess game, I thought he would never believe me. We were coming to the ground floor of the house, also summer was coming to an end soon, we were proud of what we had accomplished, very very proud.
We were sitting outside, on the porch one afternoon, having our coffee and cigars. We were sitting in silence gazing out on the moor, lost in our thoughts, the birds were singing their evening goodbyes to each other, a slight breeze was blowing, it was calm, one of the calmest ones of them all, not even the griggs were chirping as loud as they usually did.
Unexpectedly Grandpa said, so very softly I could hardly hear,
’Checkmate’.
At first I thought I misheard, he had said it so quietly under his breath. He could have said anything. I was surprised at first but I didn’t show it, I acted like I hadn’t heard him, and continued gazing. The next day I went home. She had won.
