Chess and His Games

My name is Charles "Chess" Parker. Nobody calls me Charles...Everybody calls me "Chess". There are people on the street who I am sure, don't even know my given name. Today I own 18 units of Apartments that I rent out to low income families. I also own a gym. A gym I bought from a guy who was about to lose it. I drive a Black 2007 Nissann Maxima...All things I acheived in the past year. I didn't get these things the normal way and unfortunately, somebody had to lose their life in the process...This is my story.

I'll tell you how I got the name first. My Father was a Navy man...and he learned how to play Chess while he was on a ship. He got good at it and when he got his discharge, he brought his big wooden Chess board home with him. He and his older brother, my uncle would play into the wee hours of the morning . My uncle would come over on a Friday night and my mom and my aunt would fry fish and chicken, fix potato salad or macaroni and cheese and sweet potatoes and some Home brewed Ice Tea and we would all sit and laugh and talk, while these two played chess. I learned from watching them and as I got older, I even beat my dad and my uncle eventually. I began collecting chess boards and playing the old men in Fairmount Park, who used timers to time how fast they could make a move.... Soon people around the neighborhood began calling me "Chess" for short and the name stuck. Even my teachers called me that.

I met my son's mother the day I graduated from Philadelphia Community College...She had a figure on her and some tight jeans to match...I had seen her off and on for close to two years and had never said anything to her....Finnally, after we had both got our diplomas and was standing outside on Broad Street taking pictures I walked over to her....

"Where have you been all of my life love? or at least for two years of it." I said.

"Come again?" she said and wiggled that neck and head the way sisters do.

" My name is Chess...and I've been seeing you off and on for two years now." I said.

"And you just now sayin somethin to me? When I've graduated?" she said, then she laughed..

"I been wantin to holler at you...but I was tryin to stay focused on my studies..you know? A pretty girl like you would've kept me from gettin my learn on." I said.

"Oh my God, I don't believe how corny you are.." she said. "My name is Shirelle...Shirelle Jones, but people call me 'Rell' " She said.

That's how we met....She lived in North Philly and I lived in West....but that didn't stop me from seeing her at all...I was up in North Philly so much that people in the neighborhood thought that I had moved up there...We dated for close to a year before I found out that she was pregnant...
I decided to do the right thing and ask her to marry me..She accepted...Life was good.. We both had enrolled at Temple University and we both had a year to go before we would've gotten our bachelor's degrees...We were gonna live in her duplex until we could get our money together and get a larger place...That's around the time her brother, Billy Ray came home from Prison.

Rell never talked much about her older brother Billy Ray, except to say that he had dropped out of High school in the 12th grade and had went on the corner to sell drugs for Chris Thompson, the local drug lord. Him I knew, Chris Thompson and I had grown up together..had been the best of friends..Had graduated from High school together....but while I had gone on to college..Chris had graduated to slinging first weed, then Heroin and finnally Coke and crack in the neighborhood. In four short years, He had moved up to being the boss of West and Southwest Philly. Chris no longer stood on corners and sold anything.. In fact, you never saw Chris. He had people doing that kind of thing for him ...He drove a big Black Escalade and
could usually be found either in Josie's Bar or in Slim's Barber shop or at Fat Mary's Diner...He never touched or went anywhere near any drugs or a gun..Had people to do that. Chris also had managed to never get arrested either. He didn't even have a juvenile record. The police didn't know him...He was just a rumor...but everybody in West and Southwest Philly knew that Chris
Thompson was the power! Everybody feared him except me....I knew the boy too well and he knew me too. In a sense, we were brothers..we just took different paths in life.

One night, Me and Rell were lying in bed listening to the "Quiet storm" on WDAS-FM, when the door bell rang.

"You expecting someone?" I asked...

"No Chess..you?" she said.

"Let me see who it is." I said. I looked out of the upstairs window and into the street and there was Billy Ray.

"It's your brother. " I said.

"Oh ,what in hell could he want?" said Rell.

I walked downstairs and opened the door.

"Hey Billy Ray, what's happening man?" I said.

"Chess..you just the one I wanted to see." he said.

"What's goin on?" I said.

"I screwed up bad man... I messed up Chris's package.. man...I owed these other guys some money and I couldn't pay em, so I gave em what I had...and Chris come up short. He'll kill me
if his money aint right." he said.

"How short are you?" I asked..

"20 G's man." he said with his head bowed down.

"TWENTY G's!!!!! You messed up his whole package..are you nuts??? What can I do, I'm not involved in Chris's business like that." I said.

"Keep it down man, I don't want my sister to know what's going on...I can get the money back,
I got a big money scheme..I just need your help and to buy me a little time with Chris, since you
know him." said Billy Ray...

Knowin what I know now...I should've told Billy Ray no.


(To be continued........)