1

"What was that?"

Henry Standing Bear looked at me and smiled. "My move."

I glanced down at the weathered chess set between us as Lucian Connally stood on the patio of room 32, turning the three T-bones on the outlaw grill he wasn't supposed to have in the Durant Home for Assisted Living. Stretching his back with a hand at its small, the old sheriff took a deep breath and blew out a lungful into the frigid night and announced, "It is a beautiful evening out, and I'm thinking we should dine on the veranda."

He was framed perfectly in the twinkling Christmas lights that surrounded the patio doors, even though it was New Year's Eve and freezing. "It's twelve degrees outside, Lucian."

Dog, sitting on the sofa he wasn't supposed to be on, watched him stomp off into the cold, which was nothing new in that he watched everything Lucian did concerning raw meat.

New Year's Eve notwithstanding, Tuesday nights were chess nights at the "old folks' home," as Lucian referred to it, but sometimes our gracious host had other duties and left the board to us lesser masters. I'd used the Bird's Opening, 1.f4, but the Bear hadn't responded with the usual setup,...