Page 47 of The Memory Wood

‘Oh.’ She pauses. A smile spreads across her face. ‘Hansel and Gretel.’

‘Yeah, exactly. Hansel and Gretel, playing chess—’

‘—inside the Gingerbread House—’

‘—inside the Memory Wood.’

Elissa holds the smile a beat longer. Then she loses it. ‘Shame it’s not possible.’

‘What?’

‘I mean, considering you know all the rules. We’ve even got all the pieces.’

‘So what’s the problem?’

‘I’d have thought that was obvious.’ Elissa holds her breath. It’s risky to rile him like this, but she thinks it’s worth it.

‘It’s not obvious tome.’ His voice is raised. If he were standing, he’d probably stamp his foot. Perhaps he’s not Hansel, after all. Perhaps he’s Rumpelstiltskin.

‘Elijah?’

‘What?’

‘We don’t have a board.’

His torch beam freezes. Then it skitters around the cell. ‘We don’t?’

‘Not any more. I had one, in my rucksack. It’s more of a mat than a board, but it works just as well. When I woke in here, it was gone.’ She blinks, staring fully into the light. ‘Hetook it.’

A pause of two beats. Then, brightening, Elijah says, ‘We can play on the floor.’

‘These pieces are hand-carved, based with real leather. The floor would ruin them. We need a board.’

He sighs out a breath. ‘And we don’t have one.’

She tilts her head. ‘Could you get me my play mat?’

‘You want me to steal it?’

‘It’s mine. So it wouldn’t be stealing.’

‘It’s not yours any more.’

‘OK. But could you get it?’

‘No.’

‘Do you know where it is?’

‘How could I?’

Elissa shrugs.

‘We really can’t use the floor?’

The hope in his voice is transparent. She takes great pleasure in crushing it. ‘No chance in the world.’ Taking out a chess piece, she turns it around and around. The wood slips against her fingers:shlep-shlep-shlep.

She can sense Elijah’s frustration in the tremor of the torch beam. She’s filled him with expectation and now he can’t handle his disappointment.

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