Page 48 of The Memory Wood

Shlep-shlep-shlep.

‘There’soneway we could play,’ she says absently, almost as if talking to herself.

The beam falls still. ‘There is?’

‘One of the best ways, actually – the way I play a lot at home. It lets you compete against anyone in the world, wherever they are, and whenever you like.’

‘That’s impossible.’

‘It’s absolutely possible. You could be in a tent in Timbuktu and I could be at a research station in Antarctica, and as long as we had an internet connection, we could play a game.’

‘A what connection?’

This is better than she’d expected. ‘Doesn’t matter. If we’re face to face, we don’t even need one of those. We can use pass-and-play.’

‘Pass and … What’re you talking about?’

‘I’m talking about thechess.comapp. In fact, any chess app you like. But that one’s the best.’

‘What’s an app?’

‘Are you kidding me?’

‘That’s unkind,’ Elijah says. ‘You shouldn’t be unkind.’

‘I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to be. It’s just … OK, “app” is short for “application”. It’s a piece of software, like a game or something, that you use on your tablet or your—’

‘Tablet?’ he says, scoffing. ‘You mean like a pill?’

‘No, I mean like a computer. Like an iPad. A flat screen you activate with your fingers. Have you seen one of those, Elijah?’

‘Nuh … Maybe.’

‘Doesn’t matter if you haven’t. Not as many people use them as they once did. And I don’t bother with thechess.comapp on my tablet, anyway. I prefer using it on my phone.’

He snorts. ‘You’re telling me you can play chess on aphone?’

‘If you have the app.’

‘How’d you get it?’

‘It’s free. You just download it.’

He doesn’t respond.

‘A button press, Elijah. Nothing more.’

‘It’s that easy?’

‘It’s that easy.’

‘On any phone?’

‘Well, not the really old ones. But pretty much any smartphone. Which is most of them, these days.’

‘I don’t have a phone,’ Elijah says. Now, more than any time previously, she wishes she could see his expression.

She shrugs.

---