The Queen's Gambit - Leather Handbag
The Queen’s Gambit
Rafaella sits high atop the city lights, waiting silently, patiently. Her building of glass and steel slices the sky as a wedge shaped knife. In the daylight her erie offers a breathtaking panoramic view of the city skyline - masking the usual pandemonium of life at street level. The gambit has been carefully placed into position, and now she awaits the counter move from her opponent. Staring back from the massive office windows, her reflective portrait revels the countenance of a woman that has been mentored by the very best - her father. Outward she remains calm and disimpassioned. Echoing within her mind her fathers voice dictating to her the importance of never giving your opponent the easy scent of fear. Born of pure reflex, Rafaella hides the rising fever of turmoil raging within her every cell.
Will he take the bait to one of the oldest strategic moves on record? Or will he decline, a response that would allow her to open a revolutionary counter move of her own devising. Indeed, the disapproval of her father weighs heavily, nevertheless her time is way over due.
The game had been all-encompassing to her father. He not only enjoyed the cold calculation of the chase, but rejoiced in the kill. He would except nothing less than complete destruction of his opponent. And at what cost? Countless lives crippled, none less than her mother’s spirit that had slowly dissolved over the years -- a spectral mist that simply vanished with a wave.
Abruptly, Rafaella moves toward the door with determination. Punching the code to call the penthouse elevator she turns and quickly gathers her things and mentally releases her father’s wraithlike hold. No, it will end here. The game is nothing but shadows that create the illusion of victory. Nothing in life is black and white as I had been so taught, but exists in infinite shades of gray.
As she steps out onto street level, she feels a lightness of spirit, guiding her steps toward the one person that would admire the boldness, audacity, and elegant simplicity of her proposal. He would recognize it for what it is -- the first real move that is wholly hers, not performed as if she were a puppet on a string. Rafaella contemplates the execution of her second proposal. Pure surprise on the part of her opponent will be to her advantage. And within those few precious moments she will bring him home -- offering the singular concept of unity. Instead of “countermove”, “counterpoint” -- two equally opposing independent forces move together to create a single harmonious coupling in which each retains it’s unique character but together adds strength and power to the prevailing forces. Victory at last!
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