Let's Play

This is the story about Jack Nicholson the Chess Player.

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It is all about his dreams, no not his dream of being in the movie industry but the dreams he had while sleeping.
The first dream Jack Nicholson had had been while he was just getting started with his acting career. He was not popular yet, but he had obvious promises of being a star.

The first night, ‘it’ had come with the chessboard and setup the game. ‘It’ could not be described, but it looked like a cross between the popular images of the angel of death, and a zombie. Though Jack could not describe it, it was obviously a monster.

So we will call it a monster.

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Night after night, the monster came to Jack’s dream with just two words, “Let’s play.”
Jack was no chess player, even though he knew how each piece moved and what they could do. Chess was not his game. Acting was.

Three months after the first dream, he had no gig, not even an audition. While thinking about the possible reasons for the stagnation, he heard the words, “Let’s play.”

He had obviously slept off while thinking.
Tired of having the same dream, he moved his first piece, a pawn, as he was playing the white pieces. He hoped the game would end and that would be the end of pesky monster. But that first move turned his dream into a nightmare.

“Now you have accepted the challenge,” the monster said.

“What challenge?” Jack asked, feeling a sense of foreboding.

“This game is the game of your dream,” the monster explained. “You will play this for as long as you can for you to live your dream of being active in the film industry.”

“I don’t understand,” Jack said, and made a move to take the played pawn back to its initial place, but it was stuck.

“You can’t take back a move,” The monster explained, glee obvious in his voice.

“I am no chess player. I am not playing this with you,” Jack said and made to get up.

“Then you won’t live your dream,” the monster said easily. “It’s simple; you live and play in your dream, you live and play your dream of acting. I’m sure you noticed that you haven’t been doing any acting, or have you?”

Jack sat back down. “Who are you, or what are you?”

“Let’s just say I am here to make your life more interesting.”

“What do you want?”

“To play with you,” the monster responded. “Now the game determines how long you live your acting dream. There are thirty-two pieces here, and the longer it takes to lose every piece, the longer your career. The day anyone of us wins, you lose your career.”

“What? I am not interested in playing your stupid game!” Jack shouted, afraid and enraged.

“You have no option. The game has begun. Besides you have been out of gigs.” The monster said, showing stained fangs in his smile.

It moved a pawn for its turn.

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So night after night, Jack had two jobs; not to knock off any piece, and to avoid any piece getting knocked off. It was the hardest game jack had ever played, and it went on night after night. He wished for insomnia, but it refused him.

He tried to stay awake, but his eyes and mind acted independent of his desire.

Five years after the game began, just two pieces had been knocked off; one each from both sides.

Ten years into the game, twenty pieces had gone off. Those were the roughest years in Jack’s slumber life, but they were the best in his career life. He had the best roles to play, and always had a job on hand.

While he was excited at the growth of his career, he was terrified at the rapidly knocked off pieces on the board. It was a period of mixed feelings and roller-coaster experiences for Jack.

Fifty years down the line, the monster became angry, and Jack became less afraid. He had lived a good live, and though he wished for more years and hoped the remaining five pieces would buy him more of those, he had proven himself a master in the game.

The day Jack gave the monster a checkmate was on the eve of his eighty-first birthday. Actually, he had dilly-dallied for two days and decided there was no other way.

It was a bitter-sweet experience for him, winning the game which will make him lose his career. It took him sixty one years of playing to save his career, and he knew he tried.

He never saw the monster again, after he said the words, “checkmate”, but after his eighty-first birthday, he began forgetting his lines.

He knew it was time to bow out, and so he did.

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That is a fictional story of Jack Nicholson as the dream Chess Player.

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Inspired by the contest by @honeydue