Maybe 3 hours have passed, or maybe even 4 hours when the old man played Tulia over and over again, showing off his extraordinary wisdom and cleverness when he beat the ornithologist for the tenth time. It was perhaps the 15th attempt to beat the old man in this game. Despite his age, and a terribly overgrown face with a grey beard, he turned out to be a very clever man. He beat the last 3 pawns of Tulia in one move, winning again.
"Well... I won again!" said the man, weakly, but with a little enthusiasm, sliding Tulia's pawns aside, pushing the pawns off the wooden board.
"But... But... But how?!" asked Tulio, scratching his forehead and frowning his eyebrows. He kept wondering what he had done wrong... Or maybe what he did too well. There were simple rules in this game, they were like checkers, only the pawns were rings. One player had blue rings with a black band and the other had red rings with a white band as well. However, it was even a good try by Tulia. There were only 2 old man's pawns left.
"If we play by traditional rules," the man suddenly said. Tulio lifted his head up and looked at the bearded man with her already tired eyes.
"You'd lose everything," added the old man at the end, looking at Linde and Fernando.
"What is that supposed to mean?" asked Tulio.
"The right to benefit" said the old man. He decided to continue seeing Tulio's questioning eye.
"If I tell you secret information, I'll lose it because it won't be secret. The right of benefit is that I can lose or gain something. If you win, I will lose, if I win, I will gain," explained the old man.
"But we don't play by it, do we?" asked Tulio a little bit of a buzz.
"If we played it, you wouldn't have so many things with you," the man laughed proudly. Tulio sighed hard. He took a sip of hot coffee (3 coffees to stimulate) and again focused his eyes on the board.
"So... Let's play it again!" said Tulio. The old man waved his head confirming it with great willingness. Both men put their pawns on the map.
"You start" was decided by the old man. This time, Tulio didn't jump out of the way at once, but calmly analysed the map. He made one move forward. The old man threw the pawn two steps forward without thinking. Tulio calmly looked around the map. He threw another pawn forward. The old man made a forward motion with the same pawn without thinking. Tulio calmly analyzed the map, and then the old man's pawn was thrown. The old man grunted and then threw another pawn forward. Tulio calmly looked at the map. He moved another pawn forward. The old man did the same as Tulio. And he did the same with another pawn. Tulio made the pawn two steps forward. The old man took the new pawn two steps forward. Tulio took two of his opponent's pawns with one pawn.
"ekh" the old man laughed nervously. You could see he got a little nervous. Tulio managed to feel a bit relieved, but decided not to be happy until he knows if he will win for sure.
It's been 30 minutes since you guys had this fierce fight. So far, Tulio had four pawns on the board and the old man had only 2. The old man must have got pretty upset already, as his hand was trembling with every pawn movement. But Tulio was calm, he didn't get nervous. He made a pawn move... And he won! No old man's pawns, four Tulio!
"Finally! I won!" yelled excited Tulio getting up from the couch. He got up with problems because his legs were already numb. The old man was apparently not very happy about this because his old eyesight was stuck in the board and he was probably wondering how it is possible that he lost. From time to time he was hooking his beard, stroking it and even jerking a little.
"So..." he'd already made Tulia serious by coming back.
"Speak" said Tulio. The old man looked at Tulio. Then he got up and looked out the window. He looked around for a while and then went out into the other room.
"Why did he go?" asked Tulio quietly.
"Never mind, but we're glad you finally won," Linda replied. She was bored watching Tulio's constant failures until...
The man came back to the living room holding a piece of carefully rolled paper.
"There's an address and a password on this piece of paper. When the man opens the door, give it to him. He'll tell you everything we know." said the old man.
"You know?" repeated the surprised Tulio.
"Go on... Until no one listens," said the old man.
"Nobody listens?" said Tulio, even more surprised." The man didn't answer. Tulio took the paper and Linda and Fernand left the old apartment.
It got a little cooler outside, but luckily it wasn't as bad as it seemed.
"What is that supposed to mean..." he thought during the Tulio road. Do they know? Do they hear? It was strange, but he tried not to bother with it. They finally had what they were looking for.
"By the way," Linda started at some point.
"How did you manage to beat him? I thought you were a little too confident." Linda said. Tulio laughed briefly.
"You see... It was quite simple." the man started proudly.
"I just remembered his movements from the previous games and I picked them!" said the man proudly. Linda was a bit surprised by that, but she didn't really mind the way she won that way. Yes, he was maybe a little bit stretched as if it was a bit of a scam, but to be honest she didn't want to wait another 3 hours for Tulio to come up with his original way to win.
"Still I'm glad you managed to beat him," Linda said loudly when she finished thinking about it.
"And me too! In fact, I was wondering if I'd stop trying and just give up..." said Tulio.
"You know I'd forbid you to do that," Linda warned. The man replied only with a short laughter. The threat made him laugh a little, but on the other hand he was a little scared. What if it didn't work out? He would have to start playing the game again, and his head was already getting a little bit sick. Too much coffee, not enough sleep. It could only be easier to make stupid mistakes! Without paying attention anymore, Tulio squeezed a piece of paper harder to feel he actually had it. He was a little yellowish, but he was still stiff.
"Did you check what's written on it?" Fernando got in.
"Not yet. I hope it's not too far..." said Tulio wonders where else they'll have to go to get to their real destination. Soon they've reached their hotel. The reception was empty, as was the parking lot, where only one car stood. They went inside, where the receptionist was already waiting for them. They quickly went to their room. In the meantime, they felt much more comfortable in the hotel than outside, because the building was warmer, definitely warmer. They went into their room, where they could take a look at the contents of the card.
"LA Rambla" read loudly Tulio when he rolled out a roll of old paper.