Chapter 37 Hands
Hank Booth was the elder statesman of checker games in his family. He frequently challenged his friends at Willow River Retirement Center to checkers matches, and more often than not, he'd win. He had just closed his flip phone after a call from his grandson. Booth and his family were on the way for a ritual Sunday afternoon visit. Hank opened his checkers set, flattened the folded board and arranged the red and black wooden disks on either side of the playing surface. Hank grinned to himself remembering past Sunday visits….
Parker was kneeling on a chair in the day room of Hank's retirement center in order to see the checkers board on the table in front of him. Several of Hank's blue-haired lady friends were watching him anxiously. The little boy's balance was rather precarious due to his excited bouncing up and down. Across the table, his great-grandfather was studying the checker board with a serious expression. His wrinkled hand reached for a black disc and slid it forward one square and then waited for Parker's next move. The six-year old had to stand up to lean across the board. His chubby hand scooted a red disk toward Pops. Hank played competitively as Parker grew older, but when he was little, the old man would purposely make erroneous moves to let his great-grandson win. The boy's enthusiasm delighted Hank and his aging buddies.
Christine possessed her mother's competitive spirit from a very early age. By the time she was five, she loved to engage Hank in several checkers games each time Booth and Brennan brought her to visit. She was soon famous among the retirees for her sighs, moans, frowns, and other theatrics when the game didn't go her way. She would cover her eyes with her hands, put her hands on her hips in exasperation, and plunk the checkers down dramatically when resetting the board after she'd lost a match. She hated losing, even to Hank. Because she was 'all girl,' her fingernails were nearly always painted some sparkly pastel color, which made her checkers moves all the more colorful to watch as she gestured with her little hands.
And Zach….that little monkey was so smart that Pops never had to let him win. Parker and Christine were intelligent kids, but Zach was even more advanced for his age. When he was four, he could hold his own against his Pops so well in checkers, that Hank was considering trying to teach him how to play chess. Temperance was in favor of the idea, since Zach had been bugging both her and Max to learn the game. According to Zach, checkers had recently become 'boring' so he declared that he needed a new challenge. His little hands could move the checkers so quickly, it made Pops head spin. He was enormously proud of Zach.
He loved to take walks with the little boy, his small hand clasped tightly in Pops' much larger one. The rosy smoothness of Zach's hand contrasted with his own somewhat gnarled fingers and weathered palms. Just as Parker and Christine had strolled with Hank to his favorite bench in the retirement center's small garden, Zach walked along with his great-grandfather, always full of questions and commentary, and stories about his activities of the past weeks at school. Booth and Brennan loved to watch the patriarch and his playmate interacting. Hank remembered Seeley being similarly curious, clever and entertaining once the little Shrimp had begun to trust and relax just a bit and take comfort from his and Gram's reassuring love.