The Counter Under the Bench
Chapter 1The Empty Square
The red counter was gone.
Shloimy pointed to the empty square on the checkers board.
"You took it."
"I didn't," Meir said.
Behind them, Yechiel stopped tying his shoe.
He had seen a counter roll under the bench a minute earlier. He had also seen a sleeve brush the edge of the board.
He had not seen whose sleeve it was.
Now Shloimy, who was his friend, was asking him to settle it.
"You were right here. Tell him."
Yechiel had been right there.
That wasn't the same as having seen everything.
Chapter 2A Friend's Side
The boys had borrowed the game from the recreation cupboard for their afternoon break. They were playing on a low table in the courtyard.
Meir was new to their group. Shloimy had brought Yechiel into the game last week and promised him a turn against the winner.
If Shloimy won, they would keep playing together.
If Meir won, Yechiel would have to begin a game with someone he barely knew.
He hadn't thought of that as a reason to want one result until the argument began.
"Meir was reaching over the board," Shloimy said.
Meir shook his head.
"For my cap. You put it beside the game."
Both boys looked at Yechiel.
Chapter 3Almost Certain
Yechiel could say that Meir had knocked the piece.
He had been reaching. That made the answer seem easy.
But the sleeve Yechiel remembered was dark, and both boys wore dark jackets.
The counter had been moving fast. He hadn't noticed its color.
"A piece rolled under the bench," he said.
"When he reached," Shloimy added.
"I didn't see whose arm brushed it."
Shloimy frowned.
"You must have."
Yechiel felt himself nearly nod.
It would be a very small movement. After it, his friend would have a witness.
A witness who had borrowed the important part from the person asking.
Chapter 4On the Stones
Meir crouched beside the bench.
"Here. It's red."
He placed the dusty counter on the table.
Shloimy pointed to the empty square again.
"Put it back there."
"Mine was over here," Meir said, pointing two squares away.
Yechiel stared at the board.
Finding the piece hadn't found its old position.
He hadn't been studying the game before he bent to tie his shoe.
Mr. Klein came out to collect the cupboard key and heard the argument.
"What do we know?" he asked.
Chapter 5Not the Whole Board
Yechiel told him about the rolling piece and the sleeve.
He also said what he had missed.
The color before it fell. Whose arm. Its square.
Shloimy folded his arms.
"He found it near where he was sitting."
"A counter can roll," Meir said.
Mr. Klein asked whether any boy had a clear memory of the position that both players accepted.
Neither did.
"Then we can't restore this game with confidence,"
he said. "You can start a new game, or put it away for today."
"We were nearly finished," Shloimy protested.
Mr. Klein didn't pretend a new game would return the missing ending.
It would only give them a board they could agree on.
Chapter 6The Turn He Lost
There wasn't enough break left for two more games.
Meir offered to start again the next afternoon.
Shloimy said he would think about it.
Yechiel helped count the pieces into the box. His own promised turn had disappeared along with the uncertain result.
He was annoyed about that.
It still wasn't proof that Meir had done anything wrong.
Shloimy walked beside him toward the door.
"I thought you'd help me."
"I told what I saw."
"You could have said it was his sleeve."
"I couldn't tell."
Shloimy walked ahead.
Chapter 7The Next Afternoon
Yechiel didn't tell the other boys that Shloimy was a sore loser.
That would have turned one unfinished game into a new story about his friend.
When Shloimy asked him to bring out the box the next afternoon, Yechiel did.
Meir was waiting by the table.
"New game?" Shloimy asked.
Meir nodded.
They moved the bench a little farther from the board and put both caps on it, away from the counters.
The change didn't decide what had happened yesterday.
It made another accidental brush less likely.
Chapter 8His Own Turn
Meir won the new game.
Yechiel sat down opposite him and arranged his pieces.
Shloimy stayed to watch.
They weren't suddenly three best friends. Yechiel still knew Shloimy much better.
But he could begin one game without knowing who Meir would become to him.
Before his first move, he noticed his sleeve hanging near the board.
He pulled it back.
"Good idea," Shloimy said.
Yechiel looked up and smiled a little.
Some things could be said with certainty.
That was one of them.
