The Invitation with No Reply

Chapter 1The Space Beside Wednesday

Dovi put a small square beside Wednesday in his notebook.

He hoped to spend the afternoon with Nosson. They had been trying to build a chess problem with exactly six pieces, one that would take more than a quick glance to solve.

"Can you come?" Dovi asked after class.

"I need to ask at home," Nosson said. "We might be helping my uncle move some things."

"When will you know?"

"I'm not sure. I'll tell you when I do."

Dovi wrote Nosson? beside the square.

By evening, he was reading the question mark as though it were a crossed-out name.

Chapter 2An Answer That Hadn't Arrived

The next morning, Nosson was talking to Yossi by the coat hooks.

Dovi stopped short of joining them.

Maybe Nosson had decided to visit Yossi instead. Maybe the uncle was only a polite excuse. Maybe Dovi was always the person left waiting.

Nosson turned.

"Dovi, do you have the last chess diagram?"

Dovi handed it over without meeting his eyes.

"You can keep it."

"Why?"

"Since you probably won't come."

Nosson frowned.

"I still don't know. That's what I said."

Dovi had made an unfinished answer sound like a dishonest one.

Chapter 3The Question He Could Ask

At recess Dovi sat beside his older brother, Meir, who had come to deliver a forgotten lunch.

"Nosson hasn't said yes."

"Has he said no?"

"No."

"Then what did he say?"

Dovi repeated it.

Meir listened and handed him the lunch bag.

"You can ask once if there is news. You can't make him know sooner because you don't like waiting."

"What am I supposed to do about Wednesday?"

"What can you plan that doesn't need his yes?"

Dovi looked at the folded diagram. Six pieces did not require six people. But building it alone was not the afternoon he had wanted.

Chapter 4One Check, Not Six

Later Dovi found Nosson packing his books.

"Any news about Wednesday?"

"Not yet. My uncle won't know until tomorrow morning whether the wagon is available."

"I was unfair earlier. You said you didn't know, and I treated that like you weren't telling me the truth. Sorry."

Nosson nodded.

"I would like to come if we don't go."

Dovi wanted to ask whether he meant it. He wanted to hear it twice more.

Instead he asked something practical.

"If you find out before school ends, can you tell me? I'll work on the problem after lunch either way."

"Yes."

Dovi did not ask Yossi what Nosson had said to him. Their conversation wasn't a missing piece of evidence he was owed.

Chapter 5The Empty Square

At home Dovi rubbed out the name beside Wednesday and wrote Chess problem: six pieces.

That did not mean Nosson no longer mattered. The invitation was still open. It meant the plan on the page now contained something Dovi could actually do.

He set a start time and asked Mama where he could use the board. Her hair was fully covered by a tichel.

"The small table is free after lunch," she said.

Dovi drew two possible starting positions.

The second one was harder to solve. He kept it, though there was nobody beside him to admire it yet.

Chapter 6A Clear No

Before school ended on Wednesday, Nosson came over.

"We're helping my uncle. I can't come today."

Dovi felt his shoulders drop.

"All right. Thanks for telling me."

He did not mean that he was delighted. He meant he had heard the answer.

"Could we do it another afternoon?" Nosson asked.

"Yes. But let's wait until we can both check."

Dovi put the diagram into his book rather than leaving it on Nosson's desk with an angry note.

There was still disappointment to carry home. There wasn't a quarrel he needed to create for it.

Chapter 7The Afternoon on the Page

After lunch Dovi took out the board. He set up the six pieces, checked one line of moves, and found that his clever problem had a very ordinary escape.

He laughed once, despite himself.

Then he moved a rook and tried again.

His younger brother came to watch. Dovi let him try the position after explaining whose turn it was.

It wasn't the afternoon he had pictured. His brother missed the first trap and spotted the second.

Dovi wrote down the change he wanted to show Nosson.

He still would have preferred Nosson beside the table. A different good moment didn't have to pretend otherwise.

Chapter 8What the Question Mark Meant

The next day Nosson asked how the problem had turned out.

"The first version was terrible. The rook saved it," Dovi said.

They looked at the diagram together before class.

Nosson did not owe a grand explanation of everything his family had carried. Dovi did not need one before he could enjoy the conversation.

They checked another afternoon with their families. This time both could give a definite answer.

Dovi put a small square beside the day again.

A question mark had meant the answer was unfinished.

It had not meant he was unwanted.