The clock was ticking just at 12 on the white wall.
Fayez took a glimps at clocks direction then again began strategizing for the next move.
His king was in bad position as the only thing protecting it was a single rook. The pawn in front of didn't secure it's king but blocked it's path for escaped.
Not finding any defensive move, fayez moved his knight which actually put captain in a bad possition.
"even in this dire situation, you're still in assertive"
"those who have the power have to play defensive, those who don't gamble everything you have, else you wont get a shit"
captain chuckled at his response. "you young dare to take the gamble, we dont"
Instead of going for a check , captain moved his queen right next to fayez's knight. If he goes for the kill, captain would take his revenge, if he didn't move captain would happily accept it as a gift.
But fayez wasn't a man who chose between two option, he liked to expand his options. If plans failed, there's 5 another plans to follow.
"it's always better to keep your knight fighting with minimal security rather than making them liability"
He moved his pawn forward safeguarding the knight.could captain afford to let his queen stay on a dangerous position , so he moved his bishop instead. He's a cautious man with rational mindset.
"those guys should have come by now with cotton. did something happen perhaps?"
"things don't go as you expect " fayez said with low voice remembering the failure in his previous life.
failure to get a job, failure to start things over, most importantly failure to make parents happy. Instead of protesting, he should have worked harder to crawl the slipry ladder of social hierarchy.
"sometimes I wonder who is the adult one among us"
The game war coming to an end as captain used all his pieces for defense forgeting the fact that defence can sometimes become vulnerable. Own pieces became the greatest obstacle to save ourselves.
Fayez first moved his rook at the last column which captain didn't think much of . At the last move, fayez just moved his bishop checking the king. But the king had only backside for retreat . But at the back , there's rook waiting to backstab.
The game come to an with captain loosing despite having more pieces. Mistaking a weak defense formation as a solid one was his biggest mistake. .
The final movement of the rook was the gamechanger. Its stayed at its position until the very end only to visit the other side to give its king a decisive victory.
"so i lose, huh" captain tried to say with a smiling face but the hint of disappointment didn't vanish. No wounded pride, no envy, no skepticism. Only disappointment about his own lack of foresight.
Fayez didn't press the matter further just shook his hands.
______
At the dawn when the sun gave red rays alarming people the day had come to an end. So the mission Mr. Monish and reza was assigned to come to an end. They arrived at the textile truck filled with cottons.
In front of the textile, fayez and sadat was waiting. So was mousumi, sumi and other woman with the hope of employment. It's not just employment but the hope of better future. The future they longed for. With vast population of bengal, job was as scare as virtuous beautiful woman. Sometimes, jobs became dearer than lover. Even in 21st , the situation didn't change though changed the once conservative lady bengal.
mr. monish came out with stoic expression while mr. wore nervousness expression.
"congrats, mr.monish, mr.reza finishing your mission so quickly despite its difficulty"
reza couldn't help but brush off the complement-
"we nearly got robbed....."
After hearing their response fayez fell into deep thought, he cant afford to say anything rude otherwise he's finished. Simply giving a careless reply would make them laid off in future.
"dont worry about money. I'm sure in no time you'll be able to cover up the losses"
Though it may sound careless, it implicated that its their responsibility to bear the losses.
They didn't want to argue about that. mr. monish didn't even care since his job was just to drive the damn truck.
"cotton has come!" sumi rushed to the truck and was trying to snatch away some cotton for herself. Having a small kid makes things easier. The heaviness of earlier conversation melted away in warm air.
"hey sumi stop. you'll hurt yourself" there's our babysitter girl mousumi shouting like a mom.
Even stoic person like monish smiled at this innocent scene.