12 SINS

Chapter 2

Their families thought they are similar in many ways due to their high intellect, but at the age of five they proved they differ , Aeron gravitated towards chess and history and Gabriel towards math and electronics , Aeron proved to be a chess genius he started playing professional games at a national level proving to be unbeatable he won the national chess championship that year forty six games won to zero lose, he even did an exhibition match for the media playing sixteen of the nation previous champions simultaneously making an easy win out of them , he managed to grab media attention for a while until he stopped playing publicly as no one proved to be a worthy foe to him , while Gabriel made unbelievable calculation and always spaced out in complex math equations he loved taking electronics apart and putting them back together he sometimes even made modifications to some items and he broke others beyond repair ,the only worthy foe Aeron ever faced in chess was Gabriel as he challenged him beyond anyone ever could although Aeron always managed to win but that didn't stop Gabriel from trying coming every day with a different strategy to win but to no avail Aeron was unbeatable.

In the summer of 2076 Aeron never forgot that date the evening of 10 July it was a breeze night their last day as innocent children and the beginning of the new world, they always played a game of chess on the balcony around evening, Gabriel looked at Aeron and sighed in defeat,

Gabriel: you win again I thought I had a perfect strategy this time.

Aeron smirked proudly at him and said,

Aeron: well, you did give me a hard time, but your defeat was inevitable by your third move.

Gabriel looked with wonder in his eyes and said,

Gabriel: did you predict my defeat from then, now you need to explain that and since your explaining mind telling me your secret for always winning over me it's long overdue my friend.

Aeron let out a small laugh with the same smirk on his face,

Aeron: I thought you would wait until you have figured it yourself and your pride will keep you from asking, allow me to explain.

Aeron started rearranging the chess board to its starting positions then looked Gabriel in the eyes and said,

Aeron: although chess is a game where players compete with strategy and big part of it is figuring the opponent strategy and adapting to it and using the perfect strategy to counter it.

Gabriel shrugged his head in approval for Aeron to continue,

Aeron: although my friend your brilliance is on bar of mine, I admit, I have a key advantage over you in this game.

Gabriel: and that is?

Aeron: when the game starts, I have 100 imaginary boards in my head when you make the first move I simultaneously play you in different boards with all the possible moves you have available counting fifty moves in advance in each board, while keeping an eye on you and your body language and tracking your eyes movement and the pieces your looking at and taking your personality into consideration, I make calculations and percentages on the probability of your next 50 possible moves and I make a decision and counter in the prefect manner taking the fastest way to victory.

Gabriel: so your using math and probability theory to win I should have thought of that first I am better than you at math, waaaaaaait are you saying you defeated me 100 times in your imaginary chess game ???

Aeron laughed at loud while Gabriel was pouting in displeasure, he never thought his friend would be lying or making things up he took his words at face value absolute truths as they would never lie to each other and always talked honestly, Aeron stopped laughing and looked at Gabriel with seriousness sharp look in his eyes.

Aeron: do not take too much pride in yourself my friend, its true I have a hundred boards in my head ready but the number boards used depend on the possible moves allowed from your first move and they go up and down depending on the opponent as the game advances, but you can take pride in this you're the only opponent I faced so far that made me use 65 boards and tested me truly.

Gabriel: even when you faced the sixteen champions.

Aeron: that's a testament to your brilliance my friend that game at its peak I only used 49 boards.

Gabriel: well, if its math I think I can manage this easily, but wait you make your next moves so fast it takes you seconds to decide on your next move.

Aeron looked at him with a sharp look in his eyes and said,

Aeron: that's the advantage I have over you I was talking about, simultaneously quick thinking, I found a book about this technique while browsing the university library, the book explains in theory about this technique and ways to train and exercise to develop your brain to think in this way, I took it upon myself to prove this theory I may have revised few of the author methods though, and I deduced chess was the best way to apply this technique and train in it.

Gabriel started pouting again and said,

Gabriel: that's cheating if you found such a good book you should have told me about it, you must loan it to me at once.

Aeron: it was only a theory book, and the author didn't provide any examples and case studies or success proofs I didn't want to bother you with a speculative theory until I proofed it, and sadly I returned the book to the library already I can't loan it to you, but we can go tomorrow to the library and get it, I also need to get few books from there.

Gabriel: aren't our parents going tomorrow for 3 days to the north to attend that climate conference, who will take us?

Aeron: Lisa our neighbor is babysitting she will take us I will ask for permission from our parents now, although she is 17 years old, I sometimes feel we are babysitting her not the other way around.

Both laughed out loud and started to put away the chess pieces in its box preparing to leave the balcony.

Aeron: come let us go spend the night with our parents before they leave tomorrow for the conference.

They both spent the night with their families laughing and talking into the night, Aeron and Gabriel will never forget this day as it was the last day they spent with their families, the last day they felt innocent and loved, the last day before the start of the new world.