The old man\u2019s name was Johnson and he loved the game of chess. But his eyes and face weren\u2019t normal, kinda creepy I\u2019d confess.
\nJohnson always had his game of chess set out to play. He\u2019d move his pawn ahead one square, and then he\u2019d look my way.
\nYou never really knew if we were eyeing face to face. \u2018Cuz Johnson\u2019s eyes were both askew. A vision to erase.
\nHis left eye tilted out. You\u2019d say more than a bit cockeyed. The right eye never made a move. Some said, \u201cLooked like it died.\u201d
\nI moved my knight out from a pawn. I\u2019d planned no strategy. And then I quizzed him \u2018bout his eyes. This time they stared through me.
\nOld Johnson hesitated, then he moved his knight out front. He said when he was younger, he had tried a stupid stunt.
\nHe didn\u2019t bother telling me just what the heck he did. So I moved my pawn and figured Johnson kept things under lid.
\nBut it didn\u2019t take old Johnson long to warm up to a boy, who listened to his stories, trying never to annoy.
\nI was prob\u2019ly ten years old, the first time I saw his face. My father said, \u201cThis
\nsweet old man will stay here at our place.\u201d
\nHe said, \u201cI\u2019d like it if you\u2019d keep an eye on this old man. He\u2019s been homeless since
\nforever, living in a broke-down van.
\n\u201cYour job will be to keep the bunkhouse stocked with food and such. Canned
\npeaches and some tins of Spam, he ain\u2019t used to having much.\u201d
\nSo every night past supper I would listen to each tale, how he\u2019d waited for the enemy and fought \u2018em tooth and nail.
\nHe showed me how to play the game of chess and every rule. But most of all I learned from him, \u201cA loose mouth proves a fool.\u201d
\nHe taught me, \u201cAlways show respect. Be true to all your kin.\u201d And how my folks were kind enough to take an old man in.
\nOne morning I woke early. Thought I\u2019d check the bunkhouse out. And there lay old man Johnson. He was dead. I had no doubt.
\nMost younger boys would be afraid to find death all alone. But me, I stood there thinking, \u201cJohnson\u2019s found his way back home.\u201d
\n\u2013 Bryce Angell<\/p>\n
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\u2013 Bryce Angell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The old man\u2019s name was Johnson and he loved the game of chess. But his eyes and face weren\u2019t normal, kinda creepy I\u2019d confess. Johnson always had his game of chess set out to play. He\u2019d move his pawn ahead one square, and then he\u2019d look my way. You never really knew if we were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":479,"featured_media":20768,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23124","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cowboy-poetry","8":"category-commentary"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/479"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23124"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23125,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23124\/revisions\/23125"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}