"Okay," Dan says, an we get out of the car. When Mike is gone, I says, "You shouldn't of took the money."

"Well it's all the hell we got left now," he say. Everthin else is gone. I didn't realize till a few minutes later how right he was.

We get to the apartment an lo an behole, Jenny is gone too. All her things is gone, cept she lef us some clean sheets an towels an some pots an pans an stuff. On the table in the livin room is a note. Dan foun it first, an he read it out loud to me.

Dear Forrest, [it says]

I am just not able to take this anymore. I have tried to talk to you about my feelings, and you don't seem to care. There is something particularly bad about what you are gonna do tonight, because it isn't honest, and I am afraid I cannot go on with you any longer.

Maybe it is my fault, partly, because I have gotten to an age where I need to settle down. I think about having a house and a family and goin to church and things like that. I have known you since the first grade, Forrest—nearly thirty years—and have watched you grow up big and strong and fine. And when I finally realized how much I cared for you—when you came up to Boston—I was the happiest girl in the world.

And then you took to smoking too much dope, and you fooled with those girls down in Provincetown, an even after that, I missed you, and was glad you came to Washington during the peace demonstration to see me.

But when you got shot up in the spaceship and were lost in the jungle nearly four years, I think maybe I changed. I am not as hopeful as I used to be, and think I would be satisfied with just a simple life somewhere. So, now I must go an find it.

Something is changed in you, too, dear Forrest. I don't think you can help it exactly, for you were always a "special" person, but we no longer seem to think the same way.

I am in tears as I write this, but we must part now. Please don't try to find me. I wish you well, my darling—good-bye.

love,

Jenny

Dan handed the note to me but I let it drop on the floor an just stood there, realizin for the first time in my life what it is truly like to be a idiot.

21

WELL, AFTER THAT I WAS ONE SORRY BASTID.

Dan an me stayed at the apartment that nite, but the nex mornin started packin up our shit an all, cause there wadn't no reason to be in Indianapolis no longer. Dan, he come to me an say, "Here, Forrest, take this money," an helt out the two thousand dollars Mike had give us for rasslin The Professor.

"I don't want it," I says.

"Well you better take it," says Dan, "cause it's all we got."

"You keep it," I says.

"At least take haf of it," he say. "Look, you gotta have some travelin money. Get you to wherever your goin."

"Ain't you goin with me?" I axed.

"I'm afraid not, Forrest," he says. "I think I done enough damage already. I didn't sleep none last night. I'm thinkin about how I got you to agree to bet all our money, an how I got you to keep on rasslin when it oughta have been apparent Jenny was about to freak out on us. An it wadn't your fault you got whupped by The Professor. You did what you could. I am the one to blame. I jus ain't no good."

"Awe, Dan, it wadn't your fault neither," I says. "If I hadn't of got the big head bout bein The Dunce, an begun to believe all that shit they was sayin bout me, I wouldn't of got in this fix in the first place."

"Whatever it is," Dan say, "I jus don't feel right taggin along anymore. You got other fish to fry now. Go an fry em. Forget about me. I ain't no good."

Well, me an Dan talked for a long time, but there wadn't no convincin him, an after a wile, he got his shit an I hepped him down the steps, an the last I seen of him, he was pushin hissef down the street on his little cart, with all his clothes an shit piled in his lap.

I went down to the bus station an bought a ticket to Mobile. It was sposed to be a two day an two nite trip, down thru Louisville, to Nashville, to Birmingham an then Mobile, an I was one miserable idiot, settin there wile the bus rolled along.

We passed thru Louisville durin the nite, an the nex day we stopped in Nashville an had to change busses. It was about a three hour wait, so I decided to walk aroun town for a wile. I got me a sambwich at a lunch counter an a glass of iced tea an was walkin down the street when I seen a big sign in front of a hotel say, "Welcome Grandmaster's Invitational Chess Tournament."

It sort of got my curiosity up, on account of I had played all that chess back in the jungle with Big Sam, an so I went on into the hotel. They was playin the chess game in the ballroom an had a big mob of people watchin, but a sign say, "Five dollars admission," and I didn't want to spend none of my money, but I looked in thru the door for a wile, an then jus went an set down in the lobby by mysef.

They was a chair across from me with a little ole man settin in it. He was all shriveled up an grumpy-lookin an had on a black suit with spats an a bow tie an he had a chessboard set out on a table in front of him.

As I set there, ever once in a wile he would move one of the chessmen, an it begun to dawn on me that he was playin by hissef. I figgered I had bout another hour or so fore the bus lef, so I axed him if he wanted somebody to play with. He jus looked at me an then looked back down at his chessboard an didn't say nothin.

A little bit later, the ole feller'd been studyin the chessboard for most of a half hour an then he moved his white bishop over to black square seven an was jus bout to take his han off it when I says, " 'scuse me."

The feller jumped like he'd set on a tack, an be glarin across the table at me.

"You make that move," I says, "an you be leavin yoursef wide open to lose your knight an then your queen an put your ass in a fix."

He look down at his chessboard, never takin his han off the bishop, an then he move it back an say to me, "Possibly you are right."

Well, he go on back to studyin the chessboard an I figger it's time to get back to the bus station, but jus as I start to leave, the ole man say, "Pardon me, but that was a very shrewd observation you made."

I nod my head, an then he say, "Look, you've obviously played the game, why don't you sit down an finish this one with me? Just take over the white in their positions now."

"I cain't," I says, cause I got to catch the bus an all. So he jus nods an gives me a little salute with his han an I went on back to the bus station.

Time I get there, the damn bus done lef anyway, an here I am an ain't no other bus till tomorrow. I jus cain't do nothin right. Well, I got a day to kill, so I walked on back to the hotel an there is the little ole man still playin against hissef, an he seems to be winnin. I went on up to him an he look up an motion for me to set down. The situation I have come into is pretty miserable—haf my pawns gone an I ain't got but one bishop an no rooks an my queen is about to be captured nex.

It took me most of a hour to git mysef back in a even position, an the ole man be kinda gruntin an shakin his head evertime I improve my situation. Finally, I dangle a gambit in front of him. He took it, an three moves later I got him in check.

"I will be damned," he say. "Just who are you, anyway?"

I tole him my name, an he say, "No, I mean, where have you played? I don't even recognize you."

When I tole him I learnt to play in New Guinea, an he say, "Good heavens! An you mean to say you haven't even been in regional competition?"

I shook my head an he says, "Well whether you know it or not, I am a former international grand master, and you have just stepped into a game you couldn't possibily have won, and totally annihilated me!"