Page 75 of Forever Dark
Selena watched the timing of it.The pauses.The softening of his voice before he raised it.The way he made the wordyousound specific every time, as if he had picked a single person out and spoken straight into their private shame.
Croft set the Bible down on the lectern and rested both hands on either side of it.
“Years ago,” he said, “I heard a story about a painting hanging in the Louvre in Paris.The painting showed a young man seated at a chessboard with the devil across from him.Now the devil in that painting looked pleased with himself.Looked certain.Looked like he knew the game was over, and the man sitting opposite him knew it, too.Head bowed.Hope gone.Nothing left in him but the look of a soul that believed it had been beaten.An angel stood near, looking on, dismayed that the man was about to lose his soul forever.”
The tent had gone still enough that Selena could hear canvas shifting overhead.
Croft’s gaze moved across the rows.
“The title of that painting wasCheckmate.”
His voice dropped on the word.
“Game over.No move left.Defeat final.That’s what the title said.That’s what the devil’s grin said.That’s what the young man’s face said.His eternal soul was about to be consumed forever in the fires of hell.”
Croft let that sit, then lifted one finger.
“But one day a chess master came by to the Louvre.He took in the incredible works of art, but there was one piece that caught his eye the most.He stopped in front of that painting.In front ofCheckmate.Looked at it for longer than everybody else.Studied the board.Studied every piece.Studied the angle.Studied the checkmate that was about to happen.”He leaned forward slightly.“And after a while he stepped back and said, no.No, this painting is wrong.He was speaking to a tour guide who was relating the story of the painting to a crowd.”
A few people were already nodding.
“‘Wrong how?’the tour guide asked.The chess champion said, ‘Well, I am a world champion of chess, and I’ve been studying this board, and either they are going to have to change the name of the painting or the painting itself, becausethisis not checkmate.”
Croft’s voice rose.
“He said, ‘The man is not beaten.’”
Higher now.
“And the tour guide asked, ‘How?’And the chess champion replied…” Elias was taking every dramatic pause he could before raising his voice loud and bellowing, “‘Because the king has one more move!’”
The first response came from the left side of the tent.
“Amen!”
Croft pointed outward.“That’s what I came to tell somebody tonight.The king has one more move!”
More voices answered.
“The devil tells you it’s over.The bottle tells you it’s over.Shame tells you it’s over.The papers on your kitchen table tell you it’s over.That hospital room tells you it’s over.That divorce tells you it’s over.That grave tells you it’s over.”He struck the lectern lightly with the flat of his hand and pointed skyward.“But the king has one more move!”
Applause broke out.Croft let it build, then cut through it.
“Listen to me.Some of you came in here bent double under things you haven’t told anybody.Some of you came in here smiling so your children wouldn’t know how scared you are.Some of you came in here because you were one bad hour away from giving up.Some of you feel eaten up by what’s happened in the past, runnin’ from it and feelin’ like the road is runnin’ out!”
Selena felt that one in the center of her chest.
Not because she believed him.Not fully.Because the shape of it was familiar.Knowing what it meant to stand in a room and keep your face composed while something deeper in you had already started to fray.Knowing what it was to leave one life for another and tell yourself the cost had been necessary.Knowing how far a person could travel without outrunning old choices.
An image of that horrible memory she dared not face came rushing into her awareness again.A car crash outside her old home in Elmsview.A memory that had haunted her since she’d stepped foot back in Harlan County.She tried her best to push it away.But it would never leave her.
Croft’s voice softened again.“Maybe you think God forgot you.Maybe you think you burned your second chance years ago.Maybe you think you’re down to the last piece on the board.”
He picked up the Bible and held it against his palm.
“You are not done because the king is not done.”
A woman in the front row rose to her feet.Then a man behind her.Then three more.
