Agent for a Cause (The Agents for Good) (6 page)

Heroes with dark sides to them deserved to be loved too and that was just what Tyre was to her. He was her hero and she’d defend him to anybody! True to his word, he was at her apartment at nine this morning to help her move.

Moving hadn’t really happened. Truth was she didn’t have anything worth moving except for a few clothes and toys of Kevin’s. Kevin had pitched a fit about his computer so they’d taken that old relic to the new apartment to appease him.

Her first freak out moment of the day had been when she had checked the bank account and seen how much money was in it. The IRS would be knocking on the front door for sure, but she’d still have some even after they were through with her.

The next freak out moment had come when she’d seen the apartment. Luxury was a small word to describe it. The bathroom had a spa tub and a built in coffeemaker for goodness sake! She’d half expected to find herself and Kevin being moved into Tyre’s apartment and if the truth was to be known she wouldn’t have been too much against that.

She’d set the ground rules last night, but he was proving to have far better self-control than she had. She’d been on the verge of ripping his clothes off as well as her own, but she wasn’t making that mistake again no matter how tormenting it was. This time she wanted forever and not just the feelings and high emotions of a momentary passion.

She had to see this out the right way for her sake, Kevin’s sake and even Tyre’s sake. She wasn’t a psychologist, even though she felt that she could have passed as one after dealing with Kevin’s issues and the mixed up life stories of her bar patrons, but she knew that the best thing for Tyre’s somewhat shaky nature would be a well grounded family unit-based structure, where he would feel safe and accepted enough to start depressing the emotional load that he was carrying around within himself.

She wanted to do and be that for him. She thought back to the apartment and smiled, yes Tyre had not moved her into his, but he had moved her into the one right beside his. She wasn’t worried; rather in fact, it relieved her to know that he would be close to protect her if she needed it.

Another really nice thing about the building was that it was secure. Kevin had the really bad habit to just wander off and she’d had several terror filled moments over the years thinking she’d lost him. With the building being secure there was little chance of him wandering away again.

She’d expected Kevin to really act out today with all the change and the process of moving, but it hadn’t happened thanks once again to the intervening hand of Tyre. Tyre had a small bag with him this morning when he’d come to the apartment. As soon as he’d seen Kevin he’d gone to him and knelt down and without a word spoken had pulled a brand-new iPad out of the bag and handed it to Kevin.

Kevin hadn’t put it down ever since. Even now he sat quietly in the shopping cart with the clutter of groceries stacked all around him. The clutter would’ve been something that would normally have set him off.

He was completely engrossed in the gift and hadn’t given her one issue today, but at some point she’d have to take it away before he went blind. She wasn’t looking forward to that.

Anna winced and stopped the cart and quickly glanced around to see if anyone was looking before she pushed the underwire back into her bra. All of her clothes were worn out, especially her bras. She kept sewing across the underwire, but eventually it poked through to stab her again and she was tired of it!

She wanted new clothes terribly and the plan had been to fit shopping for some into the day, but she didn’t want to risk pressing her luck with Kevin anymore today out in the public’s eye.

She didn’t have to worry about her job anymore at least. It had been so empowering to quit that crummy job this morning. Life was changing and unfortunately that meant leaving Mrs. Reed behind. It was going to be hard to find someone she trusted as much as her to watch over Kevin when she needed to go out and couldn’t take him with her.

She moved to the checkout line and started unloading the food. It all rang up to over two hundred dollars! Organic and gluten-free or not that was ridiculous! Unfair or not, she could afford it now and for that she was eternally grateful. She had just started to leave when Tyre stepped into the grocery store and headed for her. He hadn’t just bought the iPod for Kevin on a whim. She’d asked him why he had done it, he’d said that he’d been looking up stuff on autism the night before.

Apparently he didn’t sleep much either. Something he had read had said how helpful iPads were becoming in the treatment of autism. Not only had he bought the iPad, but he’d had it specifically loaded with all the recommended apps for autism. Tyre wasn’t just all about her. He was showing her that he was very much about caring for Kevin too as part of their relationship together.

Just then her underwire slipped free again and stabbed her painfully, an unprompted idea crystallized within her. She debated within herself whether she should or not, but as the wire kept jabbing her the answer became clearer and clearer what she was going to do.

Tyre thought of everything. He paid to have the groceries delivered and a doorman that he trusted would see them safely into her apartment.

Anna batted her eyes and asked, “I don’t suppose you could do me a really big favor and watch Kevin in the park for an hour or so while I go and get some new clothes. This bra’s trying to kill me and you wouldn’t want that now would you?”

I stood there holding Kevin’s hand as the taxi carrying Anna pulled away from the curb. How had I allowed this to happen? She’d tricked me somehow, as I rationally would never have agreed to babysit a kid. I wasn’t cut out for this!

How had she done this to me? Perhaps it was the way she had said she would only get a few things because she wanted me to help her pick out the majority of her clothing. Faced with the prospect of that, it seemed only fair to babysit the boy for a few hours. I was regretting it now though.

What did one do with kids? One way or another I was about to find out. I just hoped I survived with the kid intact until mommy arrived to save me.

Chapter Six

Checkmate

Kevin sort of just roamed the small city park. When he got too close to the street I took his hand and steered him back into the park. At any moment I was prepared to tackle him to the ground should he suddenly try to dart off, but he didn’t and I gradually became aware that in his own way he was enjoying the park even though he appeared to be just aimlessly wandering around it.

Even with the autism I could sense that there was a very bright intellect at play behind his eyes. He stopped suddenly and stared intently at something. I followed Kevin’s gaze to where two men were playing a game of chess on a park bench. Now this I could do!

I approached the men pulling out enough money to do the job. The men quickly moved off, their hands full of the money I’d given them. Gathering up the chessboard and pieces I led Kevin to a more secluded table and got him seated.

Kevin’s form of autism rendered him nonverbal and instead of talking to him I found myself silent as well, favoring instead to just show him what I needed from him in order to play the game. The silence didn’t bother me as I was quiet by nature myself.

I laid all the pieces to the side of the board and took each piece and showed the specific movements that piece could make on the chessboard. I did this for both colors and I grouped like pieces together and divided by color.

Maybe I was shooting up the wrong apple tree, but heck I figured it was worth a shot and it was keeping him interested. I set the board and began to play. I played both sides illustrating further the possible moves of the pieces. I played three games by myself and I was getting a little tired of it.

I started to reach for a piece on his side, but his hand was already on it. I withdrew my hand and he moved the piece correctly. He didn’t do so well on his next moves though. I had to keep him from double moving in a turn several times and I was starting to think that I should just let him move the pieces however he wanted to, but I didn’t give into that thought.

He may be suffering under a handicap that most people didn’t have to deal with, but he should still learn and be taught how to do something right. Anything else wasn’t fair to him. We got through the game and started another.

On a whim of thought I turned the board game around and gave him the black pieces, which was a concession on my part because I favored those over the white pieces personally. His moves were correct and he stopped trying to move twice in the same turn. He’d gotten radically better in just one game and I couldn’t but feel excited for him. I was sort of proud of myself for sticking with it to. What had changed?

Then it dawned on me. He been fixating on my pieces instead of his own, but moving his own instead of mine which had caused the mix up. Note to self Kevin gets the black pieces from now on.

We continued playing game after game and then he beat me! I stared at the board and his finger pointing to my checkmated king. I hadn’t lost a game of chess since I was a very young kid. I wasn’t an average chess player. I’d been taught by masters of the game and I was very good at it. I looked up at Kevin and he met my gaze with his usual, vacant of emotion, gaze.

It hurt to lose in something I prided myself about, but I got over it, just barely. What was important here was Kevin’s amazing mastery of a complex game he’d never played before. I nodded my head and toppled my king over. Game on little boy!

I won the next game, but it was no cakewalk. I lost the next three. The kid was a genius! I should know, as my own IQ put me fully within the parameters of being one and this kid was mopping the floor with me! What else was he capable of?

Anna got out of the cab in a bit of a panic. She told the taxi driver to wait and hurried away from the curb and into the park. She really had only bought a few things, but the stores had been busy and then she’d gotten caught in rush hour traffic. Now three and a half hours later she was back and very anxious over what she would find or who she wouldn’t find.

One always had to be watching Kevin. He wondered off without a moment’s notice. Had she put too much confidence in Tyre to watch over him? Oh God she hoped not! What kind of mother was she? A terrible one that was what! If anything had happened to Kevin it would be all her fault!

She stopped still abruptly her hand flying up to her mouth as she gazed in shock at the two chess playing opponents at a nearby park table. Kevin was kneeling on his seat as he leaned on the table with his elbows.

It was such an odd position to see him adopt, almost normal appearing for a boy of his age. Incredulously she watched him pick up a piece and knock over one of Tyre’s. Her eyes shifted to Tyre. He was a mass of coiled tension and deep focused concentration. His face had a hard edge to it that looked like he wanted to mangle something into pieces. She wasn’t worried for Kevin’s safety though.

Tyre was just a serious kind of a guy. Tyre was something much more than that though. He had a good heart. She’d hoped that he would be willing to tolerate the difficulties associated with Kevin’s condition in order to have her, but what she was seeing hinted at something much more significant. Something that she hadn’t even really allowed herself to dream or think of, because she’d thought it gone from the list of possibilities. Tyre was acting, without knowing it, like a father to Kevin and that was perhaps the biggest turn on yet, that she had felt in concern to her quiet gentleman stalker.

She closed the distance between them and laid a hand on Tyre’s shoulder, “You’re teaching him how to play chess!” She exclaimed in hushed awe.

I held up one finger my gaze never leaving the board, “Correction. I taught him to play chess. Now he’s teaching me something.”

“What?” Anna exclaimed in question.

“Humility.” I said grimly.

“Kevin beat you!” Anna exclaimed gripping my shoulder tightly.

I held up five fingers. I might as well as added another one. This game was well on its way into the tank. I’d tried everything including a complete shift of my playing strategy, with the same results. I’d learned something about Kevin in the process of losing though.

“Anna.”

“Yes?” She responded still sounding dazed at the evidence of her son’s progression.

I looked up at her, “You do realize that your son is a genius?”

She smiled at me. “Yes, Kevin is very gifted, many autistic children are. They tend to fixate on one thing and can get very good at that particular thing.”

“No Anna, I know about that, Kevin is different.”

“How?” She asked uncertainly.

I thought about how to explain it to her. “He’s specialized like you said, but it’s the level of depth that he possesses.”

I told her my IQ level and her eyes got big.

“I didn’t tell you that to brag. I don’t think Kevin fits anywhere on the classification chart for IQs or if he does he’s a new level of it.”

I pointed at the board. “Chess is a wonderfully complex game. There are endless strategies and more combinations than many games combined. Kevin isn’t employing any of those strategies to beat me.”

“How’s he beating you then?”

She said not understanding me so I began to explain, “In 1997 Garry Kasparov the reigning world chess champion was beaten by a supercomputer named Deep Blue made by IBM in the first classical chess match up to that date. Kasparov was perhaps the finest chess mind ever alive. He lost the six game match to the computer. The computer evaluated the probabilities of the next best move at two hundred million moves a second.”

“So you think Kevin is like this supercomputer?”

“Only partially, mostly he’s much better.”

Anna looked at me frankly disbelieving yet curious, “Can you explain that?”

“That computer in 1997 was downloaded with every chess strategy known to man. Plus it used its own probability software to run each scenario move to determine what strategy was best to counter move and it did it really fast.”