"I have time. Your turn." I said.
"Huh?"
"Looks like checkmate," I said, and this time he really laughed.
He got into the car, and we started away, with him giving me directions.
"You're going to be able to find your way back and home, right?" he asked.
"Yes," I said, not worrying about it. "Can I ask you about your name?"'
"Peter or Smoke?"
"I think Smoke," I said. laughing.
"It's my ancestral name. My family's name was given to my father's meat-great-neat-grandfather who was in the Civil War. They gave Indians names then, and they gave him the name Jordan. I wouldn't accept it from the time I was twelve. but I wasn't able to change it until after my father died. I discovered my grandfather's name was Tsu-S-di, which translated means 'Smoke' so I took that name."
"Why was his name Smoke?"
"It comes from the Smokey Mountains. My people were there in the year 1000, and there are many legends about the mountains, the smoke. It's mystical, powerful." he said.
I could feel his eyes on me, his concern that I might. as I supposed many young people our age did, laugh at him. Instead. I turned to him and said. "I wish I had a name that had such power."
"April is spring," he replied. -"Rebirth, life."
"I mean my last name. There should be a name store so I could go choose a new one."
"There is," he said, and gestured at the outside. "It's called the world. Anyway, you don't choose your name. It chooses you," he said. "And don't worry." he added. "It will find you."
He told me to make a turn at the next intersection, and we'd be on his street. His aunt's house was at least two times larger than our bungalow. It had a bigger, wider lawn and nice magnolia trees in front.
"You can pull into the driveway," he said, "How do you usually let home?"
"Bus drops me off two blocks south. No problem. Thanks for the ride."
"You're welcome," I said. "Thanks for the chess lesson."
"You're welcome. How does the queen move differently from the king?" he fired, pointing his finger at me.
"She... can move as far as she wants as long as there's no one in her path."
"Think about that," he said. "Think about how to move like the queen."
He closed the door, smiled, and walked to his front door. I waved, backed out, and drove away, pretending I knew just how to get back.
It was the first time I cared what a boy thought about me, really cared.
14 Smoke Signals
. Eventually, I had to stop at a garage, get out, and ask for directions. I was that lost. By the time I got home. Brenda and Celia were there, both sitting in the living room. Brenda looking like someone with a nasty case of migraine headaches.
"We were warned about you. April," Brenda said the moment I entered. "Where were you? Your club meeting couldn't have gone this long."
"It didn't. I took someone home."
"You drove someone home already?" she asked. grimacing. "Was it a boy or a girl?" Celia asked.
"A boy," I said.