Dames

No not women, sadly. Checkers. Dames is the French name of the game. And it is played very differently here than in other parts of the world. Give regular pieces the ability to jump backwards and kings the ability to super jump any number of spaces in a line. It is a much different game and the Togo version even comes with a an annoying little brother who happens to be the youngest of the family and takes on the traditional role of attention getter. Only this one, isn’t my little brother and he hasn’t learned that when you poke the bear you better be prepared to run for your life. In this case the bear, me, was in a very intense game of checkers (how lame does that sound?), it was the first time that I was actually in danger of losing – street cred was on the line. And the little kid kept touching pieces in the annoying, but harmless way. Christian yelled at him and he snuck his way behind me to deflect the intense stare his brother was giving him. He then started to poke me. Using the shadows I picked out his location in relation to my chair, and surprised him with a lightning quick reverse bear hug. I think it was the sheer surprise of it that made him cry as I only held him for a second, just long enough to make a move and ask him if he was finished poking me. But in any case he made a swipe at me that missed as I leaned forward to examine the board and then he got yelled at by his mother before running inside. Once a big brother, always a big brother. The kid lived and he hasn’t come within poking distance of me since. And I am still undefeated in checkers.