Doing science in my university was totally not my initial plan, in fact I wanted to go into business where I will have to answer nobody on when I come to work or not, what I do with my time and all those stuff like that makes jump up to answer ‘’yes sir’’. I considered it boring how people do the same thing over and over a again for years not until a went on a vacation in London.
Immediately I landed in London with dad; who came along for his research tour of Europe, decided to put a call to of one of my uncles; Dr. Ken who works in a big research firm with links across the globe. His major area of concentration was genetics;studies human gene make up and he was very popular as a geneticist and a psychologist.
‘’Standing before you is a champion and an Olympic gold medalist in the game of Chess’’ My father had introduced me in his usual manner. Dad had wanted to be an Olympic medalist in chess but couldn’t get a chance to represent the country due to some administrative hick ups according to him. So, he vowed that I will be one. Right from my childhood till when I turned 18, dad had always allowed me to do nothing less than playing chess whenever, wherever and however after school. He bought chess strategic moves and openings every now and then. So, I grew up winning titles along the way in the college until I got national recognition and finally had the rare privilege to achieve my feat which at the same time dad’s dream. Ever since then, dad has always being proud of me and at every slightest opportunity will not cease to introduce me as chess champ. He doesn’t care how many times he does that to a particular person so far as it’s on different occasions.
‘’wow, congratulations Mark, l heard about it the news sometimes last year’’ Dr. Ken replied me. After all the courtesy and bla bla bla; family talks, Dr. Ken took to one of his latest finding in a research project he is currently working on about the ‘’Chimp relatedness to human thinking faculty’’. H e explained to me that the project had been going on for some years now that he and his teams was able to isolate a chimp that can think exactly like human; learning and putting in practices. They were looking at the ability of primates to be able to understand other people’s intention such as their beliefs and desires.
There was these chimp that had developed a sophisticated skill in chess game as my uncle said was the best way to tell if animals can reads peoples mind and that he will like me to have a few hand with Zark; the chimps name. I agreed to his demand because i never believe him at first and decided to satisfy my curiosity about science madness of a thing.
‘’Animals are animals and that’s how they are made’’ I had disagreed with him earlier on.
‘’There is no need for argument kid, tomorrow we shall visit Mark at 11 a.m. He is a good chess player remember’’ he rested his case.
That night I spent hours going through my most deadly move strategies that had won me titles and was anticipating the next morning.
‘’Chimp behaving like human, this must be crazy I told myself that night before retiring to the bed.
It was a Friday morning, I was already prepared in anticipation and I wasted to time in finding my way to ‘’Lucos Research Center’’ I took the lift to the seventh floor to Dr. Ken’s office. He was om seat already taking his coffee.
‘’You came quite early kid’’ he told me once he sighted me.
‘’Sure, I don’t like disappointment’’ I went to the fridge to find something for myself.
After attending to few people that visited that morning, it was time to embark on my freaky Friday journey. We left his office, to a lift to the third floor.
‘’This is where we house our experimental models’’ he said
‘’It looks great’’ I made my long awaited observations.
We were just at Mark’s door and my we knocked. I was already freaking out when a chimpanzee opened the door for us.
‘’Good morning Mark’’ Dr. Ken greeted
I must confess that Mark’s behavior was no different with human except that he cannot speak human language. Mark gave me a hand shake after Dr. Ken had shaken him immediately he open the door, welcomes me to his apartment with hand signs, went to the bar and brought out a wine as courtesy. After spending about 10 minutes, Mark pointed at the chess table opposite the window and I obligated with body sign. I was beginning to understand many things. The board war already set and I took the white puns while sad opposite me with his wine cup. May be I must have forgotten mine out of curiosity, hahaha.
I made my first move, normally my favorite opening was queen gambit. So, I threw the D4 pawn to open my white Bishop lane. He repeated my move and I moved my white Knight to F2. Mark paused for a while looking at the board, he took a stick of cigarette and light it up.
‘’Do you mean this animal is thinking or what’’ I was discussing with my brain.
He threw the pawn in front of his Queen for me to take. I had many officials guarding that spot, why give a free pawn. I collected the pawn waiting for what next he will play. After few moves we castled, he was all over the place trying to collect my key officials. The Queen was in a big threat and my knight was separating his Rook from taking my Queen. He then moved a pawn that threatened the knight. I have two options; to remove the Queen or forget the Knight. Mark collected my knight while I got a pawn even when he had the chance of that the black bishop, he rejected it but decided to double the Rook. This is one of the most deadliest official combination in a chess game to have the two Rooks in one lane. This left me amazed, never has this ever happened before. Then l knew l was in a very big mess. I took me about 11 minutes to decipher what my next move will be. Mark was very calm taking his wine.
‘’How is the game going kid’’ Dr. Ken asked.
‘’Very fine’’ I was sweating right down my pant.
The next three moves had him cease my queen and the next two I was check mated. I opted for another game and Mark me on the second to the fourth time. For the first time in my life I was lost in thought on a chess board.
‘’Kid, it time to go’’ I felt Dr Ken helped me stood up from my seat. I shock Mark and left in anger. It was an indeed a freaky Friday for me. From that day hence fort I took a personal decision to become a science student and be a popular psychologist when it come to animal mind and how intentions are read. I applied yo study animal psychology in Oxford University using a scholarship l had won. Is been 3 years now and when l look back at what was the motives behind my decision, l just laugh. Of a truth, primitive brain are really wonderful and am working on a project to produce a replicate of animal behavior in electronic format.
This is my entry for @pete contest on Freaky Friday to expose the new bloggers as well as old bloggers who fancy the contest on scorum community. You can enter the contest by clicking the link below.
https://scorum.com/en-us/chess/@pete/it-s-freaky-friday-december-7-2018
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