The story of my life reads like a fairy tale - GRIMM! And there was no grimmer time than my years in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia! Being paid extremely well and living in a five-star hotel was small compensation for living in the world's largest sandbox.
The Four Pillars of Prohibition in Saudi Arabia are No Piss, No Pork, No Pornography and No Prostitution but it was the sheer loneliness of the place that reduced even the most hardened men to tears. Some of us resident expats would meet at lunchtime around the swimming pool of the Al-Harithy Hotel on Medina Road in Jeddah for a swim and a game of chess.
Then came the long night and the lack of entertainment and the lack of companionship until perhaps some time after midnight, just when I thought I had conquered my insomnia, there was a hesitant tap on the door. Outside stood one of the expats I had met at the swimming pool at lunchtime, with a chess-board under his arm, asking in a timid voice, "Feel like a game of chess?"
FEEL LIKE A GAME OF CHESS??? AT 1 O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING???
But, of course, I didn't say that. Instead, I switched on the kettle, set up the chess-board, and made the appropriate moves. Literally! Because it wasn't about chess at all but about the choking isolation, or about a "Dear John" letter he'd received from home, or, worse, no letter at all.
And so I played the game because it might be my turn next to stand outside someone's door with a chess-board under my arm, asking in a timid voice, "Feel like a game of chess?"
