The Ninth Hour

I took Najwah’s hand and led her to a wicker table in the sun. I opened the chess set and arrayed the pieces according to the rules of the game. I said, “Each has a proper place; each moves with certainty according to his nature. The pawn moves as a pawn, the rook as a rook, the bishop as a bishop—each without variance.” I moved a pawn forward one square. “If this one had thoughts and speech, he would say, ‘I have come here according to my manner for such-and-such a reason.’ But he has no perception of the real reason. His entire world, its rules, its customs, its morals—these are a mummery; his comrades are all equally without perception. From the lowest pawn to the kings and queens—they do not know they are actors in a pantomime.”

I lifted the pawn from the table and placed it in Najwah’s hand. “Yet if this one could love, he could move like a queen. And if the queen felt love, she might be frozen in place, a prisoner of the pawn.”

The above is a quotation from The Ninth Hour. I wrote this short book several years ago as a gift to a friend. I had already finished The End of Reason and had not yet begun The Temple of Hanuman. The book is very brief and its theme is romantic love. I consider it a minor work, but provide a slightly abridged version for download here or by clicking on the cover image below.