Emma sat down in the chair previously occupied by Joey and announced, “Ok, boys, time for you to set up the chess pieces.”

Jill smiled warmly and shook her head as Emma giggled at her own joke. It was obvious that at their size, Robert and Joey would have a hard time even moving the pieces.

“Now Emma, quit making fun of the boys”, her mother told her. “You and I can set up the chess board like normal for a new game, except for the kings. We’ll put the king pieces aside and let the boys take those squares.”

With that, her hand shot out towards Robert, who let out a yelp of surprise as his mother’s giant fingers and bright red polished nails suddenly came towards him. He tripped over his own feet and fell backwards on to the surface of the chess board, as her hand passed over him and grabbed a bishop off the board.

Jill smiled and let out a little chuckle at her son’s predicament.

“Sorry about that, dear. I didn’t mean to startle you. I was just reaching for this”, she waved the chess piece above him.

Robert looked up at the white plastic piece that was almost his size, its green felt bottom wider than his head. Seeing something that large held above him by his mother’s enormous hand, he couldn’t help but imagine her putting the piece down on top of him and pushing down. He realized that at his size, she could easily break his bones and squash him with the simple game piece.

“Are you ok?” she asked sincerely, carrying the bishop back to her edge of the chess board and putting it down, just as easily as she’d carried him up to the table a minute before.

“Uh, yeah,” he responded as he stood back up slowly, still shaken by the experience.

Jill smiled warmly down at her son for a moment, then went back to gathering the white chess pieces to her side of the board.

In the mean time, Emma had picked up a black pawn and held it above Joey’s head.

“Look out below!” she called to Joey.

Joey dove to the side as she dropped the immense object, narrowly missing him.

“HEY!!!” Joey yelled, as he looked back at Emma, afraid of what she might do next.

“What? I waited until you moved before dropping it”, she responded innocently.

“Emma, you know better!” her mother scolded.

“I really did wait for him to get out of the way,” Emma responded, innocently. “It’s not like I’d ever really hurt him.”

Her mother merely glared at her for another second, then went back to gathering the white pieces, while Emma went back to grabbing the black pieces. Whenever her mother wasn’t looking, she’d swing her pieces near Joey while moving them to her side, causing him to nervously scurry around the chess board trying to avoid her.

Robert stood on the chess board, nervously watching Emma’s antics, when something suddenly tapped him in the back.

“Wha?” he jumped with a start, and turned to see a white pawn behind him, held aloft by his mother’s hand. Again, he couldn’t help but think of what would have happened if she hadn’t been so gentle when hitting him with that pawn. His mind imagined it hitting him with the force of a heavy baseball bat, knocking him down and bruising him, all caused by the simple and graceful movements of his mother’s slender fingers.

His mother giggled slightly at his startled reaction, oblivious to the panic she was inducing in her son’s overactive imagination. She pulled her hand back to put the pawn down on an empty square, completing the row of pawns in front of her.

“You were facing the other way, so that seemed like the best way to get your attention,” she told him. “Ok, teammate, it’s been too long since I’ve played this game. I remember that the pawns all go across the second row, but you’ll have to remind me how to set up the rest of the pieces.”

“Oh, uh, sure,” he began, then walked closer and started pointing out which pieces went on which squares of the chess board. By the time Jill was finished setting up her pieces, Emma was also done.

“So we’re putting the kings aside and using the boys for that?” Emma asked her mother for confirmation.

“Right”, Jill responded, putting her own king next to the chess board so it would be out of the way. With that, she reached over her pieces to where her son was standing, and this time she really did grab him.

“MOM!!! NO!!!” Robert shouted in a panic as his mother lifted him off the board.

Jill brought her shrunken son directly in front of her face and smiled as she looked him over for a few seconds.

“Time to put my cutest chess piece on his proper square”, she announced, then brought him even closer to her face. Her shiny red lips puckered into an “O” shape as she brought him close, and she gave him a quick kiss on the top of his tiny head. Then she lowered him to the only open square on her side of the chess board, and gently released him to a standing position.

“Ooh, my turn to put my king on his proper square, too”, Emma said excitedly.

“NO!” Joey shouted suddenly, taking off towards the black king’s square as fast as he could. “I can walk!”

Before he could get past the row of pawns between him and his square, Emma’s gargantuan hand wrapped around him, grabbing him firmly, yet gently. She grinned mischievously as she lifted him off the chess board and held him up to her face to examine him.

“You can’t get away from me that easy.”

After a few seconds, she lowered her hand over the empty king’s square, but instead of placing him there gently, as her mother had done with Robert, she stopped while he was still a couple of inches above the chess board. To him, this seemed like he was about five feet above the surface, and he waited nervously for a second before she did exactly what he feared and let him go. He slid out of her hand, which slowed his descent, and his knees bent as his feet hit the surface of the chess board, allowing him to land on his feet as if he’d just landed from a controlled jump.

“Well, that was fun”, Emma said. “Now I guess it’s time to play some chess.”