White Knight

White Knight Syndrome is the tendency to rescue people in intimate relationships, often at the expense of one’s own well-being

Lance Kahn was making coffee in his small Florida apartment. For breakfast, he chewed on his past memories. “A life of crumbs,” he said it out loud as he cleaned his hands of the tiny pieces of toast over the kitchen sink. The memories were hard and dry, and they scratched the inside of his mind like the burned toast scratched the inside of his mouth. He swallowed his tears with some bitter coffee. Something brushed against his ankles.

 

“Hey, Darling, you’re up already?” he said, quickly wiping his face. A 20-foot python scooted forward in a straight line, slithered through Lance’s slightly spread legs and coiled up into a ball under the table. It had a triangular head and a gray body with large, reddish blotches outlined in white.

 

“You are not bringing that snake in this house!”

“Mom, she’s just a baby. Look, she's harmless! You always say that I should learn to be responsible. I will take care of her, I promise!” “That was twelve years ago, can you believe it?” Lance said to the snake and looked at it with affection. “I always remembered the most trivial things from biology class. Like the fact that after the eggs hatch, the female does not care for the hatchling snakes. “I couldn’t leave you out there on your own, could I?”

 

When Lance moved out of his parents’ house at age seventeen, he took Darling with him. No one knew about it, of course. He smuggled it into his rental apartment in a big box. Initially, it was a sort of fascination with the exotic creature. Then, it became a task, an experiment to tame, and a mission to save the python. He knew the risks, but he also knew how it feels to experience loss.

 

As Darling grew, she became aggressive at times, but Lance tried his hardest to make things work. He did not want it to end as it did with his parents or with all of his other relationships. With a coffee mug in hand, Lance walked into the small living room. He hovered over a chessboard set up on a coffee table. “White knight to B4,” he said and with mild satisfaction, he removed a black pawn from the board.

 

“He’s been renting the apartment from me for nearly two years. He was a private person, and…”

“When was the last time you saw Mr. Kahn, ma’am?”

“I live downstairs, so I knew about his comings and goings. He was a dependable young man. He went to work in the morning, and returned in the evening almost always at the same time, but I haven’t seen him for a week. I went to collect the rent, and he didn’t answer the door. And there’s a strange smell coming from his apartment…”

“The door is locked from the inside. We’ll have to break it down. Please, ma’am, stand back.”

 

The officers searched the apartment. There was no sign of struggle. There was a crunching, crackling sound. One of the men stepped on and crushed the white knight under his heavy boot. A few chess pieces lay scattered on the floor. Black was winning. “Clear!” the officers called out as they checked the kitchen and the bathroom. They were now standing in front of the bedroom door. They looked at each other, and the sergeant nodded to his partner to go ahead and open the door.

“Man Eaten by Pet Python” The headlines were sensational and for a few days it was all everyone talked about. Lance didn’t get a burial. It was as if he had never died. In a way, his dream came true: he remained close with his Darling. They became inseparable. Forever.

Reviews

[Delmar Cooper]

What reaction does the author seek from his reader in "White Knight"? The revulsion of horror or a slight chuckle? The story does not point strongly in either direction leaving the reader with one foot in the boat and one foot on the dock. The story is in the last eight paragraphs. What is the purpose of the other three?
Is this intended to be a short story of a fragment of some "one day to be written" longer work? A reader cannot make up his mind until the writer does.

[Laz K.]

Once something is written and is released, it's out of the writer's hands. Readers make of it what they will.

But, since this site brings writers and their audience together, I might as well explain what the thought process was behind this story.

You're right about the first three paragraphs. I sensed that it might irritate some. They are memory fragments; disconnected but giving a broad idea as to who this Lance character is. I added the line, "For breakfast, he chewed on his past memories," to clarify that.

The theme is that you sometimes come across something/someone you think needs sheltering, protection, or even saving. You open your door for it/them, take care of it/them, feed it/them, but it/they might turn into a beast that consumes you (figuratively, mostly). It is how I see some relationships turn out, for example.

That was the intended message. :)

Thanks again for reading, asking valid questions, and sharing your reaction to the story.



Whether it's tragic or comic, anyone can decide for themselves.

[Delmar Cooper]

"You knew I was a snake before you took me in..."

Copyright Al Wilson.