White: Queen’s Rook’s Pawn a4>a5

Ingrid opened wide the door of the Twisted Zebra, having worked up the courage to enter after taking the long way walking around the block. It wasn’t that she distrusted Charles, she told herself, it’s just that she had never been anywhere like this and had never done anything like this.

The more Ingrid thought of it, the more justification she could find in going there. These aren’t predators, after all, that’s just a harmful stereotype created by racists to demonize black men. They’re just young guys with a healthy interest in women like her. She’s going to be around Santolinans who are even more removed from the culture that Ingrid is used to than these British black people, so it would help to cross as much of the cultural divide now as she can. Ingrid couldn’t bear to have her friends think that she’s a racist because of some blunders that she might commit if she’s totally out of her element on Santolina, so practice was essential. This was a good practice ground for her, and she might even have fun.

As Ingrid entered the club, the bouncer took notice and sent a text message to Charles which read: “Hey boss, that blond u described just showed up @ TZ. U didnt say she wuz that hot. Sry man but I gotta take a shot. if u snooze u lose.”

The main bar at the Twisted Zebra was fully crowded by a mix of white women and black men, in an approximately even ratio and the other rooms of the club had drawn a decent crowd of people, mostly as couples either dancing together or engaging in other intimacy; the line between those activities seemed very blurry to Ingrid. The music pulsed to an unfamiliar rhythm. Ingrid was not a rap or a hip-hop listener and the language barrier made it tough to discern what exactly was being said, but the sensuality and eroticism of the people who were dancing to it made it clear to her that there must be something enticing being vocalized. Couples of black men and white women grinded on each other very suggestively and the few white women who weren’t partnered up looked like they were doing everything in their power to attract a man. The dim lights made it hard to study the shapes of everyone’s faces, so Ingrid could not tell that Charles was not among the people at the Twisted Zebra. She wandered around the club with a mix of excitement and shock as she thought about how the level of interracial coupling she was witnessing exceeded what she thought was going on in the whole country. Her mind raced as she thought about what will happen when she finds Charles, if he’ll have been waiting for her or if he’ll be with another woman. And if Charles were with another woman, would he welcome her or would he pretend they had never met.

(Link to board: https://lichess.org/editor/rnb1kbnr/pp1p2pp/2p1p3/P2q1p2/3P1B2/4PN2/1P3PPP/RN1QKB1R_bKQkq-_0_1?color=white))