Tarom: A Human Chess End

A Story by Abishai100

Narrated travelers' odyssey of Transylvanian commercial color (and education!) involving youth-chess, a Martian exposition, and life's 'human' experiment(s)!

A colorful human journey-vignette featuring a travelers-reference/log of the modern colorful Eastern European company Tarom (Romanian Airlines) and loosely inspired by the 'everyman' thematics of the funny movie Transylvania 6-5000 (Jeff Goldblum), which I think you'll like,

DISCLAIMER: This work of culture-translation is no formal claim to any specific view/custom of the country of Romania or city of Transylvania and is therefore cast as only a fictional Halloween-themed/seasonal work of personal expression(s).

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So allow me to recount to you my special adventure/encounter in the very unusual land of Romania, when I took a multi-season trip to Transylvania, home of great vampire-lore and the source of multiple authentic colorful 'Halloween'-friendly spook-mysticism storytelling. I took a Tarom flight from JFK to Bucharest (Romania), and the first stage of my adventure involved learning about the 'things' that made Tarom (Romanian Airlines) a 'fantastic' modern Earth symbol of commerce/tourism/travel globalism in the post-9/11 era (yes). Follow along!

On-board, Tarom (Romanian Airlines), I learned of the features of Eastern European hospitality and the greatness of the commercial airline industry for travel/tourism and what made a travelers' log for flight(s) to Transylvania, a 'site' of great human satisfaction. The flight-attendants were beautiful and the food was offbeat and colorful. I enjoyed a Halloween feature on the plane too.

My name's Amlan Satan, and I'd been planning this multi-season trip/vacation to Transylvania (Romania) via Tarom for some time now, and when I decided I'd translate my fascination with vampire-lore/literature to a formal/'official' journey to Eastern Europe, I wondered what I'd bring back to the United States for my friends/associations on social-media (e.g., Facebook-chess)!

The Bucharest (Romania) airport is quite nice, and it's quite simple and easy to navigate and introduced me to what made this colorful and even 'mysterious' country quite charmed/charming, and I started to think, "This place must be filled with people(s) of great imaginations!"

This post-9/11 age of great Earth-activity daydreams and optimism reflects investment(s) in the sciences/medicine/culture and education and the arts. Young people are engaged in media/social-media and learn about how to apply their imaginations about global-warming ideations and social-network driven geopolitical curiosities. It's what (partly) inspired my curiosity-trip to Transylvania.

I mentioned I like chess (I think). Well, I took my handy-dandy magnet-pocket chess-set with me to Transylvania, hoping I might meet someone on my Tarom flight or in Romania itself or inside the Bucharest airport who liked chess as much as I do and have, or just simply play against myself, pretending I'd be the 'hero' white-side and my opponent (my 'alter-ego') was the 'dark-side' of the game theory (ha).

Once in Transylvania, I began to take in all the colors/rituals of the peoples and their authentic activities, including food hospitality and the amazing costumed/ornamental folk-dancing. It was the first time I visited a place so 'alien' to my homeland or where I was born even (Algeria) or where I'd been during the course of my life, working with Interpol-relations/associations (e.g., Belfast, Vancouver, Paris, Cairo).

The food (Romanian!) on my Tarom-flight was quite unique/special as was the types I sampled once I was in Transylvania (Romania!), and I learned of the zest/uniqueness that colored this land of magic and mystery, and I started to wonder if this journey/adventure was really about myself becoming/feeling like a 'true' pirate-sailor of modern (post-9/11 age) Earth (wow).

"We Transylvanian nobles love not to think that our bones may be amongst the common dead" (Bram Stoker).

I had to enjoy some of the finer films featured that beginning portion of my Romanian trip-adventure in Transylvania for that special/iconic Halloween-season, and I enjoyed a special screening of the modern 'classic' The Wolfman (Benicio Del Toro).

Well, this is where my story takes a 'twist' for the awry/amazing, and it's because my Romanian adventure in Transylvania when the snowy winter-time came involved a 'contact' with a spying Martian, a 'dragon' alien named Endymion, who'd been spying on human-society from the Earth-moon for some time and who was fascinated by Transylvania lore and Bram Stoker's writing about Dracula and Halloween-time ornaments/comics aesthetics/design(s) and probed into my personal 'account' of this Romanian 'odyssey' as he'd marked me as a 'prince' of human race etymology (hmm). I told some nearby policemen of my strange cell-phone 'signal-call' by the Martian (Endymion) during a snow-storm that winter in Romania, but no one believed me; they still don't, which is why this 'tale' is presented in a format for an 'e'-journal.

ENDYMION (Martian): I'd like to challenge you to a stalemate-chess dare for your human race ideations of sovereignty/IQ.

ME: Wow...why me (if I'm to believe you really are a 'spying' Martian-alien on the Earth-moon who's 'hacked' my cell-phone)?

ENDYMION (Martian): Well, Mr. Satan, prince of Earth, I noted your social-media blogs about chess/capitalism/culture!

ME: That's cool...I suppose I've 'accepted' all sorts of chess-challenge requests on social-media (e.g., Facebook-chess), friend.

ENDYMION (Martian): Good; perhaps this 'stalemate'-dare will prompt your imaginations about the 'quality' of species-IQ!

ME: Perhaps; I mean, you seem to be 'linked' to my human-Wanderlust metaphysics-IQ fascination with Transylvania.

ENDYMION (Martian): Excellence; you seem to be one who 'absorbs' the nature of the Earth-world; you can be the champion!

ME: I suppose I'd be 'willing' to accept this 'dare' to draw a stalemate-chess against you; I can meditate about human-cinema.

ENDYMION: Damn; you've drawn a 'swift' rook-bishop double-line 'array' against my queen-knight offensive(s) here; damn!

ME: Excellence; seems we've 'wrought' that stalemate-chess condition in piece-position IQ you warranted for sovereignty.

ENDYMION: Damn; I shall self-exile myself to the Earth deep-ocean abyss as an isolationist-scholar, with non-Invasion accord.

ME: Good; perhaps I'll enjoy some cool sci-fi media in Transylvania (now).

I met a beautiful Romanian woman in Transylvania named Bianca after I returned to Romania after the conclusion of my 'alien' journey/engagement/adventure and returned to my personal work(s) before using my retirement-funds to return to open/manage a small bookshop. Bianca and I had a son (Damian), and when he turned 10, I bought him an 'excellent' soccer-themed/crafted chess-set, to teach him about the ins-and-out of stalemate-peace diagrams 'inherently' symbolic in chessplay/competition-IQ, and I kept my 'dark-secret' about Endymion (the Martian!) who agreed to a self-exile non-invasion sovereignty compact for our human race after I 'achieved' that excellence in stalemate-condition(s) chess-play he dared us to draw, for dominion-eclipse(s).

When Halloween rolled around for my modern family in Transylvania, I costumed myself as the beloved/eerie 'Scarecrow' to make a cool/special cyber-blog about monsters/goblins engaging with Martians/aliens for Halloween-season(s) in colorful and lore-rich Romania, and I shared candy with Damian and talked on social-media (e.g., Facebook-chess) about modern human race 'ideations' of what made Romanian experience(s) so humanly thoughtful.