What is the point of it all

That was the thought that was Ander's mind as he mindlessly played online chess. He had just got off the phone with his younger brother, only about two years younger. Alex had just turned 25 years old and during the 30 minute phone call, Alex had asked that question. Like Ander, Alex was unmarried, and in a job that he did not like. Nobody dreamed about working at a grocery store. Their parents had already been married four years by the time that their dad, Malcolm, had turned 25, and they had already had four kids, one set of twins and one kid that was born six months after the wedding. Their parents, who were currently on a three year religious mission somewhere in Aisa were still happily married to each other, but, of the six kids they had, only one was married and had kids. Another kid, the second oldest, Aaron, was married for a bit, but there was a divorce only four years into the marriage. Aaron was a drunk now, though that probably started happening during the marriage, Ander was pretty sure that was the cause of the divorce.

Ander was the one that called Alex to wish him a happy birthday, but he did not expect the call to go the where that it did. Alex was in tears, apparently Aaron had called him about an hour before and, while Aaron was drunk, told Alex about how life was down hill from there. Alex had also realized that he was not excepted into a new job that he was hoping to get into.

Ander, who was a school teacher, had been asked the meaning of life a couple of times by his students, their seemed to think that he might have the answer that they needed. He always told them the same thing. "I don't know, people have been trying to answer that for all time, and so far we have not been able to find answer."

Checkmate.

"Shot," Ander muttered, he had not been paying attention and lost again. At least he was playing under a guest account. It would not deduct the ten points he lost from his total. He x'd out of the tab, which was loading up a commercial, and loaded up a new game. This time he was playing white, so he went first.

It could be worse, he thought to himself, I could be a pawn in a king's army just going to lose my life so that the king could kill the other king. Life was better now, for some people at least. Life in the last hundred years had gotten way better and easier than ever before. But it still did not have purpose. He had mentioned this to Alex. He then asked what Alex wanted to do with his life. Alex wanted to learn how to play an instrument. "So play, find a teacher in your city for an instrument that you want to learn and learn. You can probably learn a bit from youtube videos." The call quickly ended after that. Alex was going to learn how to play the violin. The most common instrument in the orchestra.

Checkmate.

"Shoot, I should probably take some chess lessons if I don't want to keep losing."