Playing Pool
“How you say to a little one ball in the side?”
“I never played that game much.”
“Nothing to it. Just the one ball in the side pocket.”
“Anyhow, you look too good for me.”
“Me? I’m just a punk.”
“Oh well. If it’s just a friendly game.”
We started to play, and I let him take three or four, just to feel good. I kept shaking my head, like I couldn’t understand it.
“Too good for you, hey. Well, that’s a joke. But I swear, I’m really better than this. I can’t seem to get going. How you say we put $1 on it, just to make it lively?”
“Oh well. I can’t lose much at a dollar.”
We made it $1 a game, and I let him take four or five, maybe more. I shot like I was pretty nervous, and in between shots I would wipe off the palm of my hand with a handkerchief, like I must be sweating.
“Well, it looks like I’m not doing so good. How about making it $5, so I can get my money back, and then we’ll go have a drink?”
“Oh well. It’s just a friendly game, and I don’t want your money. Sure. We’ll make it $5, and then we’ll quit.”
I let him take four or five more, and from the way I was acting, you would have thought I had heart failure and a couple more things besides. I was plenty blue around the gills.
“Look. I got sense enough to know when I’m out of my class all right, but let’s make it $25, so I can break even, and then we’ll go have that drink.”
“That’s pretty high for me.”
“What the hell? You’re playing on my money, aren’t you?”
“Oh well. All right. Make it $25.”
Then was when I really started to shoot. I made shots that Hoppe couldn’t make. I banked them in from three cushions, I made billiard shots, I had my english working so the ball just floated around the table, I even called a jump shot and made it. He never made a shot that Blind Tom the Sightless Piano Player couldn’t have made. He miscued, he got himself all tangled up on position, he scratched, he put the one ball in the wrong pocket, he never even called a bank shot. And when I walked out of there, he had my $250 and a $3 watch that I had bought to keep track of when Cora might be driving in to the market. Oh, I was good all right. The only trouble was I wasn’t quite good enough.
-James M Cain (The Postman Always Rings Twice)
Tags: James M Cain, The Postman Always Rings Twice
ER@sUrf3R says:
Hmm….I need to check my knowledge of the rules of pool…or better, grab a copy of the book to know whats going on here…$250 from games betted $1, $5 and $25…that sure makes a lot of games….
January 8th, 2006 at 01:30 am