“Yep. I sure do. We got a few players ready to go,” I told her as I looked around the semi-packed room.
“Looks like it. Let me get this show on the road, then.” Harper headed to the mic to start the night off as all the players on the board scattered to their assigned pool tables.
The bigger guy didn’t approach me directly; he just waited at his table with his pool cue in hand.
I prepared my pool stick with my pink chalk and worked my way through the first rounds of the game.
My first opponent was one of the regulars named Jimmy. He wasn’t bad, but I knew I would beat him easily. He got wobbly towards the end of the games.
My next opponent could play, but was no match for me either.
Left pocket. Right pocket. Trick shot. I watched the balls tumble into their pockets like clockwork. It was as if my pool cue was producing fire from the end of the stick. Once I got going, I felt like a rock star, especially when the crowd gathered around me. As the games progressed, my clarity deepened and the world faded away.
It was me, my pool cue and the green felt table.
“Hi, I’m Rocky. Nice to meet you. Shame I’m going to have to take your prize money on the first meeting.” The sketchy guy I had noticed earlier was my newest opponent. He chuckled as his deadly eyes landed on me.
Confident, that’s how they all were until I beat them. He had no idea what was to come. One more re-chalk and we got down to business. For a big guy he was nimble and flexible on the table, and he gave me a surprisingly good game.
I shook his hand at the end of the game with a little shock. “Not bad at all. Where did you learn to play?” I asked him as he folded his arms across his chest. The more I looked at him, the darker his energy seemed to be.
“Over the border in Mexico. I used to play a lot with my cousins down there,” he replied.
The cagey look in his eye kept me on guard, and the fact he told me he worked over the border started to set my internal wheels in motion. “Interesting, you gonna come down and play again, next week?” I probed. Let me see what you’re about. You’re up to something and I’m gonna find out what the fuck it is.
He grinned, exposing a missing tooth on his bottom row. From all appearances, he had a pleasant smile, but to anyone looking closely, it seemed he was sneering behind it. “Yeah, I will as long as you’re playing with that pink chalk you got there. Has that got special magic in it or what?” He took a swipe at me.
I laughed easily with him. “Nah, nothing like that, it’s a signature thing I got going on.”
“I like it. I might have to get me a signature thing going on. If it’s going to work for you, it might work for me,” he said roughly.
“You look like a man who has a bike, you ride?” I asked innocently. If he rides then I know a little more.
“I sure do. My bike goes where I go. I’m looking for a place to land, and I like the look of Holbeck. It’s growing on me.”
“As long as you like sweltering heat and don’t mind big fat mosquitos in the summertime,” I retorted with a smirk.
“My Mexican roots can handle it.” He seemed confident.
I nodded, shifting my eyes on him. Hard to tell if he had Mexican blood or whether he was tanned or not. One thing I knew for sure and that’s that I didn’t trust him not even a little fucking bit.
“Dad, where’s Mom? How come she doesn’t stay here with us?” Sarah was playing her karaoke game on the TV and wiggling around with the plastic microphone.
“Mom is in another state. She had to be there, so she could get better.” I might be wearing out my forehead while rubbing it back and forth because these questions with Sarah were teeth-grinders.
“She can come here and get better. Don’t you love her anymore?” For the last week she’d been hounding me about her mother, and one of her teachers mentioned how unsettled she was.
“She’s been acting out a little, she kicked one of the boys in the playground and we had to bring her inside to calm down. Is anything going on at home?” The teacher asked.
My pride as a father came out at that point, especially when she gave me the look of pity. “Which boy was it? Did he touch her first?”
“She initiated the physical act. She’s a beautiful child, I just noticed the last couple of weeks that she’s been a little off target is all. It’s difficult enough, I can imagine being a single parent.” Her teacher leaned in, annoyingly close.
“We’re managing fine, I have my sister helping me out as well. Her mother is getting better too, so it’s all going to work out. She’s had a few late nights, so maybe it’s because of that.”
The teacher gave me an even more pitying look. She knew the whole situation with Lucy.
Sarah’s little voice elevated to a high, screechy pierce and I covered my ears, breaking from the recent memory. “Sarah, calm down with the noise, the neighbors will be over here soon.”