I woke up this morning from a dream. This doesn’t happen very often, but when it does I like to write them down. I was dreaming that I was talking to some other girl, I’m not sure who it was though. We kept mentioning two guys names, but I don’t remember the names now that I’m awake. I was racking miniature pool balls. They were half the size of regular pool balls and they had very faded paint, I could only see a hint of stripes on the striped balls sort of as if all the paint had been stripped off them and it was just a shadow that was left. That was the whole dream. We were expecting someone to walk in the door also, I remember that. And the dream left me wishing I had clay and an oven so I could make a miniature pool table with tiny balls, tiny cues, and a tiny rack to go with it.
In other news, Sean and I are “celebrating” our 4th anniversary tomorrow. I have to work the whole day and Sean is a bit put out by that. I don’t really blame him. It does suck that I’ll be working the whole day, but we need the money. They asked me to stay late at work tomorrow so I could put labels up on my route. I agreed to it not thinking of the date, so I think I will call Ginger today and let her know what’s going on. Maybe we can work something out.
Now, let us have an attempt at some more fiction, what do you say?
The small green and white ball rolled back and forth across the floor between Emily’s hands. She was spinning the ball sideways as she pushed it towards her other hand and watching the white stripe through the middle twist and turn. She picked it up and examined the little black 14 on the side of the ball and tried to remember how many birthdays she had left before she would be the stripey green ball. Her mom gave her a billiard ball every year for her birthday and today she would get her solid orange ball with the white circle and a black 5 in the middle. Emily remembered that when she turned 9 she would get her very first stripe. She couldn’t wait! Right now Mom and Daddy were in bed though and she was playing with the balls from their pool table. She didn’t think they would be mad. The clock only had a 6 on it and she knew not to wake them up until after that first number became a 7. And besides, they weren’t using the stripey green ball right now.
Emily heard a noise in the hall to the living room and she looked up to see who was coming. Her brother Roland had just woken up and was headed for the bathroom. She was so jealous of him. This year he had gotten the all black 8 ball for his birthday. Next year he would get his first stripe and Daddy said he would have enough of his own balls to play 9 ball with them. As it was she knew she would have to move soon. Rollie liked to play on Mom and Daddy’s table sometimes if he woke up before them and she would be in the way here. They didn’t mind the kids playing on the table, as long as they remembered it was for grown ups and didn’t hurt it or break it. After they woke up though sometimes there was no time to play on the table because the family was going somewhere. Or sometimes there was all the time in the world to play pool but all their friends would come over and then the kids were chased off to play with their own toys. Emily thought what really bothered Rollie was the advice. If he played by himself he could just have fun and play games on the table. He didn’t always take his time and line the shot up when he was alone, or even when she tried to play him in the early hours. (He usually won those games, even if he wasn’t lining the shots up.) They never kept track of innings or discussed whether the cue ball went behind the kitchen when they scratched. They never argued a good hit when they were playing each other. Sometimes Daddy or Mom would walk into the room and say something like, “Roland, shouldn’t you use a bridge for that shot?” Or “Rollie, why did you take the 2 ball in the side? It might have been better to take the 7 all the way down instead.” At 8 years old Roland wasn’t bad at pool. They had both lived their whole lives with a pool table in the living room and they knew it was a game, but they also saw grown ups playing on tv for tournaments. They knew Mom and Dad didn’t have any plans to play on tv, but they also knew Mom and Dad had been playing since before they came along. Even though it was a game sometimes things got awfully serious.
Emily remembered one time when Daddy’s friend Russ came over and some other guy she hadn’t known had hit him in the face just because he said something wrong while they were playing. She knew she had never seen anyone hit someone else while they were playing Monopoly or Sorry. Sometimes when she was in trouble or she had done something wrong she would promise herself that someday she would play tournaments on tv and be the best pool player in the world and Mom and Dad would come and cheer for her. Then she would make things all better. Of course, things always got all better before she had the chance to grow up and develop her pool skills.
Roland came walking down the hall. He was in his guitar pajama pants that Grandma had made him. She was wearing her fishy night gown this morning. As he walked into the living room Emily held the 14 ball at him. He ruffled her hair and said, “keep it, Squirt, I’m going to play 9 ball. You want to play too?” She frowned up at him from the floor, her blond hair a mess from sleep. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to play or not. Sometimes it was frustrating for her because she was so short. Roland held out his hand to help her to her feet. “I’ll bring the step stool from the kitchen, Ems. Then you can reach better.” She took his hand and let him help her up.
“Okay, Rollie, I’ll play with you but you have to be nice to me.”
“Deal, Sis.”
Emily walked over to the stick rack with him and picked up her short, pink cue. He picked up Daddy’s green cue and she looked up at him with a look of horror on her face. “You can’t use Daddy’s cue, Rollie. He’s gonna get mad if he sees that.”
“I know, I wasn’t going to use it. I just wanted to feel the weight of it. Someday I’ll have an even better cue of my own. Someday I’ll be even better than Grandpa Keith at pool and then I’ll tell Daddy he better not use my cue cause he might break it.” Roland gave a chuckle at the idea of this and Emily laughed a little too. “My cue is going to be solid gold with a pure silver tip on it.”
“I don’t think you can chalk silver though, Rollie. How will you keep chalk on the tip? It has to be wood.”
“My silver tip will be magic, it won’t need any chalk on it. And my cue will shoot straight every time and sink every ball and I’ll make shots on purpose off 6 banks!”
“Big talk for a little kid,” Emily told him, smiling. Grandpa Keith said that to them all the time when they were playing pool. He was fun to play with usually, but Emily knew even Grandpa Keith took the game seriously. He had fun playing with the kids on the pool table, but she had seen him slam a few cues around when playing grown ups sometimes.
Roland made a face at her and went to the kitchen to get the step stool. They started their game of 9 ball. Roland was lining his shots up this morning really well. He let her break on the first game, standing on her step stool and she hoped it would be the worst break she’d ever have as a 5 year old, because it was terrible. Roland ended up breaking up the balls with his next shot, he called it a “push” but Emily didn’t quite understand what that was, only that you could do it once a game in 9 ball and you didn’t have to hit the 1. Emily only got one ball in the whole game. She sank the 5. And with Roland taking his time and lining up shots it only took him 6 turns to win. In all fairness for him, one of the shots he missed was only because he couldn’t reach enough even with a bridge to make the right shot, so he had to try for a harder pocket just so he could be closer to the ball.
After he pulled the balls out for her Roland put her step stool at the end of the table so she could rack for him. This was the very first thing she learned to do well on a pool table. Her racks were so tight that if Daddy was playing someone and got a loose rack he would joke with them. He would say, “if you give Emy 2 dollars she’ll rack for you.” She grinned as she racked the balls in their little diamond shape. Someday Daddy would tell people, “If you give Emy 5 dollars she’ll break for you too.”
Roland broke the balls and they went everywhere. He sank the 5 ball and Emily was a little sad about that because she wanted to sink that one. He sank the 1 ball and missed his next shot on the 2. Emily moved her step stool and looked at the table and Roland said, “Let me show you the shot, Squirt.” He came over to her and pointed at the 9 ball sitting in front of the 2. “If you hit this 9 ball right here it will go in the corner pocket, but you have to hit the 2 first cause that’s how you play the game. So, hit the 2 ball right here.” He moved her step stool over in front of the shot on the 2 ball and lined her up in the right direction. “Okay, don’t hit it really hard or really soft, sis, you can make this.” Emily squinted her eyes at the ball and leaned down like Mom and Dad had shown her. She squared her chin over her cue and pulled her arm back. She made a practice stroke to make sure the tip of the cue was centered on the cue ball. Then she smoothly pulled her arm back and stroked forward into the cue. The cue hit the 2 and the 2 hit the 9 and the 9 slow rolled toward the pocket. It looked like it might catch a little of the nipple. Then it did hit, but it hit inside the nipple and although it was rolling awfully slow it tipped a little and….stopped. Emily felt a little frustration creeping up in her. She had really wanted the 9 ball to go. Just when she was about to step off her stool and proclaim that she wasn’t playing anymore pool today the 9 ball fell into the pocket.
Roland came over and wrapped his arms around her. He picked her up off the step stool and spun her in a circle. “Emily cheeses the 9 ball off the 2 for the win!!! Happy birthday, Squirt. Mom said if you beat me this morning I could give you something.” He put her down and ran into his room. When he came out he was holding a wrapped ball. It seemed more often than not that one of these packages was present at every family birthday party.
Emily took the package from him. He had tied a pink ribbon around it and wrapped it in white paper with unicorns, they were her favorite. Emily was excited, it was her 5 ball! She couldn’t wait to get the paper off and feel the smoothness and coolness of it under her fingers. She pulled one end of the ribbon and it fell away. Slowly she pulled up a corner of the wrapping and looked underneath. It wasn’t orange though. It was white instead. She sat down on the ground because this wasn’t what she expected. She tried not to be in a hurry to see what it was. She tried to be careful with the pretty unicorn paper. She was anxious to see, but she didn’t want to see too fast either so she closed her eyes as she let the wrapping fall to the floor. She put both hands on the ball and felt the smoothness and the coolness that billiard balls always seemed to have. She opened one eye a little bit and saw white and pink. She closed her eyes again tight. “Well, aren’t you going to look at it, Ems? It’s really special. I went with Mom and Dad to pick it out while you were over at Grandpa Keith and Aunt Penny’s house last month. Go on, see what you’ve got.”
Emily opened both eyes and in her hand was a smooth white cue ball with a unicorn on it. She rolled it in her hands and saw writing on the back. In pink letters the cue ball said “EMILY.” Emily sprung to her feet and hugged her brother. She pulled the cue ball in to her chest. Held it right against her heart, which was singing with joy. She turned around and looked at the clock, there was still a 6 on the first number, but she didn’t care. She ran down the hall, her little girl legs sprinting underneath her fishy nightgown. She threw the door to her parents bedroom open and jumped into the bed between them yelling “thank you!!!” Her mom and dad both turned toward her in the middle and opened their eyes sleepily. Her Daddy took her in his arms and held her up in the air, then kissed her on the cheek while she squealed. Mom took the cue ball and examined it with a grin on her face and Daddy said, “you’re welcome, baby girl. Happy birthday!”
Okay, so I didn’t quite make 3 pages and the story is kind of sappy. I had no idea what I was going to write about when I started, I just had an image of a little girl sitting on the floor playing with a 14 ball. To tell the truth though, I like the story. Maybe someday this will be my kids….who knows.
Friday, July 10, 2009
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I like the story, too. :) Glad to see you on here.
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