Eight Ball in the Corner Pocket

Yesterday we had planned on playing basketball and volleyball with another church group here in town.  It was being set up and organized by the other group and we were just going along with them.  We met at their church across town and waited for everyone to show up.  When everyone got there we all climbed into three suvs and made the short trip over to the school gym that we were planning on using.  I was just along for the ride and certainly wasn’t involved with the planning so when we got there I just stood around with Togsoo and Bolormaa.  I spoke in Mongolian while they two spoke in English.  We covered an interesting range of topics, everything from current news in Mongolia, to English idioms, to jokes.  We were waiting to be able to get into the gym and start playing.  After waiting around for a while I began to get the feeling that we might not get in after all.  About twenty minutes after we got there we were leaving again.  I didn’t know where we were going but I think the general plan was to go somewhere where we could play ping-pong.  After we climbed back into the cars Mr. Patterson said that we were going to a pool hall.  At first I didn’t think he was serious.  A few minutes later we parked, entered a building, descended a flight of stairs, and found ourselves in a pool hall.  I thought it was funny that there were six numbers on the walls but only five tables.  In an adjoining room there were two ping-pong tables.  I thought we were just going to play ping-pong but they also bought some time on the pool tables.  I ended up playing the first game with another guy from the other church.  I haven’t played pool in a while and I was sure to get smoked by this other guy.  Things turned out differently than that.  We played regular eight-ball just like I know how.  We each had some really nice shots and a few mistakes and it came down to where we both had sunk all of our balls and were both shooting the eight-ball.  Finally I had a really great shot lined up but I couldn’t line myself up with it just right.  I flipped the cue around behind my back to get the right angle on the ball without my body getting in the way.  I made the shot.  There is nothing more satisfying than the sound of a pool ball being sunk into one of the pockets.  I ended the game with a pretty sweet shot.

John