Michael went over the rules for the game of eight-ball. Then he selected two cue sticks from a rack and handed one to Aaron. "That should be a good weight for you," he said. "Go ahead and break."
Aaron's body hurt him as he stretched out over his opening shot (the cardboard boxes hadn't completely broken his fall), but still he managed to drop the 10 ball on the break.
"Nice shooting," Michael said. "You're a natural." But he could see that Aaron was in his own world.
Michael recalled a story. "I have to tell you about this old lady I saw, yesterday," he began. "She was pushing a wheelbarrow down the street with a cat riding in it."
Aaron pocketed the 9 ball.
"And this was the biggest damn cat I've ever seen! I mean this dude was big! It was raining hard, and the old lady was trying to hold an umbrella over both herself and the cat; but it wasn't working, and the cat was soaked to the skin."
Aaron followed with the 15 ball.
"But he didn't care one bit. He just rode along, minding his own business, as though it were his daily routine. It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen."
Aaron banked the 12 into the corner pocket, and then leaned on his cue stick and looked at Michael.
"I almost got blown away tonight, you know," he said out of the blue.
Michael was still laughing about the cat. "Uh… what?" he said.
"Down at the old cannery near the wharf. Some filthy bank robber bastard tried to kill me."
"You've got to be kidding," Michael said, taking a seat on a nearby stool.
"I told you about my fight with my stepdad," Aaron said. "Well, that was true — but he didn't give me this." He pointed to his split cheek, then proceeded to tell Michael the rest of the story.