Short Story #22: Pool Hall

Brainstormer prompt: Self-Preservation / Downtown / Pool Hall (Word count: 259)

* * * * * Swift Teddy’s Billiard Emporium was a holdover from a more elegant age. Theodore Felton III took as much pride in polishing the brass fixtures and Art Deco lighting as his father and grandfather had. Although his father insisted on red for the table felt, Teddy Three was gradually replacing it with less-aggressive green. Fewer fights at the green tables.

Tucked between a watch repair shop and a locksmith, Teddy’s was the only place on the block open past 6:00 P.M. Business downtown had been terrible for years, and Teddy Three had given serious thought to selling the place.

“I would,” Margot, his cashier, said. “You keep going and you’ll saddle Teddy Four with it.”

“And he’ll keep it out of loyalty or tradition,” Teddy said, “wind up with a Teddy Five, and so on.”

“Circle of life.”

Teddy thought some more. “But what would I do? Open some hipster place in the ’burbs?”

“More out there than billiards, Teddy.”

“Can you see me selling yogurt? Or shoes?”

Margot laughed. “Not simultaneously. Invest the money.”

“And leave Teddy Four, what—a balance-sheet, a ledger?”

“Fathers have done worse.”

“I dunno: I stop being me, who am I?”

Margot hated when he waxed philosophical. “You’re rich, living happily ever after.”

A foursome at a red table started arguing about whether the cue ball kissed the one before it dropped the twelve.

Teddy shook his head and went to calm things down. “I dunno. I’m gonna keep thinking.

–30–