Part 2 - The Dream

I had a very vivid dream that night.  I don’t know exactly where I was, but it was kind of white everywhere, and cloudy.  Not smoky, but cloudy.

I see Willie Mosconi playing pool.  He looks up at me “Hey there Sparky!”

I’m not sure I even responded but he started right in “relax, you’re not dead, you’re in Limbo.  Well, I mean I’m in Limbo, that is.  I get to have a visitor every once in a while.  Why Limbo?  Well, it’s a long story but I made a deal that I agreed to stay in Limbo until someone beat my high run.  Good deal, right?  Better than the other option.  Yeah, that’s what I thought.  Figured six months, a year tops, but you know how the story goes.  Still here waiting.  I've pretty much given up on you guys beating my high run. Now with this Chinese 8-ball, I’ll be here forever!”

“How do you know about Chinese 8-ball?”

“What?  I keep up with all the blogs, forums and all.  What, you look surprised?  We have all that here.  Anyway, I asked to see you for a reason.”

“Me?”

“No, not you, I just asked to see any pool player.  You know, I guess I could’ve been more specific… anyway, I’ve had plenty of time up here and been reading about you guys whining for years about how the game is in trouble, how we need to make the game more interesting, and I think I have a solution. You see it’s a game that combines the most interesting parts of eight-ball and rotation...”

I thought oh God, come on, not another new game idea, and I started looking for ways to get out of there but it was just kind of all cloudy everywhere.

I think he saw my expression and added “Hey listen!  I know what you’re thinking, this isn’t Bonus Ball,” and then he starts laughing uncontrollably “I mean COME ON!  Bonus Ball?!  Where are you going to even get a set of Bonus Balls anyway?  I asked, they don’t have them up here.”

I kind of just waited for him to stop laughing.

“Listen, it doesn’t even feel like a new game when you’re playing it, it feels like you’re just playing eight-ball for the first part of the game, then rotation later,” he added.

“What I’m doing is taking the most interesting part of eight-ball and the most interesting part of rotation.  Notice I said most interesting because that is what the game needs now.  You guys are always talking about that, about getting an audience.  I know what you guys have been saying about straight pool, that it’s too boring.  Hell, I know!  I was bored myself!  The truth is, the reason I missed that 527th ball was, well, I fell asleep.  Really.  Just before I pulled the trigger...” and he kind of drifted off.

“Anyway,” he snapped back, “ It works like this...”

As he started to tell me it really did kind of make sense.  I paid close attention and tried to remember everything.

After he was done he told me “I came up with game, only thing left for you Sparky is to come up with a name!”

I woke up and looked out the window.  Didn’t look like they even bothered to try to plow the roads.  But I knew as soon as I could what I had to do.