Three in the Side Pocket

✍ Scribed by Block, Lawrence

• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 30 KB
• Category: Fiction

✦ Synopsis

From the title, Three in the Side Pocket, you might expect a story about a game of pool. Similarly, the storys lead character expects to find a pool table when he walks into a bar called The Side Pocket. But I hope you won't be disappointed to discover that its people who carom off the rails and drop out of sight in this nasty little story. I wrote it in 1999 for one of Jeff Gelbs Hot Blood anthologies, and included it in Enough Rope, my omnibus collection of short fiction.

In 1961 I lived on Central Park West and 104th Street, and one afternoon I stopped for a beer at a neighborhood joint two or three blocks south of my apartment. A very large guybroad shoulders, athletic buildwalked in and took a stool at the bar. Beautiful day, he announced, in a voice that brooked no argument. Yeah, its a nice day, the bartender agreed. Oh? the big guy said. Whats so nice about it?

I dont know what happened next, because I left the rest of my beer on the bar and went home. That sonofabitch was looking for a fight, and I didnt want to be around when he found it.

He came to mind almost forty years later when I wrote Three in the Side Pocket. I pictured him vividly as he walked into that bar, sized up the players, made his moves.

Funny how it works. . .

Tags Qty : 0
All Identifiers : amazon_uk:B005D1L6SQ, goodreads:12298983, isbn:2940012778147, mobi-asin:B005D1L6SQ
ISBN : 2940012778147
Words : 4,861
Formats : EPUB
Number of Formats : 1
WordsC : 19 (4,861)
Has Cover : Yes
Filename : EPUB:G:\cal_libs\Calibre-Combined\Lawrence Block\Three in the Side Pocket (121964)\Three in the Side Pocket - Lawrence Block.epub
Goodreads : 12298983
Author Len : 2
Original Source : own library
Pages : 19
Sorted Author by LN, FN: Block, Lawrence
Comments Len : 1321
Title Length : 024
Single Author : Lawrence Block
Before Underscore : Three in the Side Pocket
Num of Aut : 1
Record ID : 121964