Finally, I went downstairs to practice a few racks of pool. I found that thinking of other things, like lining up the miraculous shot Camille made that morning, might keep me sane. After three attempts, I realized that you needed to hit the ball quite hard just to make it to the fourth bank.
“A little right English,” Camille said when she saw my attempt.
“Huh?” I asked.
“Right English—hit the cue just a bit to the right and maybe a little bit higher than its center of mass. Hit it strong and the spin on the ball will make sure the banks will hit correctly.”
I tried to hit the cue the way that Camille described. I made it closer but still missed, only hitting the ball out of the corner.
“That’s better. Now aim just to the right of this diamond.” Camille indicated a diamond on the bank. She put her finger at the point where I was supposed to aim.
I tried it again, and let it rip.
The ball hit all four banks and the nine ball slowly sank into the pocket.
“That’s it. Piece of cake. It’s a sucker shot.”
“Sucker shot?” I asked.
“You practice this until you get it perfect. Make sure your percentage is about nine out of ten. When I was playing with Kris, it was very difficult to get the eight ball sunk with the nine and cue at the perfect setup. Kristen never realized that I was working to get into the right position and probably thought I was just showing off.”
“You practiced that shot?” I asked, laughing at Camille’s deviousness.
“As I said, I really loved seeing Kristen get angry. I wasn’t trying to make her gamble.”
“Stop apologizing,” I said softly.
“Kristen’s not coming down here,” Camille said.
“I know,” I admitted. “Kristen realizes now why I was upset. I didn’t even have to tell her.”
“Why were you so upset?” Camille asked.
“My dad was an alcoholic,” I said.
“Oh,” Camille answered.
There was a minute of uncomfortable silence.
“Want to play a game?”
“No,” I said. “You can teach me more sucker shots, though.”
“How about simple bank shots? They will come in more handy for when you actually play.”
Camille showed me some of the standard bank shots. She taught me about putting spin (“English”) on a ball, and how it affects bank shots, and how it’s useful to get around an inconveniently placed ball.
As I was taking a shot, I asked Camille, “Why couldn’t you give Kristen a ticket yesterday?”
Camille looked at me seriously. “I knew you’d ask that. I’m not exactly sure what would happen but I don’t want to do anything that could possibly affect the fact that the tickets don’t work on me right now. If I use them—even once—then I might end up stuck with them again.”
“Why couldn’t you tell us yesterday?” I asked.
“I cannot talk about the tickets except to you. Having Kristen helping us with ideas may become difficult for me. Forgive me if it looks like I can’t tell you something when she’s around.”
I nodded. “I once tried giving the roll to Kristen and asked her to hand me one. She told me that my wish couldn’t be granted. How did your sister get rid of her tickets? If she got rid of them, then maybe we can trick Tim into losing his.”
Camille shrugged.
“How did you get rid of them?”
“I cannot answer that question.”
I nodded, and took a few more shots before I realized that I had asked the wrong question, but Camille also gave me the wrong answer!
Up until this moment, Camille told me that she just avoided the tickets. Now she implied that she got rid of them, which might mean that she actually may have had possession of them at one time.
I’m not sure if Camille realized her mistake, but she changed the subject. “Tim’s going to find out something is strange about Sherry and Kristen. In fact, Kris told me that he already knows they don’t work on her.”
“Kris just had a hissy fit when he tried to give it to her,” I pointed out. “Maybe he just thinks that she’s a bit stuck up.” I thought to myself, and slowly added. “I know that I used to think that about her.”
“He’s going to notice that Kristen and you are inseparable. You might be a possible target, and maybe possibly Patty.”
I put Patty on my list of people to protect from Tim.
“I’d hate to receive a ticket from him,” I sighed. “It might work and he might find out about my tickets. I’m also afraid of trying to give him a ticket first—if it doesn’t work, it would give away one of our secrets!”
“I’d say that things are about to come to a head real soon. It looks as if the two of you are heading full steam ahead into each other.”
I sunk my third bank in a row as I nodded to Camille.
We didn’t talk much more about Tim or the magical tickets. Instead, Camille gave me a couple of pointers on how to hold the cue to get better control.
After a half hour, the two of us went upstairs.
The apartment looked empty, but the door to the master bedroom was closed.
The two of us went into separate bedrooms.
The next morning, after breakfast, Kristen went back to the bedroom for her morning shower.
I went to join her, but Camille put her hand on my shoulder. “Jim?”
“Yes, Cammy?”
“It’s… difficult staying here with you two.”
“Huh?”
“The more that I’m with the two of you, the more… I’ve told you that I’m drawn to you, Jim.”
I was confused. “Drawn to me, how?”
“Sexually.”
Oh, shit. I remembered Camille telling me that. I thought we got past that, though.
Camille saw my expression and said, “I’m not sure why I feel that way with you. It might be your tickets, but I know that I don’t feel that way toward Tim Hawking.”
“I’m sorry, Cammy…”
“There’s another problem, Jim.”
“What?” I asked.
“It’s something that I avoided telling you at Lake Shore Point. Staying here has made it worse for me.”
I was confused, but I was starting to get apprehensive. “What are you telling me?”
“I’m also in love with Kristen.”
I thought that I couldn’t be surprised any more. “In love?”
“I think my sister did it to me,” Camille said, her eyes downcast. “I know that I went to Kristen, and she turned me down. I felt so ashamed. I was in love with her, and she just laughed at me. I never really tried to get with her again, and found myself thinking of her constantly, and eventually started to hate her guts. Kristen had this power over me, even if she didn’t know it. I was happy that she was on your list for getting even with the tickets…”
“Huh?” I was stunned by this admission.
“I mean, I figured that you’d teach her a lesson in humility. I really thought of Kristen as a bitch at the time, mostly due to the way I felt about her. I remembered that you didn’t do much with Patty and Wendy, so I figured that we’d have a big laugh at Kristen’s expense. It wasn’t until the next day that I realized that you could become the same monster that Debbie became… and I was helping you!”
I sighed once more.
Camille saw my reaction, and softly said, “But you made it better…”
“I know,” I said sadly. “We talked about that.”
Camille shook her head. “I always felt guilty about that. I love Kristen. Only three people know this. Debbie, who probably is the one that made me love her; Lynette, after she told me that she had a crush on Kristen as well; and you.”