Playing pool with the master

I am just going by my instincts in going over to the Silvercrest to play pool. I skipped Thursday after finding a couple of guys here in the Westward Ho to play with, but I decided to go back over Friday. I saw Joann in the lobby and asked if she minded my playing with John. She said heck no, go ahead. Jimmy came at the same time I got there and he and I and John played for a while. Then here came Nate from the Westward Ho so that made four of us. Those guys play fast and down to business which was a lot of fun for me. I didn't play too badly for being so rusty, but I swear I could not play pool with Doc anymore and it was impossible to go find other pool players while I was with him. I did not play for over a year.
Doc did not hang out in pool bars like I did, so he does not appreciate great pool playing. He wouldn't take it serious. He wouldn't even believe me when I told him about the great pool player LeRoy over to the Silvercrest. He wanted me to take him over to the Silvercrest and he would beat him!
LeRoy came in about 11am and was in a better mood than he was on Tuesday. Since he promotes pool over there, he did not interrupt our foursome and played by himself on the other table. We played a few more games and then Jimmy put up his stick and LeRoy joined us. We played a couple of games, the four of us and then Nate and John left for lunch.
I remember how scared I used to be to play LeRoy, but we had played together enough that I was not nervous even if rusty. I knew he would understand, since he is a smart guy. We talked about Doc and alcoholism. LeRoy has hustled pool in a lot of bars so he knows a lot about drinkers. LeRoy does not drink. He is like another master pool player, a Mormon, from up home, he knows nobody can beat him drunk. He is a master pool player which means he does not let anything affect his pool playing adversely. He does not smoke either, and walks miles to the grocery stores. The drunks die but he is still in great shape, I believe around the same age I am.
LeRoy is not much of a ladies man. Like I say he lets nothing interfere with his pool playing. He loves poker, too, and has been almost too much of a gambler and card shark for my taste. But it does feel like a privilege to play pool with him. He beat me very fast in some of the games, but in one or two I got to play a few shots. I knew I was not going to get lucky and beat LeRoy, not after such a long layoff, no way. I have beat him a very few times but the balls had to lay right and I had to get way ahead of him from the start. Like any master, he was tickled a pool playin' woman actually won a game off him. In fact, he will give anybody every opportunity to beat him--if they can!
He jokes and laughs with the guys, so a game of pool always takes on some real excitement when he is in the room making the balls fly just where he wants them to go. He usually makes a running commentary about where he is going to shoot a ball and predicts quite accurately just where it will go. He knows English backwards and forwards. Amazing things he does with a pool stick.
Players like LeRoy are the reason I fell in love with the game and find it endlessly fascinating--when I am playing in the right company.