To his own surprise, Charlie enjoyed his father's gift. Stroking the table's smooth dark wood and the soft lush green felt was a pleasurable experience for him. He liked the challenge of shooting the brightly colored balls into the side pockets. For the first time in Charlie's life, his father spent time with him everyday. For a month, Morris Fish taught him the finer points of the game: how to use the bridge, how to bank the cueball, how to do a behind-the-back shot.

His father even stayed home from his daily card game to play pool with him. They talked. They swapped sick jokes and groaned.       "What's the difference between a bowling ball and a dead baby?"     "I dunno."    "You can't load a bowling ball onto the back of a truck with a pitchfork." For the first time, Morris and Charlie were a real father and son team, and Charlie was getting good at the game of pool.         The closeness with his father came to an abrupt end, when Celia started to feel that the time Charlie spent with his father was "unhealthy." She believed that Charlie needed to be around boys his own age. She spread the word around the neighborhood about the new pool table.     David Rothman and Chris Korkis were among the first boys to show up. His mother Celia considered these two to be "normal red blooded kids." To her, any boy that played baseball was a "normal red blooded kid," even if they carried zip-guns and flick-knives.        Soon Charlie's basement was teeming with newfound "friends." Even when Charlie wasn't home, the basement would be full of kids. Celia was thrilled to bake trays of cookies for these boys.       Charlie's parents were convinced that he was on his way toward normalcy. Charlie was beginning to believe that he had regained his lost popularity. In the privacy of his parents' basement, he could crack as many jokes as he wanted. He could even say "shit," "fuck," and "fart" as many times as he wanted, and at the top of his lungs.     Joe Murphy acted as "sergeant-of-arms," tossing out any boy that didn't treat Charlie or Charlie's basement with the proper respect. Above all, Joe made sure that there was no gambling.     The good times ended when one of Joe Murphy's more tasteless jokes fizzled in Celia Fish's face. In full view of the Fish family at dinner-time, Joe ate a tuna biscuit from Charlie's dog Susie's dish.

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