In The Game

It was their third time playing tennis together and Ace and Hal still had not played an actual set against each other yet. Ace was anxious to get some match play under his belt because he knew he would need it against the other players at the club. He enjoyed just hitting. It gave him a chance to get into a rhythm, grove his shots and get his timing down. He could hit all day if he was lucky enough to find someone to rally with at the public courts that he used to drive around to during the summers. But club players were all about playing sets and keeping score. A lot of guys could rally but real players need to be able to hold their serve and Ace knew he was not ready for prime time. He had to get Hal to play some sets.

Head Game

The dispatch office was loud and dirty. It was also very small. Only twelve feet by 20 feet, it had only one small window that looked out over the back parking lot of the cable company where the vans were parked. But the worse part was the smell. With as many as eleven or twelve people jammed into one room during peak working hours the body oder alone was enough to make a visitor's eyes water. Two long counters ran along the longer walls and they each had a half dozen computer terminals wired up. Next to each monitor was a desk top phone with six separate lines that would ring out loud whenever a technician would call in from the field. Each line had a small, clear plastic square button that would begin to blink with every ear splitting ring. Often all twelve lines would be ringing at the same time. At the end of each counter was a stand up microphone reminiscent of the one that Johnny Carson had on his desk at the Tonight Show. It was connected to a two-way radio just like the cab companies used. Instructions would be transmitted to the men - and one woman - who did the installations for Cablevision Systems. For eighteen hours a day the place was continually assaulted by spilled coffee, doughnut crumbs and muffled farts that were released into the cushions of the swivel chairs where each dispatcher parked his ass for their shift.