“Pinball”

Excerpt from “Remembering Eternity”: “At its best, playing pinball approached in quality the unitary experiences Skylar had had in Yak’s bedroom and at Hermosa Beach. Instincts guided one’s flipper finger; one took actions before one’s cognizing mind even recognized the need for them. A high-scoring game involved the disappearance of all sense of separation from the game: no longer did a separate player and table exist, but only play. The movements of the silver ball (and, at times, of several balls), now lazy, then frenzied, now plumb, then slanting, now gentle and friendly, then hard and fatal, became pulses in the players’ bodies. The balls would attack the exits like berserkers, and the players would respond like soldiers adrenalized by the fight. As in a real firefight, lights flashed and explosions sounded. Bumpers lit up and throbbed, making tinkling Morse code rhythms as they did so, spaceships grew bright and began to move on the backglass, and the square, plastic counter spun madly. Balls came two at a time. Skylar would hit one and then, immediately, the other. He would tip a ball to the right, saving it from the channel of death, and Ed would send it careering up the far side of the playfield. At times, when several balls were in simultaneous play, they would appear to pause near the bumpers and then, as if on a signal, rocket down together towards the drain.”