Faces of the Crowd

          Then someone turned off all the lights except all those over the table that they were playing on and the background of Bennington's vanished, leaving only the faces of the crowd around the table, the green of the cloth of the table, and the now sharply-etched, clean, black-shadowed balls, brilliant against the green. The balls had sharp, jewelled edges ; the cue ball itself was a milk-white jewel and it was a magnificent thing to watch the balls roll and to know beforehand where they were going to roll. Nothing could be so clear or so simple or so excellent to do.

The Hustler
Walter Tevis
1959