Author(s): Leon Silver

Fiction - General

Pull the pin, hear the ping, silver ball bounce and ding...Abel Jackson Marvin is in a coma reliving the pinball game of his life - the bumps and ricochets of bushfire, family breakup, heroic rescues, disabling and fatal accidents, marriage, fatherhood - while a clock counts away the seconds of his life and a female voice urges him to give a full account of himself. Throughout Abel's time-travels in his foggy stream-of-consciousness are two constants: his granny's tray of sweeties 'to balance out life's nasties' and the other two members of the 'Pinnie Basement Gang', his best friends George and Roma. Roma's pinball mantra keeps interrupting that other female voice as she sends him spinning into another memory: the night she slipped in through the basement window dragging a bottle of vodka, and hypnotised him with her magical hands. As the 3D visions flash before his eyes, Abel must decide whether to keep the silver ball on the playfield, or let the ball drain away: game over.