Pool_1

Basement life wasn't all seclusion. The two older brothers roller skated there. Sissy, had her friends to pizza parties, "hops" there. Marcus, of course, the baby, hung out on the edge, out of the way, and pilfered goodies, and watched as teenagers danced. At the far end, was a large hanging sand bag suspended on springs, also a 'speed bag', punching bags, where Chuck practiced his boxing, every day. He skipped rope, did sit ups hanging upside down from a bar, did pushups with Marcus on his back, and beat the bags as if they had somehow wronged him. Every connect with the sand bag vibrated everything. Oh, the energy in those impacts. "You'd never hit me like that. Right Chuck?" Marcus sought assurance. Chuck only made eyes that dismissed the question as unworthy of response, just before pounding the sand into near cement - bwhoom - as the whole place shuddered. On the other side was Aldo's train set village, with all sorts of scale houses, trees, mountains, roads, street signs and billboards, tracks with neat remote controlled switches, milk loader cars, cattle cars that actually loaded plastic cows - some kind of vibration thing, logging cars that could dump logs, and smoke puffing engines. "Don't you touch them unless I'm here! I mean it, Marcus!" was Aldo's daily reminder, as Marcus was apt to take things apart to see how they worked. But Marcus's main entertainment was the big experiment bench that Chuck had built for him. Chuck was great with wood working. The bench had a Bunsen burner, ring stands, a sink, and even a distillation coil. Chuck showed him how to light and extinguish the burner. He also showed him what not to burn, "D-d-don't b-blow us up!" "I won't." "M-m-make sure i-i-it's off." "Promise."