Yay, Susan!

Great work, Susan, congrats.

This may be too long, but I couldn't resist the triple-play.

Pieces

Grunting. Clanging. Yelling. Smashing. Cheering.

Eddie might have more customers if he set up shop in less eclectic surroundings. Or at least a few rows back. I flinched instinctively, as the rattling came a bit too close. So did the smell.

"Iron in those links, baby. They can't touch you out here." Eddie laughed. I didn't.

"You think I risked my pretty little neck for a measly 10%?" I was shouting to be heard. "It's 30 or nothing, E."

"Sweetie, I can't do 30 no more. Game's hotter than Jersey, and I'm bare......with my....... still together." His words were swallowed by clashing steel. I reached for the bag, and made to get up. He put his hand on my arm.

"15." But he didn't mean it. The rest was easy.

The standing crowd roared as the victor humbly wiped his blade. A gate was opened, and a moaning carcass limped out, clutching at his bleeding stains.

I deftly sidestepped the cash-waving hordes running for the counter. I had my 25%, and a promise of elsewhere next time. I glanced at the burly men rolling towering, neatly-counted stacks towards the wall vault, and I smiled. Next time, it would have to be elsewhere.

Oh funny, Wolfram. I took the same left turn off the prompt.

I'd love to see amych drabble on this topic.

Anything I try to come up with that has to do with fences just comes out sounding like Desperado.

I think this one is a true drabble. (I finally looked up what that means.)

Security

He climbed over his snoring brother and off the bed. In the corner of the dirt floor, he found the stashed condom.

Standing on the clothes-filled trunk, he nudged open the creaky window and climbed through. His bare feet found purchase on the scratchy, uneven stones, and he landed, heavily, on the gravel road.

The narrow chain-linked section of the endless wall had not been replaced by cement. She smiled, her young fingers poking through the metal latticework to touch him.

It was wonderfully awkward, and she cried. “Shalom,” she whispered. “Salaam,” he replied, but she was already gone.

Oh, that is awesome, Wolfram! Isn't it wonderful fitting so much into so little?

Thanks Sail, and it's totally wonderful. I had to slash mercilessly at my first draft (168 words) to cut in down to what you see, but it just seems tighter now.

Exactly. I could not write at all if I didn't have artificially imposed boudaries. My writing tends to wander all over the place and then kind of peter out having gone absolutely nowhere. With drabbles, it forces me to really see the words I'm using and how to use them to the most effect.

I've actually done more creative writing in this thread in the last two weeks than I have done in, well, years. Should have popped in a long time ago.

That's nicely done, Wolfram. Now I want to know what happens next.

That's what's been so much fun, and so interesting, about Sail doing her drabbles around the girl and the penguin cookie jar. It's like looking at a photograph album--you only get glimpses, which seem to tell a life story.

Yeah, it's a really wonderful medium. It's a great exercise for me because it refines my lyric-writing quite a bit. I tend to sell short lyrics because I feel like there's so little that can be said, but a drabble is even shorter, so I have no excuse not to pack lyrics to their full capacity.

Plus, I just like the drabbles, because there's no intimidation factor. 100 words? Why sure, I can do that. And then of course it's much harder than I imagined, but there I am, writing, and it's off to the races.