The 7th round of the Music Be The Food flash fiction event is upon us. The new song is “Golden Sunlight”, by 311 and the first piece of fiction is by Chad A. Clark. Listen to this particularly uplifting song and read Chad’s wonderful story.
With Games Like These
The cards feel slippery, an equal parts mixture of grease and the glossy finish. The table is surrounded by a half dozen pizza boxes, bags of chips and various bottles. The thud from the bass downstairs is the only noise as conversation has given way to sullen resentment.
There’s no more options left for any of them. But the edges of the scotch blurs that just far enough out of reality so still, they come back. The world outside this room may or may not exist or this room might be the last remaining gasp of the real world. Lost inside darkness, they scare away the dread while trying to chase down one more run of aces.
The doorway into the room could lead one of two ways. It could lead to freedom won with the new weight of several bills in the wallet. Or it could prove to be the portal through which you are undone, where all you had upon entering is reduced to bitter memory. It could be the place where your life slowly dissolves around you.
This is the track of last chances.
Card after card, another drink followed by more empty confidence and shallow lies. They crawl away from their own humanity, the haze of the smoke descending down on them like a foul smelling storm-front. They are slaves to those cards, to that royalty who prances by in image form, promising riches but delivering little.
No one cares. No one knows. All that matters is the possibility of that golden sunlight of victory and riches.
Let it ride.
Watch the river flow. Make those chips into a tower. Double down on the fact that for all you know, this hand is going to put you on easy street.
Let it ride.
Read more from Chad’s Facebook Author Page.
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