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The Gamblers: Winners and Losers

Drabble 308 | Debt

Shiny New Day
Fiction Shorts
2 min readNov 3, 2024

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The Gamblers, oil on Canvas, 1623, Hendrick ter Brugghen, Dutch, 1588–1629. Photo of painting by author.

Today’s twisted drabble challenge features the random word debt. The twist is that it’s a drabble and a half. That means the story must be 150 words long instead of 100 words.

If you stay on the page for 30 seconds, scroll to the bottom, and clap, I will get paid! Even better, I would love to read a response from you.

A soldier in King Frederick’s regiment, Martin obeyed orders and fought bravely.

He was a model soldier.

Martin loved to gamble, but he cheated. He felt no guilt; he lacked a conscience.

Rudolf was a kind and gentle sergeant.

Back home, his son Bram was deathly sick. His wife Anika wrote to him for money to pay the doctor, otherwise the doctor would leave Bram to die.

Lacking enough money to send home, Rudolf challenged Martin to poker. Ignorant of Martin’s skills and cheating tendencies, Rudolf lost everything.

He wailed as he told Martin that his son would surely die.

That night, Martin left his post. He ran twenty miles to Delft, where Rudolf’s family lived.

Martin knocked at Anika’s door. He gave her all the money he had.

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Shiny New Day
Shiny New Day

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