Very sad little tale and a good example of how small things in life can nag at us and speak of much larger things.

Welcome to Ficly, JonB! Your use of concise descriptions throughout your narrative will work rather well here. I hope you stick around and offer more.

Thanks for the comments. Actually wasn’t meant to be such a sad tale, but I suppose that’s how it reads. It’ll take a while to get used to the word limit in here…

It’s sad because he lost his mother to a gambling addiction. Any kind of loss is sad. Even if they still love each other, there is a huge hurdle to overcome.

Wow. Two paragraphs. Two stories. Yet they blend seamlessly.

I like when a tiny scene is exposed in full detail. I sat at your table.

My grandmother worked for a brief time in Vegas, years ago, like 1940. She told me about a few who would come in and play the slots. They guarded their machine beyond sanity, peeing themselves, not even taking a bathroom break. They were so convinced that every pull of the arm was one more pull close to a jackpot.

Wow, mysterious and sad. Nicely written.