A Portrait of Words

Portrait of Words
Hey, it's that time again. Time to share some stories with one another through our monthly writing challenge.
For anyone new, here is a quick run down on how it works. Each month I supply a variety of photographs along with corresponding categories for them. (Main Character, Backdrop, Purpose, Item and Wild Card) From these five prompts, we weave stories as our imagination dictates. If you'd like the full blown details please click here. For all of this month's current photos, please click here.If you're considering joining us...please do! Everyone is welcome to participate.If you have a story to post this month be sure to sign in on the link box at the bottom of this post. If you're just along for the reading, great! Hope you enjoy my offering, and please do go by and check out what the others have put together.


A Love Like No Other


Oliver, the elderly gentleman stood patiently waiting for hours for his life long partner and wife, Louise. She was obsessed with gambling to the degree that they had lost everything they had except for the clothes on their backs. He had no idea when they were young that she loved to gamble. She was intoxicated by the thought of playing the casinos and especially Roulette.

What could this impossible romantic and desperately in love man do? He did not know what to do, for he had always just indulged Louise and gave her anything that she desired. He knew that he was coming to a decision that he did not want to make. Could he try to control his wife's gambling? Could he say no to her? He had always stood beside her through thick and thin, through good times and bad times, but his patience was wearing thin now. How much more could their marriage bare.

Just the atmosphere of the casino excited Louise. It filled her brain full of all kinds of insane ideas and dreams. Gambling was her lover and it lured her to do things that no man could ever ask her to do. The brightly colored lights, the smell of the money, the sounds of the dice, the roll of the roulette wheel, the laughter, the intensity of the betting. Louise was carried away with this lover. It deceived her, it entrapped her, and made her a prisoner to its power. She could not live without it.

She had an unrealistic idea that just once she won, her luck would change. She wanted to give Oliver all the money that she had lost back to him. She wanted them to have their beautiful home back instead of the old dark and dreadful apartment building they lived with its seven flights of stairs. Seven long flight of stairs they climbed everyday in order to fulfill her obsession. Her hell, her demon. Everyday, the drudgery of her obsession weighed her down. She knew it, but what could she do? She needed this obsession despite the fact that it was ruining her life and Oliver's life too.

One morning the phone ring much to Oliver's surprise, it was Louise's sister. She said that she was coming for a visit to see them in a few days. The dread set in Oliver's face as he told Louise of her sister's impending visit. Agnes, Louise's sister, did not know of Louise's addiction to gambling. How could she pretend everything was alright when things were so horribly wrong. Could she cover it up?

She did not think so and she had only a few days to prepare for her sister's visit. Would Oliver pretend along with her? Dare she ask him? As she prepared for her sister's visit, she kept asking herself, “What can I do?” Finally, resolution...

Oliver went to the store and bought a bouquet of yellow spray roses for his wife. He sat on the edge of the bed as they talked about the white elephant between them. Louise cried, and begged Oliver for help. They talked for hours until they decided what to do. They had not been this close in a long time. The love was still there. Oliver felt confident that he could help Louise.

So the next evening the went together to the casino where Oliver took a gamble this time. He placed a bet on the table for number seven, the number of stairs they climbed everyday. He thought about those roses and how they were bundled in sevens. Seven blooms and seven stems. “SEVEN!” “Come on lucky number seven!” He won, he really did win! He won $777,777.00!

He knew what he would do with that money.
Louise's sister came to visit and with her help, they entered Louise in a gambler's anonymous group. With therapy and lots of love, she did recover from her addiction. Oliver and Louise moved to Texas and bought a little house with a white picket fence and of course yellow roses. Yes! Lots of yellow roses.