Backgammon had always believed life was about playing the hand you are dealt, taking the roll you threw, making the most of what you can. Specifically an unfair one, double sided with some odd fifteen pieces. A simple roll decides your fate, Backgammon could not accept this reality, and to the sea he wonders. Fairness is for children and honest men, and neither had existed for quite some time. All he had was what his mother had given, but tonight, fortune spat an interesting play. Sailing through harsh rain, Gliwik in the background, lightning burned against the night sky. The storm did not ease, but yet Backgammon persisted with pieces still in play. To his knowledge, an island floats off the coast nearby, a decent shelter to wait the storm.
Sailing the tides, the ship quickly anchored near the safety of the island. Backgammon took a rowboat alone to the shore, there he found an old companion.
"You're late!" the man said.
"Bad luck, persistance wins again," Backgammon replied with a grimace. "I simply had to take a more treacherous route."
"Aw, I could see the long faces of your crew from here. Treating them well through the harshness of sea travel? You should've taken the Jane Seaway." the man looked Backgammon up and down, sizing up his next play. Backgammon looked toward the hills of the isle, a spot where it seemed the rain had cleared. Dwelling within a yellow roofed house with peach walls.
"Some roads call my name, and others are silent. I only follow what calls to me, my purpose existing within the fortunes and misfortunes of this life." Backgammon choked.
"Do you have the dice?" the man said, cutting to the chase. Backgammon reached in his coat and produced 2 worn out dice. "And your pieces?" The man continued.
"I've got no pieces left, John." Backgammon replied, "I'll simply play with what I've got." The pair traveled to the abode on the hilltop, venturing inside they sit upon the table of chance, fortune, and despair. Backgammon rested his axe against the walls, and took a patient seat on his side.
"What will you do?" the man, John asked.
Backgammon looked down at the dice in his palm. "I'm going to double down. A little early to be asking John." He snapped. A maid burst through the kitchen doors, tripping and spilling tea and beans all over the floor.
"You dumb filth! You almost ruined my life's work! This precious gaming table!" John fumed at his maid. Backgammon strategically decided to remain silent.
"Sir, I know I am a simple fool, but I adore this table and this house and you! Forgive me please!" the maid pleaded for mercy.
"Good heavens, just get yourself together!" John ordered. The maid rose to clean her mess, when a bolt lightning struck the home, creating a violent shake with the roof suddenly collapsing in itself. Backgammon could not keep up with his companions in the home, the chaos of the storm had suddenly once attacked the hilltop. Rain came in through the roof and quickly cleared the smoke to which Backgammon saw John helpless and fatally wounded in the rubble. John looked at Backgammon with furious intensity.
"BACKGAMMON! THIS IS LAST OF MY PIECES! TAKE IT FROM ME!!!" John screamed in a mixture of raw emotion. Backgammon stared for a moment.
"JOHN!!!" Backgammon screamed as the light left John's eyes. He took his pieces and walked away from the destruction, tears flowing down his face. Backgammon flew down the hilltop back to his ship with a vigor and speed he did not know he had before. His eyes softened in relief as his rowboat remained intact while the storm bellowed. A voice in his head told him to wait, and roll the dice.
"A seven," Backgammon smiled. "Not bad." He jumped in his boat and rowed into the darkness. Sometimes the game isn't about winning. It's refusing to let other's bear you off the board.