What is a 'Traditional Drabble'?

The word drabble has come to have a number of meanings on the internet. However, the original definition of a 'drabble' is a short standalone story that is complete in exacly 100 words. 'Snippets' are very, very short stories that have no specified word-count.

Table Leg
September 28, 1999

Warm breath against my cheek,
hot, wet tongue tracing the earlobe,
then lapping in and out --
moans of passion
as I trace the sensitive skin
of waist and hip,
drawing ever closer to the prize.
My eyes are shut,
but still I see
a blue-eyed god lying next to me:
biceps, triceps, pectoral sheathed in sweat,
proud shaft rising
from a mat of musky hair.
"Jim," I start to cry out,
but catch myself in time
and turn "Jim" into "Jane."
It's still the wrong name,
but I think she's more likely
to forgive a woman's name
than a man's...

Shamrock Drabble
St. Patrick's Day challenge, 1997

Green candles and pots of live shamrocks were scattered around the bedroom. The sheets were dark green and covered with four-leaf-clover glitter. Blair reclined in the centre wearing shamrock earrings, a kelly-green thong and a big smile. "Happy St. Patrick's Day, Big Guy."

Jim quickly stripped and joined his lover on the bed.

Very shortly the Sentinel and his Guide discovered a drawback to making love in a bed of glitter -- it sticks everywhere. But as the luck of the Irish would have it, picking the sparkles off sensitive body parts turned out to be great foreplay.

Snippet: Tears
April 14, 1999

It took Blair Sandburg three tries to get the phone back in its cradle. The blank look on his suddenly pale face triggered all sorts of alarms in his partner Jim Ellison.

"Chief?"

A pair of anguished blue eyes locked on Jim's face. "Ramona," the anthropologist whispered so softly that only Sentinel hearing permitted the man to make out the name.

"Ramona?" Jim echoed, as the image formed in his mind of the charming, vivacious Algonquin woman he'd met the previous summer when Blair had taken him with him to the Kitigan Zibi reserve to meet the young man's longtime friends there.

"That was her son Harry on the phone. Ramona passed away yesterday."

Jim closed his eyes in shock. They'd learned a week ago that this dear friend had been diagnosed with inoperable cancer of the liver. Still, a week hadn't been long enough to prepare themselves for the inevitable. "Thank goodness we decided to drive up to see her this past weekend instead of putting it off for another week," he murmured.

As usual, the Fishers' house had been full of visitors and family. Ramona and her husband Marc were soulmates, whose love was so great that it spilled over and enriched the lives of everyone who came in contact with them. Their charisma had gained them good friends far and wide.

Although Jim had known the couple for only a year compared to the 20 years Blair had known them, he'd felt as close to them as if they'd been his friends since childhood, too.

Jim and Blair looked at each other, recalling their brief visit with the frail, bedfast woman who'd been so energetic and full of life such a short time before. They remembered the grief in Marc's eyes as he hovered beside his dying wife. They remembered Harry's and the other children's quiet anguish, and the subdued bewilderment of the grandchildren, many of whom were still too young to understand the meaning of death.

"How are the family doing?" Jim asked.

"He said they were doing okay," Blair replied, "but I got the impression that it hasn't really sunk in yet."

Jim looked into his own heart and realized from the hollow he found there that his own feelings were still suspended.

As one, the two men turned their eyes to a framed photograph sitting on the end table. It was a picture Marc had taken of the two of them hugging a vibrant, smiling Ramona. Some people may think that it's not manly to cry, but such an opinion never crossed Jim's and Blair's minds as their tears began to flow.

Note: Of course Jim's and Blair's relationship with Ramona Fisher is fictional since they themselves are fictional. But Ramona was a very real person. She was my very, very dear friend for over 20 years. This little story is a tribute to a wonderful lady whom I shall miss greatly.

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