The Challenge: Write a 100-word story that must contain the words “orange,” “beard,” “empty,” “dreamt,” and “suit.”

The rules:

• You must use all of the words.
• You must attempt to make one of those words into a motif or symbol in your story.
• Your character should be like a bad poker player in that his or her actions are a “tell” for the physical description of the setting.
• Your story can’t have an ambiguous ending—it can’t be a paragraph that should be tied up in a later chapter, in other words.
• Your story has to be exactly 100 words—not 99 or 101.

GRIFTER

An orange beard. A grey suit. That’s all he was to them. Not a person. Just a vehicle.

All the promises he’d made were empty, but his pockets were full. At least for a short time (maybe a week, maybe less) before they tracked him down. Asked him about the scheme he dreamt up and about the money.  He said, “What money?”

His eyes panned down to the duffel on the passenger seat as one of them swiped it with a leather-gloved hand. “Oh, that money?” The response was a desolate click as a pistol cocked into place. Then percussion.