Mini-Contest
#6
The
sixth mini-contest was held in August 2008. It challenged
contestants to tell a complete story in 25 to 75 words,
with the additional stipulation that every word had to be
in dialogue. No narration whatsoever!
We received 74 entries. Two reading judges selected 12
contenders from all the entries received. Six prize judges
labeled one entry as their “favorite” and rated the rest as
either “yes,” “maybe,” or “no.”
For the first time, we had a tie for first place. As a
result, there is no second place winner...our winners
ranked first, first, third, then honorable mentions. We
have one author who might be familiar to readers of past
issues, and four whom OTP has never published before.
Third Place ($5) by Sam Douglas
“Hello.”
“Hello, Mama. It’s me.”
“Hello.”
“Mama, it’s Cara.”
“Hello.”
“Mama, can you hear me?”
“Is anybody there?”
“Mama, I know you hear me. I’m sorry I left in the middle
of the night like that. I was just mad. I want to come
home. Is that okay?”
“Anybody there?”
“Mama, let me come home and I’ll never run away again. I
promise. Can I please come home?
“I guess nobody’s there.”
“Mama?”
*TIE*
for First Place ($15) by Bryce Albertson
“I’m
so scared, Bobby… I didn’t mean to kill him!”
“I know, Jason. It was an accident, but it
was
your fault.”
“You gotta help me hide the body!”
“Fine. We’ll bury it out back.”
“What if they find it?”
“They won’t even look. We’ll tell Mom and Dad we opened the
door and Whiskers ran away, just like they said your gerbil
did.”
“You mean Mr. Pellets didn’t run away?”
*TIE* for First Place ($15) by Mercedes Murdock
“I
saw Chandra on the news today. Wow.”
“Yeah. Wow.”
“The death penalty.”
“Yeah.”
“How many guys did she kill again? Twenty?”
“Thirty-seven.”
“That’s…that’s a lot of people, man.”
“It really is.”
“Your fingers reattach okay?”
“Mostly.”
“Listen. I’m sorry. When I set you guys up, I just
thought…well, I just thought she had a penchant for power
tools. I thought, ‘how lucky would Carl be, he’d never have
to fix nothing. Nothing.’”
Honorable
Mentions (no money, just fame)
Two other entries scored highly enough to earn an honorable
mention. They are listed below in descending order by
overall score.
“You always
hook up with Mr. Wrong.”
“No I don’t.”
“When was the last time you dated a nice guy?”
“Brian was nice.”
“That was years ago, doesn’t count.”
“Interesting men are complicated.”
“With ex’s, bad habits, secrets?”
“It’s fun to turn bad boys good.”
“Yeah, because that works.”
“Let’s face it, by the time a guy reaches our age, there’s
bound to be flaws if he’s still single or otherwise
unattached.”
“Like us?”
(by Karen
Monroe)
“Remember
when Robbie played ball with us? “
“What about the barbecues? And those franks. Wish I had one
now.”
“Wonder what Robbie’s doin’ now?”
“College stuff.”
“Does he think about us?”
“Sure. We’re his best friends.”
“Think he’ll hang around with us when he comes home for the
holidays?”
“Why not? Bet he misses us, too.”
“Hey, let’s see if Mom will take us for a walk.”
“Okay. I get the red leash this time.”
(by
Lee Mandel)
Now
It’s Our Turn
Only one of the
judges submitted an entry this time--Sean Tierney, our
occasional guest judge who lives in Hong Kong. I’d say
we’re bending our no-non-fiction rule a bit to publish this
entry, but that would be cynical!
“What are you
thinking?”
“Nothing.”
“No, really, what are you thinking?”
“I told you, nothing.”
“I knew it, you’re mad at me.”
“I’m not mad at you!”
“Then why are you yelling!”
“Because I’m not mad at you.”
“That doesn’t make any sense!”
“Neither does thinking I’m mad at you.”
“But you yelled at me!!!”
“Because you refused to believe me when I said I wasn’t
thinking anything.”
“You weren’t thinking about me?”
“Oh Christ...”
(by
Sean Tierney)
Congratulations
to the winners and our sincere thanks to everyone who
entered the mini-contest.