file://localhost/Users/barbaragelnett/Desktop/Movie%20on%202012-02-15%20at%2018.36.mov

Today,  5/31/12,  I entered a Short Story Contest sponsored by the VCReporter.  The rule was... no more than 101 words per story, quite a challenge! So I would appreciate your input, read these very short, short stories. I submitted these before in another contest, but I slightly altered them.  

VCReporter                     101 Words or Less, Short Story                   Contest Entries


1) Rooney’s Birthday Surprise

It was Pat Rooney’s 50th birthday. A man without a home answers only to consequences. He enticed smiles from females at the 7-11. It was, “How’s about a smile there young lady? You’re so pretty when you smile.” Thirsty boys paid him to supply their beer.
True sounding lies of Viet Nam were followed by “The good Lord looks out for fools, drunks and Irishmen, and I’m all three.” This pain filled, aged guardian never saw the gunman behind him, just the fear in the cashier’s eyes. Finally a real hero, his life ran out on his 50th birthday.



2) What does Mom know?

“I’m too young to have a baby,” said Sara. Her friends all advised an abortion. She hated the word. She resented that prick for being the one without a womb. “Have a baby? I haven’t even had an orgasm yet!” she told her sister.

Why did she tell her mother? She didn’t have to. Why did her mom’s face reflect the news so differently? “Motherhood is the best part of my life. Why wouldn’t I want that for you? Together, we can make it.” This unplanned baby girl was perfectly born on grandma’s birthday.


3) Jane’s Discovery

            Jane was an 86 year old skeptic.  Her world was orderly, factual, forward moving.  Time travel?  Preposterous!  Alone she relaxed in the desert spa, cradled by warm water, enveloped by an endless sky. Instantly she was back in a rushing creek in Pennsylvania, summer of 1940, skinny dipping for the first time.

            Then was now, calendars dissolved.  Memory connected her to a dimension of suspension.  Jane was woven into water, elevated in time.  She wasn’t old, wasn’t young, she simply existed.  Memories and millenniums melted into an all encompassing present. At 86 she finally knew, anything is possible.