Brevity Is the Soul of Wit

Every year the Reno News and Review hosts a 95-word fiction contest for which RNR readers are asked to submit a short story written in exactly 95 words (no more, no less).  This is obviously a unique challenge for someone with the gift of gab.  So I wrote two.  Lol.

Below are my entries into the contest for 2011.  Although neither of these were published, I am proud of them, nonetheless.  Please keep in mind that these are FICTION.  Any similarities to real persons or events is completely unintentional.  Maybe.  ;)

Hope you enjoy them.  

MKC

***

BEGINNING OF THE END

With great trepidation Melissa wondered whether she should open the email address she was never meant to see.  He’d hidden the account from her…just not well enough.  She got the password on the first try.  With a determined intake of breath, she clicked on the Inbox.  Nothing.  Opening the “Sent To” folder, there it was:  the end of her marriage.

Searing anger, pounding heart, shallow breathing, disappointment…this must be what betrayal feels like.  She thought fleetingly of the gun in her handbag.  It was then she understood how crimes of passion are committed.

CHOCOLATE CRAVINGS

When they’d first met, she never thought it’d get to this point.  Jimmy was fifteen years her junior, attractive and well, a musician, for Christ’s sake.  But now, seeing his mocha-colored arm draped over her bare breasts, it just felt… right.  Her fingers traced his military tattoo, the only sign of a more regimented past.

“Jimmy, I need to tell you…”

He gazed at her quizzically with his… were they green?... eyes.

“…I’m married.”

He grinned mischievously.  Perfect teeth. 

“I know.”

He apparently didn’t care.  Strangely, neither did she.  This had been a great birthday.

****

To read the winning entries, please visit the RNR website at:  http://www.newsreview.com/reno/95/content?oid=3703514