25 Words of Wonder Contest—2015

We gave you a contest that let you wander wherever you like.

The rules: Give us a story of any kind, true or made up. Prose, poetry, script, whatever.

The only catch: It must be 25 words or fewer. (You get extra words for a title.)

Challenging? Yes. As the saying goes, "If I had more time, I would have written you a shorter letter." (No one knows who said this. It's been attributed to numerous people including, Mark Twain, Winston Churchill, and Pliny the Younger.)

Here we present the winner and five finalists:

WINNER

Ways I've Tried to Kill my Sadness

Monday 7:47AM Two unopened packs of cigarettes lay in my glove box waiting to burn through my lungs the way your tongue used to.

Christina Rakovitis

FINALISTS

The Other Woman
Long work hours, covert glances, stolen kisses culminating in tonight's frantically ardent skirmish. Suddenly...nothing. "I can't," he croaks remorsefully. She sobs. He dresses. Alone.

Aileen Ruiz

How Do You Mend
His fragile heart was made from glass that had been splintered by spiteful partners and could hold no love...until he met Julie. A glassblower.

Rhyan Scorpio-Rhys

Forty-One Years, Five Months, Six Days
Home free, or so we thought. Then the new CAT scan showed metastasis, everywhere. Our life together was over, except for the dying.

Pamela Coulter

Mating Season
He called me skinny so I called him short and when he said I'd never get with Martha I rammed him with my tusks.

Stephen Spanos

Just One Word
Start with one word. Bill tapped the keyboard. One. Word. Then a thousand. Then a hundred thousand. Then the agent. I regret, the email began.

Donna Turello