Thanks to all of you who joined the party, and helped to celebrate the shared birthday of six Hollywood stars by submitting a story to Round 62. We had a respectable total of 17 entries this week.

Please keep returning to Microcosms, and retweet / spread the word about this contest among your followers and friends.

Don’t forget that Microcosms exists primarily to provide a platform for the flash fiction community to hone their skills, and secondarily to give entrants a chance of receiving an accolade from that week’s judge. We also have the vote button for anyone – not just fellow entrants – to register their favourite/favorite(s) and thus establish a Community Pick.

Remember, you can reply with a comment to any and all of the entries AT ANY TIME: It’s good to have feedback.

Many thanks to Nicola Tapson for  judging MC 62. Here’s what she had to say:

What a lovely collection of stories; every one spoke to me. Like many judges before me, I found it hard to decide which was the best. In the end, I chose the one which resonated with me the most. But thank you all for your contributions.

Nicola

 

 Favourite / Favorite Lines

Bill Engleson – “Well,” he began to twist his tighties tighter then a noose, “word is…”
Eugene Uttley – Gizmo in purse, she’s gone.
Christelle Bloem – Now, my thoughts were starting to eat me up inside.
Angelique Pacheco – The glass chandelier gleamed like stars.
Angelique Pacheco – A wild haired man that stank of bourbon stood with his back to me.
Nthato Morakabi – “I will build for thee a house of glass, where I shall feed you, provide water, and build you a wheel for leisure. You shall want for nothing.”
Steve Lodge – The affair was like a juggernaut ploughing through the snow without brakes.
A J Walker – She’d normally think about calling for an undertaker, but for the singing and exultation coming from the subterranean laboratory.
Kelly Griffiths – The elephants were colossal, fat beings that could and would crush small creatures.
Holly Geely – Buff’s smile was much worse than his frown.
Dave James Ashton – His concoction started to pulse with disconcerting colours that hurt the eye.
Dana Faletti – A wisp of bronze curl tickles my nose.
Jeff Messick – Strong, yes, but abysmally slow and even a common stone had more intelligence.
Sian Brighal – It was unique: an artificial hand with steel for bones, copper connecting wires, rubber tubing as thin as any vein for hydraulic movement, cogs to make a watchmaker sigh for fine control.
Steph Ellis – Another knock on the door. It’s been like bleedin’ Piccadilly Circus tonight.
Geoff Holme – “Yeah, but they’se only so mucha that sorta lurve you kin show, Eli… We’s runnin’ low on ammo!”
Meg Kovalik – She reached into her head and coaxed it out, cooing and encouraging like a nursemaid.

 

 

Special Mentions

BEST DIALOGUE: Geoff Holme – Go West, Young Man

This story was really filled with great atmosphere and I felt like I was in the Wild West.

BEST LAUGH: Bill Engleson – Apparently I know a Guy who Maybe knows a Guy

Though this was not a comedy, I loved the quips of the main speaker and it had me laughing quite a bit.

 

Honorable / Honourable Mention

Dana Faletti – The Other Side

What a heart-wrenching story. I loved the description of the lovers, and the struggle of the healthy lover to stay focused and not lose himself in his passion for his love.

Angelique Pacheco – Step-lovers
Angelique Pacheco – Far Out Destiny
Steph Ellis – Family Dinner

I need to mention these three stories as I loved the twist in the tale of each. They were all unexpected, and left me pondering.

 

 

Runner-up

Meg Kovalik – Yearning

This was a beautifully written fable, and I loved the imagery. This story really came alive in my mind, and I loved reading it.

 

And now, without further ado, we present the winners of Microcosms 62.

 

(insert drumroll here)

 

Community Pick AND Judge’s Pick

Nthato Morakabi – The Man and the Mice

What a lovely fable. It really had me from my first read. I loved the pace of the story and the way it had all the elements of a fable. I simply enjoyed this story immensely.

 

290 words
Inventor; Laboratory; Fable

A Man sought to build a machine, to cure an illness that beset his child. He dug a hole as big as a room below his house and turned it into a laboratory.

Many days and nights he spent there. Toiling away in the hopes of finding a cure. Yet when he finally concocted one, he feared it would kill his child if untested.

He noticed then, many Mice that roamed about the laboratory in search of food.
“Mice. Pray I ask thee a favour.”
The Mice, having seen the man’s compassion for his child, approached the Man without fear,
“Man, what asketh thee?”
“Merely of your labour as my assistants. My child is sick and I require your tenacious perseverance to find a cure.”
“And what shall be our fee?”
“I will build for thee a house of glass, where I shall feed you, provide water, and build you a wheel for leisure. You shall want for nothing.”
“That would please us greatly.” The Mice replied, feeling pleased at having to no longer scrounge for food.

The Man made true on his promise, and built a large house of glass with bowls filled with food, and bowls filled with water. Wheels and tunnels traversed the house where the Mice roamed freely. Beds of hay allowed the mice to repose without fear.

Then, the time came for the Mice to assist the Man, and aghast they watched a fellow Mouse pulled from the bottom of the cage, for that is what is was, and onto a metal platform to be punctured by a needle full of the supposed cure.

The Mouse died in agony. When the Mice complained, the Man replied

“Sometimes you must sacrifice the many, for the one.”

 

Congratulations, Nthato. As this week’s Community Pick AND Judge’s Pick, you are more or less obliged to judge Microcosms 63! Please let me know whether or not you are interested ASAP!