Greetings, flash fictioneering friends! We are pleased to announce the winner(s) of Microcosms 204!
This week, we are pleased to continue with “The Karen Cox Prize for Entertaining Short Fiction”, brought to you by Alert Terminal Warehouse.
Announcement
Be sure to check out MC 100micro1 – our first ever quarterly contest! Submissions are open through 30 September 2023.
MC 204 Winners!
And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for… Without further ado, it’s time to announce the winner(s) of MC 204!
Community Picks
It’s a tie! Huge congrats (and bragging rights) go to our Community Pick:
Great job, Laura!
Community Pick Entries
As a reminder, here is the story that won over our community!
Pronunciation is Everything
300 words
Ancient God/ Croquet Club/ Comedy
Laura Cooney
@lozzawriting everywhere.
I am available for derivative works and as a not for you all I am NOT judging this one. I have swapped out. It was too juicy.
The Westwood Crochet club had been running in the town of Newbattle Hove for decades. The three founding members had been mothers expectant and they had begun the club to with the intention of making bootees and such like, in reality, they had drunk wine, laughed, made that one naked calendar for charity and battered their credit cards in Mothercare, buying all the bootees they didn’t knit.
Over the years they had left, choosing to meet in the local Hardy’s wine bar instead and new people had taken their place. One such, was Brenda Martin, the wife of the local minister and a ‘top’ scone baker. She had seen many people come and go in the last decade, older woman like herself who knew their crochet square coasters from their tea cosies. To the twenty something dungaree wearing hipsters for whom loving rainbow seemed to be a prerequisite and who didn’t know thier rooibos from their elbow. She was bored by them and their vegan chatter, but she did love the crochet. More relaxing than … anything, and it kept her out of the house and the sermons therein.
Brenda was excited tonight, they were getting their first new member in ages and it was a man by the name of Thor, no less. Named after the God of war she expected … better not tell Martin. When the swing doors opened Brenda’s mouth hung open.
“Hello there, you must be Thor” she stumbled, standing on wobbly pins.
“Eh, yeah, hi.” confusion seeped off him.
“What is the hammer for son?” Brenda asked, interested.
“It’s not a hammer, I left that at home for once … it’s a club, he said” and then, all of a sudden, he realised his mistake. This here was not croquet club after all, but something else entirely.
Judge’s Pick
And the Judge’s Pick, and winner of this week’s $25 Karen Cox Prize for Entertaining Short Fiction, is:
Drumroll, please!
- AJ Walker
Congrats, AJ! Please contact us for instructions on how to accept your prize and also let us know if you’d like to judge MC 207!
Here’s what judge Jaime Bree had to say:
Again I’m blown away by the level of writing this week but I also have to add how difficult this was. Some very intriguing and honestly quite wonderfully weird story ideas for the prompts. What a pleasure to read!
Big big shout out to ‘Better Have Bigger Than A Number Fourteen Hook If You’re Going To Confront Zeus’. This one had a lovely twist and made me smile. The read was easy and it flowed beautifully with some good references to the crochet world and I loved the take on the ancient god.
Also to ‘Pronunciation is Everything’. Loved the feel of this. The descriptions of those who had come and go over the past decade to the crochet club was so well written and then the twist at the end with the ‘God’ Thor finished this off nicely!
Sadly both of these were pipped at the post by ‘The Nixon and Boris Mystery’. This story to me used the prompt words to perfection. The clever use of the Nixon and Boris masks and I loved that we didn’t find out who they were! The idea of them guessing, from lovers, robbers and then ugly family members was just so well placed in the story and the final line rounded this piece off nicely. Great write!
Well done everyone! I thought these were difficult prompts this week and you all did such a great job.
Jaime
HUGE thanks to Jaime for judging this week!
Judge’s Pick Entry
As a reminder, here is the story that won over our judge!
The Nixon and Boris Mystery
300 Words
Masked Participant/ Funeral/ Mystery
By A.J. Walker
Spoutible/Bluesky/Twitter:- @zevonesque
Website: https://awalker.org
Dermot whirled his tea around the chipped mug. He couldn’t believe his Kevin Keegan mug had still been at his parent’s. No doubt his mother’s call. It would have been an acknowledgement that her son wasn’t coming up back if it had been binned.
‘What do reckon was going on with the guy in the mask?’ He asked in general to the kitchen.
‘What are you talking about?’ Bethany asked, whilst pouring another wine. She always seemed bemused by her brother.
‘I mean why was there a man in a President Nixon mask at the funeral? Who the hell turns up at a funeral in a plastic mask?’
Bethany downed the wine and looked to her sister. ‘Did you see this?’
Clara nodded. ‘Well, not a Nixon mask. I saw someone in a Boris Johnson mask.’
‘Fuck! Why didn’t you say something? Nixon and fucking Boris at our mother’s funeral.’ Bethany sounded exasperated, as she searched for another bottle of wine.
‘I didn’t say anything, sis’. Because they were lowering mum into the ground when I saw Nixon.’ Dermot said.
‘Ditto me.’ Clara said, handing over a bottle of Rioja. ‘Though with Boris.’
The evening disappeared into a whirlwind of grand conjectures.
Bethany wondered if perhaps they’d been ex-lovers of their mum who couldn’t stay away but didn’t want to be recognised. Dermot suggested that maybe they’d robbed a bank and were hiding from the bizzies; assuming they’d committed the robbery in black suits—and the chasing police were behind them.
‘Actually, it could have been Uncle Alister and Billy. They’re right ugly. Maybe they didn’t want to offend us with their looks.’ Clara said.
Dermot pointed out that Billy was currently in the living room with them—without a mask.
They never did find out who the men were.
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