Whilst cleaning through the flotsam and jetsam of my computer this weekend, I ran across the following submission to a short story contest. Fiction is not my forte, but I figured there would be no harm in giving it a whack.
The short story was to be precisely 78 words long, not one word more or less, and the subject matter was “A Confirmation of Character.”
I didn’t win, place or show, but I don’t think it was too bad an attempt either. Here it is, and we’ll let history be the judge…
A Confirmation of Character
Maisie carried the hog’s innards, still warm from its body, to the pump, rinsed them and began cleaning them out so that she could make a stew for supper, since the carcass was reserved for the table at the Shipley household, where linens and fine dishes were the rule, when out popped a man’s toe, ragged and bony, and she knew what had happened when Moe got drunk, fell asleep in the pigsty and woke up screaming.
“Fool.”
Love this. Shades of Faulkner.
Thanks, Mark! I take that as some pretty high praise! 😉