This years annual 100-Word Short Story contest has AWC students and faculty/staff once again demonstrate excellence in word craftsmanship. The contest is sponsored by Southwest Writers Alliance of AWC (SWAAWC). Ric Jahna is the faculty advisor for SWAAWC.
1st Place in Student Category
Everyone's A Little Different
By Anna Jones
When you're a little bit different everyone seems to notice. Someone says something and it spreads like wildfire. Rumors travel like a plague, infecting everything until there's no cure.
That's when the lies start, and they spread, too.
Fire in the trees!
I told them the lipstick was Miranda's because I didn't want them to hurt Joey. I told them Miranda liked the lovely shade of pink on my lips after she kissed them.
Miranda wore red.
Joey liked the pink on me.
1st Place in Faculty/Staff Category
In Her Garden
By Peggy Hayes
She leaned against the rough bark of the tree and gazed with watery blue eyes at her colorful garden. Harder each day to get out and tend, but somehow she'd found the energy.
The garden was all there was left of her life. Children grown and gone; husband passed on. At 99, surprised to wake each morning; the garden had given her life purpose, and she'd reveled in its scented glory. But she was tired now and wanted only to rest. Lying down among the blooms, she slipped into her final dream.
2nd-Place in Student Category
I Want Sandra to Kill Him
By Marlene Conde
"Shhhh! It'll be ok, Robert." My grip grew tighter around the small mouse's body.
My father had given me this mouse two months ago, so I named Robert after him, just after finding out he had another family.
"It's his fault!" I was so disgusted; I didn't even want to think about him. I squeezed tighter and he bit me; it hurt but I didn't let go.
I walked past my brother's room and heard Sandra hiss. I walked in, opened the cage, threw Robert in, and closed the door. I watched as Sandra squeezed and devoured him.
2nd-Place in Faculty/Staff Category
Story Problem
By Ed Schubert
A train is traveling west from Amarillo, Texas, to Oakland, California, at an average speed of 68 mph when it stops in Yuma, Arizona, from 3:05 to 3:08 am local time, and a single passenger, a young woman, disembarks. The train then resumes its previous course and speed, hurtling through the dark.
She stands alone in the warm night on the cement landing beside the tracks.
What are her thoughts as her eyes glance about the dark town, listening to the chirp of crickets and the buzz of electric lights?
What is she wearing?
Why is she alone?
Honorable Mentions
Ascent
By Paul Patrikus
He knew the storm would provide him no quarter.
Wind and snow burned his face and gnawed his resolve.
He contemplated the mountain top wistfully.
He had to get out of the basin.
He imagined himself soldiering on with the climb, reaching the snowy saddle and gazing out into the chaos below.
He tried to squelch the voice telling him to stop and lie in the snow. In defiance, he aimed himself towards the pass.
He paused at the base.
Standing motionless, he stared at the peak until the snow covered him entirely and left him invisible to the world.
Choosing You
By Bailey DeAnda
Sitting quietly under the street light I wonder what would have happened if I didn't choose you.
"Are you crying again?" I hear you ask me in that small vulnerable voice of yours.
"No, no I never cry," I say, trying hard to convince myself.
You run your little finger down the street light slowly and I remember those little fingers clinging to me as we ran from the fire and sad cries of abandonment. I needed you more than I needed him. "Where's Papa?" you kept asking me, "Sh baby, he had to go away."
And so did we.
Cheater
By Joanna Pratt
Poison the cigarette.
It's perfect.
He'll throw away his own murder weapon. Nobody will know who did it, and they will never be able to find that single cigarette butt.
He pretends like he doesn't smoke, leaving the house thinking I don't know where he's going. Off to sleep with that whore girl and smoke.
Once they find out that he's dead I will just act devastated and maybe they will blame the whore. She got tired of waiting for him to divorce his wife so she killed him because she gave him everything, but so did I.
Fighting
By Joanna Pratt
Both of our hands were swelling now, I hit the wall so he did too. Continuing to scream at each other, I cried while falling to the floor. Hugging my legs and leaning up against the same wall that had been painted red by our blood, he knelt down next to me. The blood started to trickle down his fist but he didn't care. All of his knuckles had been cracked and bruised before too. Instead of inspecting his own fist he gently lifted up mine to examine the bruising. Shaking his head at me he lightly kissed my hand.
Recurring Time
By Keila Foley
I woke up, after hours of sleeping, ready to leave. I took a quick run to open my senses, and heard the rustle of the autumn tree leaves, felt the wind rushing past at an inhuman speed, saw the lights of the city rushing to meet me, and smelled the delights it held within it.
For a while, I watched the people stroll about the theatre and restaurant areas.
After two hours passed, I went and got my dinner from a young couple exiting a restaurant. Turned vampire at 35, and doing this for 60 years; it's getting old.
