captainsblog | It's my way or the Heming way!

The fine folks over at Geeking Out About (who include several of you, here or on That Other Thing) are running a story contest to celebrate their first anniversary. The short of it is that there's no long of it:

Write an original short story of exactly 50 words in length. Yes, “original” means no fan-fiction. You can enter as many times as you like, but each entry should be in a separate email, and only one of your entries can count as a winner.

How-to-enter and such is at the link. When I first saw it, I was reminded of the probably apocryphal tale of Hemingway once proving that he could write a technically complete piece of fiction in only SIX words, yet I couldn't figure out a way to work that into a times-not-quite-nine entry without being disrespectful.

Then Eleanor told me about Jackie. She's a neighbor who often walks her two dogs past our house, and they got to talking the other day. Other than changing her name, and adding the Hemingway reference, these fifty words are true:

Jill brought the newspaper ad to her knitting group:

For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.

She’d answered the ad. They now knit blankets for babies stillborn at a nearby hospital. For a few moments at the end of a tragedy, they can be held with love, and buried with dignity.

I don't particularly care if it wins. But I do, particularly, care.