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Three-Minute Fiction
Cowbells
February 20, 2011 I don't know who else to share this with, but it must be documented that when you and Lilac Blue would hang cowbells from the boxcars you boosted, we could hear the bangs and dull clangs for miles at night. Thanks for letting us know which way you were headed.
Three-Minute Fiction
Teeth
February 17, 2011 It wasn't such a bad thing sharing one's bedroom with a complete stranger. A total nincompoop. It was tolerable. It was required and expected and not even open for discussion. A 10-year-old girl and her great aunt should get along just fine. Perfectly fine. Peachy.
Three-Minute Fiction
Fingerpaints
February 13, 2011 That wasn't how the story went. She had, in fact, made a chocolate torte. That much was true, but Mr. Piedmont had never stopped by, and certainly hadn't eaten any of the cake. Nor had anyone written to the local newspaper to share the recipe.
Three-Minute Fiction
Casualties
February 13, 2011 In the heyday, by which I mean 2007, little luxuries began appearing in the office. Fruit baskets from happy clients. Bigger baskets of rarer fruit from management, happy that we had happy clients.
Three-Minute Fiction
How To Kill A Live Chicken
February 11, 2011 At the start of the New Year, I had a list of a lot of radical things I was going to do new this year. I worked as a business manager for an organic farm in Alameda County. Some restaurant owners called me the tomato lady, which I didn't like.
Three-Minute Fiction
Remember
February 11, 2011 It was 2:00 pm, and she was running. She hated running. Loathed it, really. She felt like it was something only masochists would truly enjoy. That's what made it so appropriate. Today she was punishing herself.
Three-Minute Fiction
The Crimson Tree
February 9, 2011 Lan comes late to work and her boss screams, "You should have been here at 7 o'clock!" Lan says, "Why? What happened at 7 o'clock?" Yesterday, that was a joke. But this morning it is not funny; it is like the turtle with the beautiful shell. Flip it over and the animal is rotten.
Three-Minute Fiction
Departure
February 6, 2011 Even if he did wake up, you could always tell him that you couldn't sleep, that the next-door cat is in heat again and the wailing on the rooftop was unbearable, that maybe you'd heat up a glass of milk, watch 15 minutes of the Weather Channel until you drift into sleep.
Three-Minute Fiction
Freedom
February 4, 2011 Work will set you free, Yakov read as we walked, together, under the iron sign into the compound. Harsh, guttural German commands shepherded each of us into different groups, and I ended up in the same group as Yakov.
Three-Minute Fiction
The One
February 4, 2011 Daniel arrives at the Mirth café with a little bit of a jump in his stomach. The phone conversations he has had with Melanie, the blind date he is meeting tonight, have given him sparks. His friends' wives think he's a player but this feels different like she could be the one he's been waiting for.
Three-Minute Fiction
Charidy's Case
January 30, 2011 "Seven-hundred dollars," Charidy repeats. She clicks her tongue on the roof of her mouth each time she peels a piece of bark off of the birch tree in the center of Bakers Field.
Three-Minute Fiction
Soft-Shoe
January 30, 2011 "What do you call a sleeping cow?" A bulldozer, I think. I try to think it as loudly as I can, as though the words could cut through the haze of medication and leap into Joseph's head.
Three-Minute Fiction
Three-Minute Fiction Round 6: Laughing And Crying
January 8, 2011 It's back! Three-Minute Fiction has returned to weekends on All Things Considered. We're bringing you a new judge and a new challenge to start off this new year.
