Three-Minute Fiction
Our contest has a simple premise: Listeners send in original short stories that can be read in three minutes or less. Our Round Two winner, chosen by The New Yorker's James Wood, is "Last Seen" by Cathy Formusa of Port Townsend, Wash. You can read her story and more of our favorites here.
iStockphoto.comRound Two Winner: Last Seen
()"The nurse left work at five o'clock." He sauntered his words at me like he was king of the street.
Round Two Runner-Up: The First Session()
September 27, 2009 The nurse left work at five o'clock, still wearing her jade kimono. She boarded a crowded shuttle bus and, despite heavy traffic, arrived at the marriage counselor's office on time. Her husband was late.
Round Two Runner-Up: Poetry At Six()
September 27, 2009 The nurse left work at five o'clock. Having written the sentence on the chalk board, Mr. Treadwell turns to his students. "What's the meter here? Anyone?"
Round Two Contender: Ice()
September 24, 2009 "The nurse left work at five o'clock," said the young police officer, looking down at his small black notebook. "Her husband called her in missing at approximately 7:30, after she didn't make it home for dinner. Said she would never be that late without calling."
Round Two Contender: The Soft Stuff()
September 23, 2009 The nurse left work at five o'clock. Mr. Sertane could hear the rubber shoes' squeaks as they passed in the linoleum hallway every night and the hydraulic door's slow hiss as it closed shut.
Round Two Contender: Postmortem()
September 22, 2009 The nurse left work at five o'clock. She had seen the dead woman's husband sitting, near the entrance, under the yellow sign that Doctor Ahmed had hung some months ago. "While You Wait, Meditate."
Round Two Contender: Your Dad Called Today()
September 20, 2009 The nurse left work at five o'clock. Twenty minutes later her dirty blue Chevy crunched onto the snow-packed driveway. Inside the house she shrugged her shoulders out of her coat and let it fall onto a dining room chair.
Round Two Contender: It Used To Mean The World To Me()
September 20, 2009 The nurse left work at five o'clock. I had written that on my place mat and you asked if it was code and I said no, it was what I planned on calling my first detective novel.
Round Two Contender: The Price Of Perfect Pies()
September 18, 2009 "The nurse left work at five o'clock." She hummed, turning the pages of a thin-paged cookbook, tapping her shoe.
Round Two Contender: Of Women and Ferrets()
September 12, 2009 The nurse left work at five o'clock. The argument began at 5:01. "Weird things happen to me. A lot," I say to my husband as I hop off the table in the hospital's emergency room.
Round Two Contender: The Shift()
September 5, 2009 The nurse left work at five o'clock. You realized she was gone, and sat up in bed, suddenly and unexpectedly bereft. You bargained with yourself to keep your dignity. In the end you think you might have won. You did not limp down to the nurses' station at the end of the hall and beg her to stay.
Round Two Contender: Yes, We're Open()
August 28, 2009 "The nurse left work at five o' clock." Gary lifted his head from the newspaper. His heavy-lidded eyes always gave the impression that he was half asleep. I took it on faith that he struggled with back acne, the way he was always scratching at his neck.
Round Two Contender: Working Hours()
August 22, 2009 The nurse left work at five o'clock. My heart stopped beating at 5:01.
Round One Winner: Not That I Care()
July 12, 2009 There goes our neighbor, Jim, running into the street again. He grabs one of the ducks crossing. Doesn't even look to see if anyone is looking, just scampers out — hunched over, elbows bent and reaching behind him like he's trying to grow wings or is throwing himself to the asphalt - then scoops a duck and holds it with both hands close to his chest and runs back into his house.
Round One Runner-Up: Mickey Mickey You're So Fine()
August 1, 2009 When I moved into the mahogany tree house on the corner of Newton Street, there was a recently divorced mom and 5-year-old boy living on the first floor. They were kind of shell-shocked and so was the dad, living a few blocks away.
Round One Runner-Up: Constellations()
August 1, 2009 In the mess hall, K.D. is talking loud about how fat his girl's ass is. You know, how even women can't help but stare when she walks by. Old men have to stop, clutch their chests. All that.
Round One Runner-Up: Allechka()
August 1, 2009 Yesterday my friend Misha brought me a small, brown package, hand-carried from Moscow. It had my name on it in Russian, and my phone number. It contained an old green corduroy skirt I had left hanging in my dear friend Allechka's closet. Friends of friends had jammed it into their suitcases until it finally found me.
Round One Runner-Up: Plumstreet()
July 12, 2009 In the fifth grade there was a boy named Plumstreet. That wasn't his real name. We called him Plumstreet because he came from the projects.
Round One Runner-Up: Something To Crow About()
July 12, 2009 One sweltering afternoon, a boy, still wringing wet, walked into Byler's Bar and announced, "I sunk Danny's rowboat." He was nobody's kid we knew, so Bill Byler, the barkeep and proprietor, made a motion with his hand, a little flick of the wrist, and simply said, "Sunk it or not, no minors allowed," but the boy didn't go. Instead, he balled up those little fists of his and said, "Danny's boat is in the Mississippi mud and I'm the one that put it there." His voice was kind of screechy and shrill and we all looked at him.
