Brevity is Beautiful: Tell a Story in 100 Words

I started a writing group at a local senior center. At our last meeting (which was also our first), I asked everyone to write a 100-word story for our meeting tomorrow. To get prepared, I looked at my own inventory of 100-word stories and discovered I have 96 of them! Here are three I’m going to share with the group tomorrow, just for fun.

Leavings

“The mailman left a sock in the mailbox.” Bernie tossed the mail on the table – three store flyers, a political ad, and a white sock.

Harriett rifled through the mail, then held up the sock with two fingers. “At least it’s clean.”

“Do you think it was his own sock or did he find it?” Bernie wondered about this and the other things the mailman had left – a woman’s belt, a Stephen King book, and a license plate left leaning on the railing because it was too big for the mailbox.

“It’s the kind he wears. I’ve watched him walking.”

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No Sale

“Are you thinking of buying the house with cash?”

“Well, I could. I have cash in the car.”

“That’s pretty unusual that a person would have enough cash in their car to buy a house.”

The buyer laid down in the grass and then turned his gaze to the foundation.

“I see cracks.”

The seller followed his gaze to where the cracks were supposed to be but there were none.

“And the porch steps, they seem askew.” The buyer sat up.

“You see many faults in the house.”

Nodding softly, the buyer went to his car and lit a cigarette.

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Soft Feet

“My birthday was on Easter once when I was a little girl.”

“I know. You’ve told that story before.”

“It’s a good story to tell, so you should just listen again. Be a nice person.”

“Fine. Tell me.”

“I was very little and we lived in Hastings. My mother was very sad because her sister Marjorie had died. The night of the phone call, my father cried at the dinner table and my mother stopped speaking. We tiptoed during the day and slept holding our breath. On Easter, my mother slipped into my room before dawn holding three chocolate eggs.”