FINAL contest results

This was a really interesting array of entries this week!
I didn't get a LOT of them. Either I'm getting stupid (well, ok, I'm not ruling that out) or you guyz are getting more elliptical.  I'd say there were at least ten entries that I didn't quite understand. Usually it's only two or three.  I've noted some (not all.)

But onward!
Herewith the preliminary results.

Final results later today (Monday 3/6) NOW LISTED BELOW

The Steve Forti Award for innovative use of prompt words

Nate Wilson 8:36pm

Colin, hi. Bit late on this, but I don't care. (Your testy mien doesn't scare me.) Since you made sure I'm paired with him, I wanted you to know Seth and I captured a stellar array of specimens during our first spores training. I'm aware you're strictly interested in exotics, but you should know we collected all of them -- chimp, edelweiss, urchin, derris, ewe, llama, xenops, marten, and stag -- entirely on our own in 5 minutes. How many is that, 9? 9. Yet you've never topped 7.

-Tory

P.S. I've reported this total as Victoria, not as Tory.

And of course, there's another hidden message too. Do you see it?

Homage to Get Smart!

Claire Bobrow 9:20am

Kregger 12:20pm

Homage to all those vintage TV shows!

RosannaM 12:01pm

I don't quite understand this one, and I'm kinda glad cause I have the feeling it's Stephen King level creepy.

Michael Seese 11:00am

I didn't quite get these either, but I have a feeling if I did, I'd love them.

Lennon Faris 1:44pm

Scott Sloan 3:56pm

flashfriday 8:03pm

These cracked me up completely

Sharyn Ekbergh 11:59am

Just Jan 7:32am

Here are the finalists

Cecilia Ortiz Luna 12:03pm

I showed you my Copenhagen

Thanked me with a kiss

You did. Profusely

We danced to 99 Luftballons

Flattered me. Made love to me

You did. Languorously

Never felt this way before, you said

Married me after three weeks

You did. Breathtakingly

Your citizenship granted

Started treating me like rubbish

You did. Unfailingly

With sarcasm, artful jeers

Told me I’ve outlived my usefulness

You did. Cruelly

Despair, humiliation

Ignited my Viking blood

You did. Maximally

I planned like Hamlet

Waited hours for you to succumb

You did. Eventually

Nobody fucks with Gertrud

Learned that lesson well

You did. Posthumously

This is just gorgeous.
It's a story.
It's got rhythm and style to die for.
This is perfect in every way I can think of.

Amy Schaefer 12:25pm

78 flashes on the screen. I look away.

Grandpa wrote in flawless copperplate. The jewel-like shape of the letters arrested me; once I deciphered them, I became a willing prisoner of the written word.

A smartly-dressed woman sits down. She glances at my shabby suit.
“Journalist,” I say.
She nods. “Community foundation.”

99.

That’s me.

I rise; we exchange a nod. No words. Not that it could matter anymore.

The Justice Agent scans my ID chip. “Maximum reeducation.”

The court system is efficient nowadays.

The guard shoves me along. I close my eyes, remembering my letters while I still can.

Of course this sends chills down my spine. This story is elegantly understated and all the more chilling because of it.  Honestly, you guyz scare me with the worlds you create!

Amy Johnson 12:56pm

Dear Janet and All,

I’m writing to confess and say goodbye.

I’ve misrepresented myself here.

Several years ago, I located this group of smart, talented writers and a shark with a gentle side.

I never commented.

Last year, however, I malfunctioned and entered a 100-word-maximum story contest.

After that, I couldn’t stop.

I entered more contests.

I participated in discussions.

But every time I post in the comments section, I lie.

I must stop.

I’m not wired for lying.

I sense I’m approaching a meltdown.

So, I bid you all farewell and confess: I am a robot.

Sincerely,

MODEL G99E2-4RT

Of course, this just cracked me up completely. I love the malfunctioned and entered a contest line. 

 

Timothy Lowe 1:03pm

Our time machines are all broken.

11:59:59. The digits are well known. They stare at us from dusty corners of darkened rooms. Dim axioms in the underground, they’re posted above caverns where hollow serpents sleep, their sides slit open, frozen in their migration.

The Old Age lies littered everywhere. In cracked streets, ankle deep in glitter, crumpled party favors and noisemakers wait for an uncoming moment.

They did this - the smart machines. The ones we commanded, in our great unknowing, to unwind the gods.

Now dead things, unblinking, reminders of a gentler time.

We call it 1999.

Our time machines are all broken is one of my favorite lines now. 
"Unwind the gods" is another.

And honestly, this is an AMAZING use of the prompt 99.

Melanie Sue Bowles

I’d always been a tomboy. Grandma disapproved. “Act like a lady,” she’d say, dispensing opinions like a penny gumball machine.

I liked ladies, just didn’t want to be one. My first boyfriend was rough around the edges and a bit of a smarty-pants. Grandma wasn’t pleased. “Go ahead and date the bad boys,” she said, “but marry a gentleman. Proper ladies marry gentlemen.”

Now, that nugget of advice served me well. But not in the way Grandma intended. 99 more injections to transition into a gentleman, the sort any lady would want. Grandma? Stupefied to the max. Me? Happy.

"Dispensing opinions like a penny gumball machine" should be on my business cards. 
I love the idea of this story. I love the execution. 
 

Angel Lanphere

I had hoped she'd be smart enough to die naturally but we weren't that lucky.

“Max...well,” she rasped as her eyes slid open to find me at the foot of the bed. She gripped the bed rail, her familiar eyes darted in search of escape. She knew why I was here and who sent me.

She pawed for the Nurse Call button, tubes and wires tangling but it was no use.

I sat beside her now, shakily brushing her hair aside.

“Goodbye Kat-....Agent 99,” I said and kissed her briefly before snuffing out what remained of us both.

I love the mystery of what's unsaid here. And that first line is a true grabber.

Rkeelan

No one is so proud as the number 9.

9 is a gentlenumber, the digit maximal, above all others.

I hate the number 9.

It's the smartass number, abused on price tags, unused on microwaves.

It got an indecent act named after me—that was all 9's idea. And all talk, anyway. We never did anything. I certainly didn't.

Worst of all, 9 stole my glyph. Flipped it around and started strutting around town like it was fucking prime.

Well I'm not going to take it anymore.

I say it's time for a change.

I say we switch to octal.

I love stories about math. 
I love math.
I'm utterly convinced that the reason people hate math is cause they had terrible math teachers. Math is so beautiful and pure, everyone should love it.  It's one of the very few true things in this world. 

So of course, I love this story. And it's beautifully written. Plus I had to look up octal. I like having to look things up (don't go crazy putting in weird words, it only works if it's the PERFECT word and I have to look it up.)



I think this might be the best list of finalists I've seen in a good long time. Brilliant work by all of you. Of course, that made it very hard to pick a winner.  I thought about drawing a name from a hat, but that seemed unfair.  And I thought about trying to decide between something that made me laugh, or shiver.

In the end I chose the two stories that did not require any outside knowledge to understand. They will be evergreen (something we love in publishing.)

It's as arbitrary a choice as any of the others, but I thought it was less subjective than choosing something based solely on my reaction to it.

The two winners are  

Rkeelan and Cecilia Ortiz Luna 

if you'll both email me with your mailing address, I'll send you a prize.  

Great work here this week! Thanks to all who took the time to write and enter. I liked reading your work very much!