A big thanks goes to everyone who entered and participated in the December period of the Short-Form Writing Competition. Your writing, reading, voting, and commenting, along with one Editorial pick, has placed four more winners next to bestselling authors on Amazon.com!
Without further ado, the newest additions to the Amazon Shorts program are...
August - Mandi Gordon from IL
New Teeth - Bharat Shekhar from New-Delhi, India
Nightfall - Barry Tepperman from Pittsburgh, PA
The Wall - Louis Richard de la Pau from Kjustendil, Bulgaria
Listed below you will find short excerpts from the winning entries. These stories will be available for purchase on Amazon.com in the coming weeks. There will be an announcement notifying you when they are available.
The Gather.com Members' Picks are...
August
IL
I don't remember the 3 block walk back to our office building or much of what Sara grumbled about you. But I do remember going straight to my cubicle and pulling your business card out of my pocket. I looked at it and laughed at the logo; a small fox, crouching as if to pounce. Beneath that was simply your name, cell phone number and "Attorney at Law." I could still smell your Polo as I dropped your card in my trash can.
3 days later I was leaving work, looking forward to a quiet weekend of ice cream and videos, when I saw you again. You were sitting on the wall of the fountain across the street. I could have seen you there if I had looked out the window near my cubicle.
At first I was just going to keep walking, pretend I hadn't seen you. But you looked up and grinned at me before I could make my escape. I gave up a small smile not knowing why and stood my ground once again as I waited for you to cross the street. You took your eyes off me only for a second, just enough time to dodge a bus. Your smile seemed to be growing larger as you came nearer to me. I took a deep breath when you were six feet away. At four feet I got nervous, and then you were two feet from me, saying "Hello, good to see you, how are you?" My lungs released and I felt dizzy and happy to see you.
Gather member John D. responds: "Wow, Beautiful and with abrupt plot twists. I loved it."
New Teeth
New-Delhi, India
A crocodile with no teeth?
Lachhu, the lame lion, roared with laughter when he heard about it. Sshanti, the stuttering snake rolled on the floor with mirth. Even HaHa (the hyena who could no longer hunt) almost choked, he chuckled so much. In fact, Dantu, the toothless crocodile, became the laughing stock of the OLD AGE HOME FOR ONCE FEROCIOUS ANIMALS, or HUFF-PUFF as it was better known.
He was sick of it. Oh! Dantu was sick, and he was tired, and he was hungry. His stomach growled, and his heart howled, and his face scowled. But no one cared. He scared no one. For, a toothless croc is no better than a dog without a bark. He is no better than a bow without an arrow. When Dantu chased a chicken, the chicken clucked angrily at him. When Dantu bit a wildebeest, the wildebeest laughed. Oh, how sick Mr. Dantu was of the whole affair.
For days he sat in his cave at the HUFF-PUFF and cried. In the evenings he sobbed. At night he wailed. In other words, he was sad. He was sorry. He was miserable.
Gather member Delly R. responds: "Grand Children's story! Bowled me over!"
Nightfall
Pittsburgh, PA
Paul's diplomatic skills were far more refined than mine. I was callow, shallow. We joked that if he ever wanted to leave medicine there'd be a job waiting for him at the UN. A diminutive man, soft-spoken and completely unflappable, he'd served a number of years as a primary care doctor in the Armed Forces before he'd earned the privilege of coming back to residency to prepare for a specialty. He ejected us all from around Ben's bedside and went in behind the closed curtain alone. Ben was still being salty. I surmised he started most days with an argument and rather relished the exercise. Shortly, things became apparently more civilized behind the curtain as the pitch of conversation fell to one you could barely hear. Paul emerged a few moments later.
"Well, he's agreed to stay. He knows he's diabetic and needs insulin and that can be big trouble for him until he learns how to handle it."
"Did you find out anything more about him?"
"No thanks to you, Barry, no. He's playing those cards close to his chest and we'll just have to keep chipping away at his defenses until he wants to give up some information. And - oh yes, Barry - he's your patient."
Just what I needed. A patient who hated my guts -mine alone to look after. Somehow I'd have to establish an easier rapport with him. But we had time...
Gather member Dolphi D. responds: "Barry - A great story, very well told! Your patience and perseverance is remarkable, because of which you learned some unforgettable lessons vital to a career in medicine, but seldom taught in a medical school."
The Gather.com Editorial Pick is...
The Wall
Kjustendil, Bulgaria
The maids had been crying. She could see their eyes were swollen, red - the youngest girl's lips were still trembling. But there was no time to say anything. The soldiers were standing there on the white marble floor, the black muzzles of their machine guns pointing downwards. But their attitude seemed to suggest that the ominous weaponry could just as easily be pointing in her direction. She resisted the urge to shudder. At least we're not going the same way as Nicky and his family, she thought gratefully. Sharing the Russian Tsar's fate had been her greatest fear ever since the results of the plebiscite had been announced. But her cousin Umberto had telephoned her from Rome and reassured her before he and the other members of the Royal Family left for Egypt.
She could still hear the King's deep voice. "They're giving us all safe passage, Adela." The mixture of resignation and pragmatism that he'd shown in deciding to leave country before any official decision on his future was taken had given her the courage she needed to face the soldiers and suddenly-important politicians when they arrived at the palace the following morning.
"Addio, Giorgio," she whispered to the old man facing her. He bowed, his rheumy eyes filling with tears as he kissed her hand. "Look after the other servants for me. They're relying on you now."
Discreetly, she put an envelope in his hand and he slipped it into the pocket of his black morning coat with just the slightest nod of acknowledgement.
Gather member Michelle B. responds: "Wonderful and moving"
***
Check Amazon.com/shorts to find your fellow Gather members' winning entries, along with many other engaging stories, all of which can be downloaded for $0.49 each!
For more Amazon Shorts info, including announcements about the next Amazon Shorts winners, and future contest periods visit amazonshorts.gather.com.
Once again, congratulations to all the winners!
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Comments: 21
My story The Wall was the other one by that name in the competition.
Congrats for everyone who won.