53-WORD STORY
Colleen Maloney
Winner of the December 2017 Prime Number Magazine 53-Word Story Contest
Judged by Holly Iglesias, author of Sleeping Things: Prose Poems
Our Prompt for December 2017
Boxing Day is the day after Christmas, and to most of us in the U.S. it is a day of mystery. Google it and you’ll see why we are confused. But one thing is certain: when someone is given a box, along with that box comes curiosity, anticipation, and maybe even some apprehension.
Write a 53-word story about a box
WINNER
Inheritance by Colleen Maloney
A broken watch, a pinup girl lighter, and a two-dollar bill was all that was left of her father. She closed the lid on the box and handed the crematorium release form back to the warden. She buried the box in the dumpster on her way out, but she kept the two-dollar bill.
53-Word Biography
Colleen Maloney is a full-time diaper wrangler on a farm in beautiful upstate New York. Her short stories “Mercury Rising” and “He Was a Brilliant Man” have appeared in the regional publication Slate Run Annual. Flash fiction is her newest obsession, giving her a feast of minute details that could otherwise go unnoticed.