Winner, Winner, Winner

Mashed up flash anyone? I have been remiss lately in responding to the Six Sentence Story prompts. Yikes. Well this week the word is “pound” and I managed to pound out two that also fit the Carrot Ranch prompt to write of “winners”. Things arrive in threes, so please go so far as to read the third flash (which was actually the first flash) in response to “winning”. So… in 99 words and/or six sentences, no more and no less, here are three unrelated flashes all about winners.

 

Dethroned

“That’s an unfortunate jacket, stands right out. Irma’ll find her easy,” noted Old Man Foster.

Conspicuous enough at the Fall Fair in her too-new Johnson Wool jacket, she stood out also for not knowing what she didn’t know. For this flatlander upstart started a lot of commotion when her pound cake took the blue ribbon, the first time Irma’d seen red at the fair in over 35 years.

The transplant transgressor trembled as Irma raised her big bear-paw hands and wrapped her arms around her.

“Thank gawd,” Irma bawled. “Losing the Pound Cake Crown is a huge weight off.”

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One For the Team

Steps up, knocks her cleats, taps the plate with the bat. Checks her grip, the position of the trademark stamp. Focuses, looks out into right-field, imagines the ball going there; ignores the butterflies, the nerves that are her only companion at the plate. Ignores the team, the spectators, their eyes on her as she SWINGS! Her heart pounds in her head, muffling the ump’s call of strike one. Goes through the rituals again, lifts that bat again and POUNDS! that grass stained horsehide right over the first baseman’s head, revels in that winning sound as she rounds the bases.

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Taking the Prize

“Mrs. K, you won me at chest again! You’re good!”

“It’s chess, Aidan, and I beat you, I didn’t win you.” She didn’t correct his opinion of her skills, but as beginners were her only competition, her own game hadn’t improved much over the years.

 

“Mrs. K? Got time for some chess?”

“Aidan! Of course. How’s high school?”

Aidan gave some advice throughout the game, elucidated some of his moves for her. He beat her soundly. Her game improved.

“Well, see you later Mrs. K. I will win you again.”

He would, though she sure felt like the winner.

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