I entered a writing competition recently through NYC Midnight and it is currently under review by the judges. I’m nervous and excited, and won’t hear if I go to the next round until January. I was given the following and only allowed no more than 250 words:
Genre: Drama / Action: Reject An Offer / Word: Drop
I had 24 hours and came up with the following story. Let me know if you like it and feel free to share!
To Know
Signing made his head spin as the room closed in around him. Color faded to gray as he watched the pen fall end-over-end. It was an ordinary plastic one with the hospital’s name scrawled on the side.
As soon as the pen he dropped landed on the floor, he knew. He understood his life would change forever. It already had. He knew his shaking hands would not reach down to pick it up.
His eyes lingered on the writing instrument, thinking about how much power it had. A few strokes and an offer of hope would be contractually given. But where one saw hope, he foresaw pain, fatigue, and uncertainty.
He heard the doctor clear his throat and begin to speak. Yet, before he heard a word he rose from the unforgiving chair, and smiled through the pain he had become used to. A pain he knew would only grow over time.
Even so, he walked to the door knowing. Knowing that he has rejected their “offer”. He was in control. He may not add much to his eighty-two years, but he knew it would be spent with loved ones, doing what he wanted when he could.
Turning the doorknob was like resetting a clock and day one brought a smile to his face. The air was somehow more fragrant and the gray was replaced with colors he hadn’t appreciated since he was a child. He knew it was going to be a wondrous rest of his life.
