Recently, a short story challenge was proffered to members of my writing group as part of a Holiday/Christmas Party. Write a short story using ten specified words (see below), read your story to the assembled guests, and the best of the lot wins a prize. I couldn’t resist and below you’ll find the results of my efforts.

The Ten Words

• Three wise Men
• Star
• Tinsel
• Bells
• Reindeer
• Jolly
• Stockings
• Mistletoe
• Partridge
• Inn

(With a tip of the hat to that old English nursery rhyme, Three Blind Mice)

THREE WISE MEN. Three wise men. See how they whine. See how they whine.
They all had to stay at the Holiday INN,
A one STAR rating was all it could win,
The JOLLY desk clerk didn’t help worth a sin,
Three wise men.

Two REINDEER. Two reindeer. See how they grunt. See how they grunt.
And the BELLS that they wear make a terrible noise,
It doesn’t make it easy for our three boys,
They call the front desk and say, “For Christ’s sake, that sound, it annoys”,
Two reindeer.

One PARTRIDGE. One partridge. See how it sings. See how it sings.
It sang to the inn keeper’s daughter, it said what’s wrong,
She said, “My daddy won’t buy me a thong”,
And my boyfriend hangs MISTLETOE and comes on like King Kong,
What do I know, the bird said, I just sit at the end of a Xmas song,
Maybe ask the wise men, I think they’re playing ping pong,
I must mention TINSEL and STOCKINGS or this story I’ll have to prolong,
One partridge.

Ta da!!! The vase I won is magnificent. However, I must add, I think all participants won the same vase (must have been a sale going on). Kind of takes me back to pony league where there are no losers (and, for that matter, no winners either).

But, most important to me, it’s the thrill of the performance.

Until next week – Don’t Look Down
by William Darrah Whitaker