Theodore Jerome Cohen is the Readers’ Choice in this week’s Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Challenge. The winning entry is decided by the popular vote and rewarded with a special feature here today. (In the case of a tie, the writer who submitted an entry first is the winner per our rules.) Without further ado, here’s the winning story:
Battle Royale
by Theodore Jerome Cohen
“And you say this is the way you found them?”
“Yep. Had us one battle royal last night . . . huge, and I mean HUGE snowball fight while clearing the driveway. I thought ole Jed and his son, Luke, were going to get the better of us. Man, those guys could put together snowballs and fire them off faster than an UZI on full-automatic. I mean, we had everything we could do to just to protect ourselves, much less make a few snowballs and get off some shots at them!”
“So, what happened? They’re frozen. Frozen stiff. Appears you guys absolutely plastered Luke—look, his head is covered in ice. Did you knock him out or something? And Jed is still bent over with his hands in the snow, as if he’s making a snowball. God, did he suffer a heart attack? This doesn’t make any sense at all.”
“I know. They were beating us so badly that we retreated to the garage, took off our parkas and boots, and went in for hot chocolate. John went upstairs and fell asleep, and I dropped on the couch to watch some television. That’s the last thing I remember until this morning, when we found them like this. Just unbelievable.”
“Well, I guess you’d have to say: they won!”
Congratulations, Ted. Your stories are always fantastic.