Oil Savannah Chun, 13Dallas, TX
April 2022
Highlight from Stonesoup.com
Flash Contest #37: Write about a character who has everything they wanted but still isn’t happy Gone Scarlet He, 10Scarsdale, NY Once, in a faraway land, there was a person. Yes, a person. A plain, plain, person. This “person,” Chuo, was always wanting something. Always, always wanting, wanting something. Chuo lived in a small hut on the outskirts of Happiness Town, a town that was as happy and joyful as a buzzing bee collecting loads of pollen and nectar. A happy, happy, joyful town. This time, Chuo wanted ice cream. He longed for the creamy texture of the ice cream and gooey consistency of his favorite syrup, Super Happy Yummy Creamy Maple Syrup. Mmm, he thought, already drooling at the mouth. Super Happy Yummy Creamy Maple Syrup is my favorite. Yes, all he thought was of what he wanted and how it was the best and his favorite. His best, best, favorite thing. As he scrambled from his hut and into Happiness Town, flowers of the rainbow were blooming all around him, large crowds of people were zooming by, chattering like they had no care in the world, and birds sang in the distance. “Lovely day,” he greeted a person walking by him, but he really was not feeling lovely. “I can’t feel lovely until I’ve gotten my ice cream,” he muttered to himself as he came up to the usual shining stand of the ice cream shop. The shop had bright, bursting, beautiful colors painted on it. The wooden deck was standing on top of a large flower bed, which was exploding with color. Metal white chairs were propped on the deck, and many people wearing all sorts of clothes were occupying them. They sure do love color, thought Chuo, miserably. “Three scoops of Neapolitan ice cream with a large drizzle of Super Happy Yummy Creamy Maple Syrup and black licorice gooey sprinkles,” said Chuo to the cashier, who was already scooping out his ice cream. “Here you go: $5.00. And thank you!” replied the cashier with a humongous grin spread from the corners of his face. Chuo paid up, then hurried to the nearest unoccupied seat with his heaping scoops of ice cream. The ice cream looked absolutely delicious; the scoops of ice cream themselves were the perfect mixture of sweet and icy cold, and they were creamy like no other. The syrup was too good to be true—the gooey, sweet rainbow sauce was dripping down the scoops of ice cream and melting into it, turning the ice cream even sweeter. It had jet-black sprinkles mixed into it, and it was shining in the sunlight. Chuo licked his lips, then dug in, snarfing up the ice cream in one huge gulp. This time, Chuo grinned a huge grin. A huge, huge, grin. Read the rest of Scarlet’s story at https://stonesoup.com/contests/. About the Stone Soup Flash Contests Stone Soup holds a flash contest during the first week of every month. The month’s first Weekly Creativity prompt provides the contest challenge. Submissions are due by midnight on Sunday of the same week. Up to five winners are chosen for publication on our blog. The winners, along with up to five honorable mentions, are announced in the following Saturday newsletter. Find all the details at stonesoup.com/post/stone-soup-monthly-flash-contest-winners-roll/.
Editor’s Note
This issue has two central threads running through it: cats and . . . sports. When I am working on an issue, I always look for both obvious thematic links—like subject matter, like cats!—and then also something less tangible and easy to describe, something maybe about the energy of the pieces that seems similar, or the style, or simply a subtler theme. For me, the stories and poems in this issue share a certain light energy and even zaniness, as well as a concern with the animal—whether that takes the shape of an actual animal, like a cat or a dog or a squirrel or a snail, or whether that is about tapping into the animal within each of us. Our raw athletic energy, for instance. These two themes meet each other particularly well in Leo Roiphe’s story “Squirrel,” where a boy actually turns into an animal, experiencing a few hours in the intensely physical, reactive life of a squirrel. I also love how the animal perspective is depicted in Sevi Stahl’s poem “Roo’s Song,” written from the point of view of a dog, and with a notable lack of punctuation that perfectly captures that breathless canine excitement. This month, taking inspiration from these pieces, try your hand at channeling some animal energy—and remember, you don’t need to inhabit an animal to channel one! Enjoy the April showers,
