Monica Bustamante Wagner, @Monica_BW hosted 5MinuteFiction yesterday along with her guest judge Shelley Watters, @Shelley_Watters and man did she do a great job! Thanks again, Monica, I hope you had fun!

Don’t forget, the 5MinuteFiction Blog Tour is still chugging along. Be there for the other stops:

March 22: Richard Wood, @rbwood host of The Word Count podcast!

March 29: JM Frey, @scifrey science fiction writer and fanthropologist living in Toronto. Her  book TRIPTYCH is available from Dragon Moon Press: http://bit.ly/hORLkN!

April 5: Sam Adamson, @FutureNostalgic one of the authors involved in the The Splintered Lands collaborative writing project, among other things!

But, never mind that because we have yesterday’s WINNER to announce! The prompt was “lazy.” So give a vigorous round of applause for….

Corinne O’Flynn, @CorinneOFlynn who had 24 votes at 9 a.m. EST.

And here’s the entry! CONGRATULATIONS!

2) Corinne O’Flynn

I never got to say goodbye. I’ll never get over that. My brother would certainly never forgive me. I could see in his eyes that he didn’t want to hear my excuses, not today. Never again.

I woke up five minutes late, just five. But that translated into two hours late when I missed the express train and had to take the local. I imagine they tried to delay for me. But time waits for no one.

Five minutes late. I knew they all thought I was just lazy. I knew my hair was still a mess. I grabbed a glance in the side-view mirror in one of the parked cars and saw mascara caked under my eyes from sleeping on my face. I licked my fingers and tried to wipe my eyes clean. Maybe they would see my eyes and assume it was from tears.

I walked up to the grave site through a sea of the mourners as they were filing out past me. Nobody met my gaze. Each person shook hands with my brother and whispered small words as they stepped on to the the emotional safety of the freshly cut lawn.

My mother always joked that I’d be late for my own funeral. I don’t think any of us could have imagined that I’d ever miss hers.

Amazing work, Corinne. Congratulations!