Three-Minute Fiction Round 8: She Closed The Book…

Ready for some creative competition? Weekends on All Things Considered is launching Round 8 of its Three-Minute Fiction contest. Here’s what we look for: original, short fiction that can be read in less than three minutes — that’s no more than 600 words.

Each round, we have a judge who gives us a writing challenge. For Round 8, our judge is Luis Alberto Urrea, the award-winning author of 13 books, including The Devil’s Highway, The Hummingbird’s Daughter and his most recent release, Queen of America.

For Round 8, Urrea wants you to start your story with this sentence: