It's On Again - Round Six

My hands momentarily left the wheel last night as I drove home from attending a glorious wedding in Macon, GA held over this past weekend.  What brought such delight to my clapping hands?  Well, the announcement of the next Three-Minute-Fiction-Challenge hosted by NPR.  The rules are simple:

Our contest has a simple premise. We're looking for original, short fiction that can be read in less than three minutes — that's no more than 600 words.

Each writing assignment has its own distinctive parameters, and Round Six is as follows:

 At some point in your story, one character must tell a joke. And, one character must cry.

To be clear, the character who tells the joke can also be the character who cries, and the crying does not have to be in reference to the joke. Just at some point within your 600-word story, those two actions have to happen,

Listening to the Judge of this Round, I sighed inwardly in despair.  She is not a fan of the Knock-Knock joke.  Aaah - a strike against me from the get-go.  While I am one who is quick to laughter despite my serious nature, and moderately moved to tears over touching sentiment, I am definitely not a joke-teller.  This will be a very daunting assignment for me.

Still, as I showered this morning (one of my most fruitful places of inspired thought) I had a story line come to me.  We'll see if it will stand the test as it undergoes the pre-tumbling process of thinking through, or the beginning sketches of composition; but inside I am still clapping my hands at the fun of it all.

Join me?  If interested, you can find out more at NPR's website.  And once again, I'll post the story I enter right here, at a later date.

The following is an original I made up while returning from our weekend's adventures yesterday with my kids.
Me: Knock-knock
L: Who's there?
Me: Attorney
L: Attorney who?
Me: A turney road we must travel as we make our way home.

If only my dear L were the Judge, it'd be in the bag.  She just loves my jokes.