Three Blind Muse: Seat Digging Christmas

This is the first installment of the Ashford Living Three Blind Muse series of short stories. Before we begin, here's a recap of the rules:


1. The story must include the three words
2. The theme must be taken from the three words
3. The story can be no longer than 200 words
4. The stories will be published once per week



The three words for this week, as the title suggests, were:


Seat, Digging, Christmas


So, without further ado, Story #1:

A Time for Reflection

Tom Billings thought of all the different seats he had sat in throughout his life: large fluffy ones in fancy hotels; small, plastic squat ones in his kindergarten classroom; spare, springy, modernist ones in the numerous offices he had worked; the chair in front of his TV that absorbed him when he returned home from a long day at work; the seats on the bus he took from the last T stop to his office; the chairs at his kitchen table that were so uncomfortable that they never ate there. He had no idea what his wife had liked about them.

Then there was the metal chair he had in his trunk, rescued from the dump for repair and use in his workshop. The same chair that police had found next to the hole he was digging to hide Dan Chant’s body before Tom got tired and just threw it in the river. The same Chair left in haste with blood still on the seat after a Christmas Eve fight with his wife lead Tom to actively end her suspected affair with Dan Chant.

Then Tom looked at the last seat he’d ever take. More straps that he had expected.

And here's the second entry for the week:

Precious Cargo

“This is a fine way to spend Christmas,” said Leroy, taking a seat on the ground next to Mark. He tossed the rusty shovel to the side of the hole the pair of men had been digging since 1 a.m.

“Do you think Baby Jesus would approve?” asked Mark.

“No, I don't suppose he would,” said Leroy. “But then again, I never gave Baby Jesus much thought.”

He reached into his coat and pulled out a flask. He took a quick swig of whiskey and passed it to Mark. Mark drank and shook his head as the liquid burned its way down. With his voice cracking he asked, “How deep do we have to dig this hole?”

Leroy glanced back at the car trunk. He could just make outthe vehicle’s outline by the light of the camping lantern they had positionedat their feet. The car, a tan 2001 Chevy Malibu, looked innocuous enough. Leroy bought it used from his sister-in-law in 2005 and had kept it up fairly well, despite the fact that it had more than 100,000 miles.

Leroy snapped out of his reverie and sprang to his feet. “Quit asking questions and start digging.”

So, what do you think? Is there a clear winner this week? Use the comment section below or send an email to rcdavis3rd@gmail.com to enter your vote for this week's Three Blind Muse winner. We'll announce the winner next week. 

The three words for next week's contest are:


Blond Sausage Chandelier


Quite a challenge.


We'll be putting our stories together here at Ashford Living. 
And if you want to be a guest writer, send your story to me, rcdavis3rd@gmail.com
Remember to follow the rules. If you do, we'd be more than happy to have you in the show!