Tell me a six-word story

Debates about story length, jumps, alternative forms and multiple entry points are hardly new – though they have taken on new urgency as we wrestle with engaging a changing, demanding audience.

As an editorial page editor, I had hundreds of arguments with letter writers who were certain they couldn't adequately express themselves within our 200-word limit. For years, we pointed to an Anchorage Daily News letter that had done a fine job in just 14 words:

I smoke pot. So what? Send me to jail. I can get it there.

That was eclipsed when I later discovered the winner of a nation-wide essay contest on the theme "good government" had used just six words:

Good government. Good government. Sit. Stay.

It turns out that lots of people have worked on telling stories in few words, sometimes called "flash fiction." I had never before encountered this story, which Ernest Hemingway reportedly called his best work:

For sale. Baby shoes, never worn.

I recently encountered this post, which encourages people to come up with "six word stories."

Let's play, too. You could leave your suggestions here as comments.