GUY RAZ, Host: We're getting closer to finding the winner of round seven of our Three-Minute Fiction contest. Until then, here are two more excerpts from among the 4,000 stories that came in.</s>SUSAN STAMBERG: After about a year, her bathrobe pockets went back to just lint and tissues, and in no time at all, the divorce was finalized.</s>BOB MONDELLO: She thought of words, and how the first word she had spoken was carefully recorded and curated. She wondered what her last word would be, and if there would be anyone there to record it.</s>PAUL SIMON: (Singing) Everybody loves the sound of a train in the distance. Everybody thinks it's true. Everybody loves the sound of a train in the distance. Everybody things it's true.</s>GUY RAZ, Host: You can find the full versions of these stories and others at our website npr.org/threeminutefiction. And that's threeminutefiction, all spelled out, no spaces.
We've finished reading the nearly 4,000 short stories listeners submitted during this round of our Three-Minute Fiction contest. Until our judge, novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, picks the winner, we're bringing you excerpts of stories that have caught our eye. This week, NPR's Susan Stamberg reads a passage from "Why I'm Here" by Renee Fisher of Arlington, Va., and Bob Mondello reads a passage from "Post Holiday Blues" by Anna Geletka of Greenville, N.C.