GUY RAZ, host: We have a winner in round three of our Three-Minute Fiction contest. And who is it? You'll have to wait 'till tomorrow when our judge, author and ALL THINGS CONSIDERED book critic Alan Cheuse reveals the story he's picked from the more than 3,000 original short stories you submitted.</s>GUY RAZ, host: The stories, as always, must be under 600 words, fiction that can be read in three minutes or less. And this round, we asked you to look at a photograph we posted at npr.org/threeminutefiction. That photo should be the inspiration for the story. And just a reminder, we're not accepting any more submissions for this round.</s>GUY RAZ, host: Now, we don't want to leave you completely on edge, so here's an excerpt from one of our weekly favorites. It's a story called "Steel Wool" by Kristin Westbrook from Arlington, Virginia.</s>PETRA MAYER: (Reading) The season of cleaning, the wife observes, comes directly after the season of closeness - of holding hands, of curling around each other like sleeping cats. Her mother taught her how to clean and wash and fold towels into thirds lengthwise, but she didn't tell her about the season of cleaning or how it comes; how one minute she'd be laughing and dancing with her husband in the kitchen, and the next minute the phone would ring and he'd leave her there, holding the spatula high in the air, looking at the burners and thinking about steel wool.</s>GUY RAZ, host: The story is called "Steel Wool" by Kristin Westbrook. And it was read by producer Petra Mayer.</s>GUY RAZ, host: You can read other standout stories at our Web site. That's npr.org/threeminutefiction. And that's threeminutefiction all spelled out, no spaces.
The clock on our Three-Minute Fiction contest is ticking. Stay tuned, and we'll reveal our latest winner on Sunday.