Tell Tale: Stories

Unique

Many years ago an editor from Reader’s Digest in New York invited me to write a 100-word story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. As if that wasn’t enough of a challenge, he insisted that it couldn’t be 99 words or 101.

Still not satisfied, he asked me to present the finished piece within twenty-four hours.

My first effort was 118 words, my second, 106, and my third, 98. I wonder if you can work out which two words I had to put back in.

The result was “Unique,” which you will find on the next page.

It may interest readers to know, this is also 100 words.

The collector relit his cigar, picked up the magnifying glass, and studied the triangular 1874 Cape of Good Hope.

“I did warn you there were two,” said the dealer, “so yours is not unique.”

“How much?”

“Ten thousand francs.”

The collector wrote out a check, before taking a puff on his cigar, but it was no longer alight. He picked up a match, struck it, and set light to the stamp.

The dealer stared in disbelief as the stamp went up in smoke.

The collector smiled. “You were wrong, my friend,” he said, “mine is unique.”