I have to write a 200 word story that begins with the sentence "The door swung open". Bonus points if it ends with "The door swung shut." Extra special bonus points if the piece is 200 words exactly. Here goes:
The door swung open like a cross between a drawbridge and the cargo doors on a military plane. Faster than Angie would have imagined, she found she didn’t have time to decide whether or not to run. She had no doubt that the occupants of the cigar-shaped ship could already see her, standing in her pyjamas in the ankle-high grass. As Angie waited, she looked back in the direction the ship had come. It had knocked down the old oak tree with the tire swing before carving a black scar through her parents’ corn field, narrowly avoiding the farm house where Angie’s family had been sleeping. Looking back at the gaping mouth door of the space ship, Angie was shocked to see not a little green man with a bulbous head, but a blond girl of about three years old, her wide brown eyes framed by dark lashes. The girl held out her arms as though waiting for a hug. A sudden longing brought Angie to tears. The child smiled an impish grin and Angie could no longer resist. She ran up the ramp and took the delicate creature in her arms. “It’s okay,” Angie whispered. The door swung shut.
That's it. Hopefully a mildly original take on the UFO-in-the-cornfield cliché. Exactly 200 words so long as you count "ankle-high" as one word (Microsoft Word does). I urge you to try out this fun little exercise, even though you can't win a prize unless you are signed up for the campaign.
Edit: If you like my story, be sure to go to this page and press the like button above my name (I'm number 27). Get me in the running for the people's choice awards.
