Where are all those cars and trucks going? And what will the people in them do when they get there?  

These are the questions to ponder on a three-hour trip from Connecticut to New Hampshire. There are the Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire license plates as one might expect, but there are also Florida, Ohio, and Oklahoma. Myriad parts of life are covered by those cars whizzing by: Someone is headed to a ski weekend, someone is just running errands, someone is headed to a celebration of life of someone gone too soon. Someone has no worries on this weekend while someone else carries far too much pain.  

Much of what one might experience over a lifetime is experienced by those collective cars on their way to somewhere and nowhere.  

This year’s eighth Katharine Brush Flash Fiction Contest challenges Loomis Chaffee student writers to come up with their best 1,000 words (or fewer) by March 26. Katharine Brush was a widely read author in the 1920s and ’30s whose career is preserved in a collection in the Loomis Chaffee Archives and for whom the school’s library is named. The challenge to the students: 

“In her collection of writing advice, ‘Additional Notes on Where Plots Come From,’ Katharine Brush describes how public places can serve as sources of inspiration: ‘You pick out people who look interesting, and speculate about them, wondering who they are, and where they live, and what their lives are like, and where they’re going with all that luggage.’” 

The announcement of the contest says, “We challenge writers to think about how being around others and spending time in shared spaces can foster a sense of wonder and curiosity. Taking Katharine Brush’s advice, writers should select one (or more) of the following prompts as a starting point: 

“Begin your story in a public place. 

Begin your writing process in a public place. 

Directly engage the theme of place in your story.” 

The announcement goes on to say, “We encourage you to think about community, place, and the ways in which you can find inspiration all around you by being among and with others.” 

A panel of judges, comprising writers and teachers of writing from outside the school, will read submissions and award prizes. Select pieces may be featured in the spring publication of the student literary journal, The Loom. One of the judges is Tory Henwood Hoen ’02, a West Hartford, Conn., native who has lived in New York City, Paris, and now New Hampshire. Her debut novel, The Arc, was published in 2022 by St. Martin’s Press. Her next novel, Before I Forget, is scheduled for release on December 2.  

Karen Parsons, the school’s archivist and a history teacher and Writing Initiatives faculty member, has called this contest a part of “creating a culture of writing” at Loomis Chaffee and “a space for students to pursue original ideas and use their imaginations.” 

Now, back to that New Hampshire trip. When we got into the hotel, in the elevator was a young couple.  

Where are you from?  

“Florida.” 

Florida? What are you doing up here?  

“We need to escape the heat every once in a while,” says the man. “I haven’t sweated in three days. In Florida I sweat every minute.” The woman says nothing. 

Later on, at the Ice Castles attraction, a wonder to behold for kids and those who used to be kids, we see the man from the elevator. He is sweating, his face flushed. But why? It’s 21 degrees outside. He’s not even all that bundled up. The woman is nowhere to be found.