Esther Chilton

Here’s your new story challenge. Can you tell a story in 41 words using the following words in it somewhere:

• HOTEL
• SHEPHERD
• TRAPEZE
• CHEESE

The previous challenge was to write a story in 54 words using the following five words in it somewhere:

• PASTRAMI
• GUITAR
• MAZE
• BURGLAR
• WAX

Here are your clever stories:

Susan Batten:

Pausing only to grab a pastrami sandwich, I pursued the burglar from the musicians’ waxwork museum to the Great Maze in Lynfield Park.

Strangely, he had only damaged John Lennon’s last guitar and Menuhin’s violin. Knowing him safe in the Maze for now, I was able to catch my breath and enjoy my lunch.

A Jeanne in the Kitchen:

I set up an elaborate maze made of wax to catch the burglar in his tracks. I played my guitar and ate a pastrami sandwich while I waited in anticipation.

Fandango:

The burglar crept into the dark house, navigating the maze of hallways.

He paused in the kitchen, lit by just one wax candle, and spotted a vintage electric guitar leaning against the wall.

Hungry, he grabbed a leftover pastrami sandwich off the counter and quickly vanished, guitar in one hand, sandwich in the other.

poetisinta:

Birthday Cake Caper

One day, Winnie the Pooh was making pastrami and honey sandwiches while Piglet strummed his guitar. Tigger then bounced in amazed as he'd spotted a burglar stealing Eeyore's birthday cake!

Pooh chased him but slipped on candle wax. Luckily Rabbit caught the thief, and everyone enjoyed cake together in the Hundred Acre Wood.

Aptivi’s Joyful Corner:

The Clever Arrest

A burglar was trying to infiltrate a building, but he was met with a maze. He was smelling the pastrami, and he could faintly hear someone playing guitar. He followed the smell, but saw a room that was lit by a candle and its molten wax. A cop there tricked him, then arrested him.

Crystal:

After a burglar had broken into my brand new ranch house and only taken my guitar and my maze game while eating a pastrami sandwich but the really weird part – this burglar took a wax in my shower while I was sleeping soundly and dreaming about a hairy hunky guy taking a wax in my shower while I slept with my three furry cats.

The Afterlove Voice:

The Midnight Burglar

The burglar crept through the garden maze, clutching a stolen guitar and a sandwich stuffed with pastrami.

Suddenly, he slipped on a puddle of candle wax.

CRASH!

The homeowner appeared.

“Stealing my guitar?”

“No,” he groaned. “Delivering your sandwich.”

“At midnight?”

He hesitated.

“Express delivery?”

The homeowner smiled.

“Excellent. That’ll be five stars!”

Rall:

so much wax in his ears
didn’t even hear the burglar break in
who noisily fought his way through a maze of rubbish
left over pastrami and clutter
to only find a guitar worth stealing

Sillyfrog’s Blog:

Follow Your Nose

A burglar was hopelessly lost in a maze of corridors at a Wax Museum and started feeling like a trapped animal.

Suddenly, hearing second-shift nightwatchmen leaving, he grabbed a guitar and posed in an exhibit as they passed carrying sub sandwiches instead of flashlights.

Relieved … he followed the aroma of pastrami directly to freedom!

Pensitivity101:

The burglar was caught because of his liking for pastrami.

Through the maze of Madame Tussauds exhibits, in a moment of hunger, he forgot himself and  reached for the realistic sandwich on a kitchen table next to the famous Jimi Hendrix guitar replica, leaving a clear dental impression in the wax of the exhibit.

John W. Howell:

Sitting back with my guitar, about to wax poetic about my last pastrami sandwich, unfortunately taken by the ham burglar, it occurred to me that a maze and bean tamale would have been a better choice.

Dan Ince:

Heed this Warning and Lock Up Your Sandwiches!

The Pastrami Burglar is a thief of supreme skill who has a tangled maze of curly hair and will wax lyrical about his thefts all day long.

He once stole the pastrami from someone’s sandwich while they were eating it…

Someone wrote a song about that with their guitar.

Until he stole that too.

Murray Clarke:

The popular New York delicatessen was buzzing with atmosphere. In the corner sat a Mexican strumming his guitar, causing my wife – who had just ordered a pastrami sandwich – to wax lyrical about his playing. The uptown restaurant boasted a maze of regulations – which prohibited burglars and thieves from ordering a meal in the restaurant.

Richmond Road:

Salami, pastrami, salumi, halloumi
Came to town for a wax, but a sandwich will do me
Then faster the pasta it catches my gaze
Far too much here,this place is a maze
I need a drink, I’m a bit of a gurgler
Then I’ll come back tonight, in the shape of a burglar

yvensong:

The burglar was so intent on obtaining the Breedlove Guitar, that he ran through the maze. He missed seeing the wax on the floor. He felt his foot slipping out from under him. He slid down the hallway and had just enough time to duck the pastrami roll that someone swung at his head.

Dog Paddling Through Life:

Absentmindedly he strummed his guitar while through the window watched a rat devour a discarded pastrami sandwich. His mind was crowded with unrelated thoughts, each braving a maze where they compete until winnowed into a coherent idea.

He wondered, why must she wax on about nothing like a burglar stealing my sanity?

Teleportingweena:

The old ‘Ham-burglar’ character at MckieD’s was bored with selling fast food. So he went through a maze of incarnations and decided to be a wax guitar player, promoting pastrami, which wasn’t fast food. Then he realized he missed his former fans, and went back to being the best masked burglar he could be.

Lou By The Sea:

How To foil A Burglar

1. Erect a signpost at the maze – ‘Jewels this way’
2. Place a pastrami sandwich at the centre of the maze ‘Sorry, jewels sold out’
3. Play the guitar riff from Smoke on the Water on continuous loop to drive him/her insane as maze panic heightens
4. Warn that a full body wax is a compulsory punishment

Annette Rochelle-Aben:

WWTaylorSwiftD

As it was her want to wax poetic when writing guitar music, this time around she was struggling. The neighbor requested a song for her incarcerated son, who was the infamous local corn maze burglar. Putting down the pen, she picked up her half-eaten pastrami sandwich and finished lunch rather than the frustrating song.

Lily’s Corner:

Burglar

Agent Steele munched on his pastrami sandwich as he made his way around the maze looking for the gold wax guitar that was supposed to be in the middle. What a way to spend his lunch, he thought. Agent Boogie got demoted to Burglar after he was caught on camera sneaking around the maze.

The Bag Lady:

Joe, downing his pastrami sandwich, wanting to be quick about it because his disapproving wife was right around the corner. Such a maze, this hall where his guitar was kept, wax on the floors were keeping his pace slow. He hoped the instruments were safe. He heard stories of a burglar about last night.

Ann Edall-Robson:

A maze of memories flowed through the burglar. Nothing had changed in this house he’d grown up in. He snagged a piece of pastrami from the fridge, pealing the wax coating as he walked. The vintage guitar, lay ahead in the parlour. Opening the door, he froze. Alarms, bells, flashing lights. That was new!

Carpet Boots:

It was watching.

‘We’re not a deli!’ shrieked Jean, when I ordered pastrami.

Familiar voices and a guitar riff drifted through the maze of back streets. Suddenly these faded; stolen by the burglar with watchful black eyes.

My phone rang.

It was mum.

My world melted away like wax as the crow flew off.

The Elephant’s Trunk:

Pickle On The Side

Needing a place to hide, the burglar picked the lock and  stepped into the wax museum’s maze of statues. Ducking behind an eerie figure holding a wooden guitar, he suppressed a nervous giggle as he quietly unwrapped his stolen prize: pastrami and mustard on rye, perfectly seasoned with just a whisper of black pepper.

***

Image credit: Pinterest