24 Hour Short Story Contest

This weekend I took part in a 24-hour short story contest. At noon on Saturday, contestants were emailed this topic and had until noon on Sunday to submit a 900-word story:

The fruit vendor smiled at her through sightless eyes, enjoying the warm
breeze and salty air. During casual banter with his customers, he seemed
to remember the smallest details, even ones they couldn't remember
sharing with him in the past. The girl had been coming to his stand
daily for as long as she could remember. As she turned to leave, she
patted his hand and said, "I'll see you tomorrow morning, friend."

Still smiling, he replied, "No, you won't..."

My immediate reaction was to write something sinister. I thought about having the fruit vendor give the girl fruit that she was allergic to. My daughter thought up a similar idea, so I ruled that out as a plotline that too many people might follow.

Other ideas that I considered were:

• The fruit vendor remembers that the girl will leave for college the next day, but since he's blind, he doesn't realize that she is 8 months pregnant and her plans have changed.
• The fruit vendor remembers that tomorrow is the anniversary of the death of the girl's mother and she will go to the cemetery. But the girl he thinks is in front of him is not the same girl at all. It's his granddaughter. (I'd have to figure this out.)
• The fruit vendor is clairvoyant and foretells doom for the following day.
• The fruit vendor and the girl argue about details he remembers from her childhood.
• The fruit vendor is suicidal or thinks that he will not survive the night for some reason.
• In one plot idea, I had both of them being blind, and arguing about whether or not she would literally "see" him tomorrow.

Many ideas ran through my head, but the story I eventually wrote and submitted was none of these. I wanted something that would stand out from the pack and chose to focus on the setting of my story rather than the two characters themselves. We'll see how it goes. Angela at Writers Weekly usually shares a recap of common themes that appear in submissions. I'm hoping mine doesn't get lumped into that.

At some point in the future, I'll post my story here.