And the winner is...

After reading over both entries in the 5/29/09 Friday Challenge, and reading your comments, and reading the entries again and changing my mind, and then re-reading the comments, and re-reading both entries one last time—

Aw, heck, I'm going to drop back and punt. It's a tie. Prizes for everybody. Henry's entry hangs together better as a story and is closer to what I would have written; Vidad's is a hair funnier, weirder, and yet sadder, too. Here's poor Quetzal Arkwat, about to be executed for his failure, asking for permission to check his messages and update his Facebook page one last time. How sadly, pathetically, true.

Anyway, rather than try to split the hairs any finer, I'm calling it a tie. Thanks to everyone who entered, everyone who thought about entering, and everyone who took the time to read the entries and voice an opinion.