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End your story with a character receiving a deeply meaningful gift they weren’t expecting.

Posted in Adults on Nov 18, 2022

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✍️ 65 stories

Elephants and Other Unexpected Gifts

Submitted to Contest #173

The snow was the type you weren’t supposed to drive in, period. Especially not during the heaviest part of the storm, when white fluff was dumping at an astonishing rate. Meg was at the wheel, navigating in her minivan, which was the absolute worst type of vehicle to be in at this point. I listened to her chatter, looked over my shoulder at Beth, wondering why neither of my cousins seemed to be frightened beyond belief like I was. I was half-wishing I had gone with my father instead, safe inside his four-wheel drive SUV, confident in his win...

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The Unexpected Gift

Submitted to Contest #173

“The best gifts are the unexpected ones.”~Author UnknownI’m not sure who originally coined the phrase “the best gifts are the unexpected ones,” but a truer saying has never been spoken. For whatever reason, I don’t have a lot of experience with truly meaningful gifts. My adult children aren’t really gift-givers. My parents kind of approached gift-giving from a monetary standpoint, and it's been years since I really exchanged gifts with my sister or close friends. Gift giving is hard, and I think over the years my family and I have been slowl...

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The good we made each other

Submitted to Contest #173

I have been standing in front of the door for the past ten minutes. My hand twitches towards the handle, but it seems like an invisible force pushes it back. The tightness in my chest makes it hard to breathe and I try my best not to let the tears fall. It takes me five more minutes to gather the courage to turn the knob. Inside, everything looks exactly the way I remember: some plants scattered around the living room, a jasmine scented candle burning on the center table, a few Christmas ornaments here and there. For a moment, it feels wrong...

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The Gift

Submitted to Contest #173

She looked into my eyes. Sad, wistful and sorry. Went up on her tiptoes in order to kiss my cheek. Then crossed the street. It was only once she was over there that she spoke again. Shouting to be heard, but also perhaps to emphasize her message by saying it to the world. ‘I love you.’I was sad and mentally numb from trying to feel out solutions and finding none.Julia picked windswept hair out of her face, and looked imploringly across the street at me. The warm wind was picking up. Suddenly the wind i...

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Time

Submitted to Contest #173

“After crossing the valley and walking a mile surrounded by greenery everywhere, we find the famous cherry blossom trees which now give the scenery a soft pastel pink look with pinkish white blooms welcoming us to what is called as the heaven on earth.” I finish reading. But I keep looking at the beautiful pictures wondering if my words did justice to these beautiful visuals. Well..there is only one way to find out. “You should go”, says my mom as if reading my thoughts. I feel an unexplainable guilt both at the words and at the mere though...

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The Pathos of Things

Submitted to Contest #173

Sixteen: Our gloved fingers intertwine as he steers me away from the ice patches in our path. The tinsel that shrouds the Christmas tree in the town square gives us a glittering wink as we take our cups of hot cocoa from the vendor with a grateful nod. We sit on the bench in front of Fancy’s Fudge, ignoring splinters digging into the backs of our puffy coats and the peeling green paint that bubbles beneath our jeans. We’re drunk off fumes of chocolate and pine, and from the spirit that lingers in the scene around us, laughing families window...

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Utter Chaos

Submitted to Contest #173

Cleo looked at her calendar for the month. It was one of those giant ones with the big boxes attached to the fridge with magnets that sometimes meant she’d hear crashing in the middle of the night to wake up in the morning to a mess of art by her children, restaurant take out menus and the business cards of people she’d meant to call all over the kitchen floor. Her calendar was full, and heavy. Both metaphorically and literally. Jeremiah had just taken up Taekwondo. It was on Monday and Wednesday nights. Caitlyn was in dance class on Tu...

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Sanctuary

Submitted to Contest #173

Monday after school came and Malcolm messaged me after we spoke today.  “Hey wanna come over after dinner?”       “To do homework?”  “Yeah. I have this project to finish.”  “Me too. I’ll ask my mom,” I turned to my mom begging her, only to be told I don’t have a ride.  “My mom said I could but I don’t have a ride so maybe tomorrow or Halloween night or something”  “I can pick you up!”  “Oh. Okay! Here’s my address,” I messaged Mack back quickly and prepare to see him.  Malcol...

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A True Gift

Submitted to Contest #173

I still remember the day we decorated the house. I was ten and it was two weeks before Christmas. I remember that I felt like a long journey of waiting and despair will finally come to an end. A new year was about to begin, and all of the bad memories will become the past as they never happened. I was looking forward to my presents. I was about to receive not only the gifts but also the strong feeling of being loved and cared for. Since I'm the youngest in the family, all of the family members would give me a gift one way or another. Sometim...

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THE DELIVERY

Submitted to Contest #173

WARNING: Story contains detailed description of a birth.* * *Samuel Camden glared at the telephone. I don’t want you ringin’ no more ‘less you got somethin’ good to tell me, he thought. He then began exploring the few remaining options he had available. The forecast that predicted blizzard conditions and sub-zero temperatures had proven accurate. Where the meteorologists had gotten it wrong, unfortunately, was the duration of the storm. Nature, once again, had shown just how unreliable it can be. The cold front was slow-m...

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Black coffee

Submitted to Contest #173

I always thought it meant more to write about pain, heartbreak, death… because who hasn’t felt the knots in their gut when something twists inside them and felt the fraying ropes pull apart. It resonates more because we’ve all felt it. We haven’t all felt the pure unfiltered love story that I’m about to tell you, the sort of imperfect love where you’re in your early 20s trying to navigate through a labyrinth of love and life that feels familiar and yet is still so new to you. It is so like the movies in that all that matters is me and you, ...

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Eternal Gift

Submitted to Contest #173

It isn't often the stars shine so bright. Through human development, we've moved from open and wanton expressions to building high colorless walls. The excitement and mystery of the universe gets harder to see as our own dull buzzing lights pollute the night sky, so we've stopped searching, no longer connecting with the old and natural. Atiya stood, her curly blue hair tumbled about her shoulders packing her supplies as she moved around her room. Sometimes she would take long walks away from all the noise and all the amplified sounds to b...

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Christmas in Hospice

Submitted to Contest #173

Being a nurse has its duties that are always unwelcome into my mind and wishes, schedules that are out of my control, and losing patients I'd try so hard to spare from their end. Christmas wasn't always busy, unlike other holidays like Halloween or New Year where people party and drink - opening risks galore, Christmas was a time for people to bond and settle in. Friends and family all over the world sat cozy by fires, roasting marshmallows and sipping on cocoa while I worked my feet scaling the halls of the hospital. It isn't that I minded,...

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Delivering Smiles

Submitted to Contest #173

Every day, I meet hundreds of people of different races and colours. To me, they strike as hungry people. While some hail abuses, some tend to recognise my hard work and some reward my services. However, today, something I never expected happened.Like any normal day, I received an order from a customer. It was a sunny morning. Bangalore is seldom humid. Otherwise, it’s a mix of all seasons, a bit higher on the colder side.I accepted the order and rode to the location, it just took me 10 minutes to reach. It was a house nestled amidst a ...

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Joseph's Gift

Submitted to Contest #173

Joseph’s Giftby James Ross Kellyabout 1,030 wordsI DON’T KNOW,” my father said from behind his newspaper. Then rustling the collage of columns of print down to his lap, he looked at me standing in the room. I was shocked. A wide-eyed, speechless child on Christmas morning in front of a decked-out conifer tree with no presents underneath. Even after over sixty years I remember how I had not said a thing. I stood there looking at the blinking lights on the tree, with tinsel and little peppermint candy canes--but without even one present under ...

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