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Write a story in which someone returns to their hometown.

Posted in Adults on Oct 28, 2022

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✍️ 81 stories

Unwelcome Homecoming

Submitted to Contest #164

Unwelcome Homecoming Jack Jones stood at the small service window of the police department’s Staff Office. He had come to hand in his police identity badge. After a thirty-year career in which he had achieved the rank of a commissioned officer, they had designated a cadet to receive him. A cadet, for f**** sake! “Where’s your boss? Tell him I wish to speak with him.” Jack needed to call on his willpower not to take out his frustration on the teenager. “He’s busy and not seeing anyone.” “I’m here to surrender my I.D. You can inform Superin...

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Home Again

Submitted to Contest #164

What happened to this place…? The grey clouds blanketed the sun, stopping its warm rays from pouring from the sky; instead casting an eerie gloom over the town. It was easy to recognize the chilled October breeze as it blew shriveled up leaves along the pavement and wrestled with Robyn’s golden locks of hair, sending a violent chill up her spine. She tugged the hood of her sweatshirt over her head, hoping to conserve a bit of heat, and listened to the unsettling silence.  Not a soul was in sight. Silver tinsel still hung on displa...

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Unlocked

Submitted to Contest #164

Leaning on the car bonnet I stared out across the fields sliced into sage squares and grouped together buildings lit up under the fading sun. The time of pre evening where bubblegum pinks and honey oranges bleed across the sky and the moon looks like a pale wisp the clouds forgot to take with them. ”Home.” I whispered over the cliff edge, watching it all below. All the lives that never stopped when I left. I pulled a hastily rolled up cigarette out my pocket and amused myself in silence for a few minutes whilst the tip burned and ash fell in...

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Periphery

Submitted to Contest #164

Golden sunlight sparkled in the sapphire sky, raining sparkles on the sliding board and shiny chains of the swing as Elora pumped her legs into the air. It was exactly as she remembered it, from the freshly mown grass in the yard to the green and white and green playset that her father and grandfather built for her. How she missed this! You can never go home. “Says who?” she laughed, hearing her childish voice on the cool fall breeze. A maroon sedan pulled up in the driveway next to the house. She recognized the tall woman who stepped ...

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I belong to Glasgow

Submitted to Contest #164

When I visit my birthplace, my stomach simultaneously churns with excitement and dread. 'Glasgow' is the word I always give my English students to define the word juxtaposition. It never ceases to make me smile when I read out the description from the dictionary, 'the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect'. Glasgow is defined by its past and present and the image it portrays to the rest of the world. Gritty, warm and honest. There has been no planning with this trip, deciding only to come at th...

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Budai Rudolf - A Prisoner of War

Submitted to Contest #164

I woke up in a panic, almost choking on my saliva, coughing, and short of breath. There was not a single drop of water in the cell, and the guards on night duty were either sleeping or playing some card games, with no one to offer water. A few of my cell mates stared at me as I recovered while the others were still sound asleep. My tolerance to the stench of human ordure, molds, rotting flesh, the barred windows, cement walls, and iron bars with a metal sliding door has progressively decreased each day, month, and year that has passed. I w...

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I am Staussey, Dragon

Submitted to Contest #164

Warning: contains a bit of gore. From the height of my mountain aerie the voices of the men reached my ears from far, far below. They sounded angry and full of righteous malice…but it wasn’t a sound I’d not heard before. As a dragon of the Gemutlich Order, I had been blamed and hunted and followed by these types of voices all my life. I peered out over the edge of the cliff that was my front stoop, not worried that they would see me, for this cavern was higher in the sky than even The Zugspitze, the frosted tip of which I could...

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The New Normal

Submitted to Contest #164

When Leonard stepped off of the Greyhound bus, he quickly noticed that he was not the only one with sleeve tattoos. College-aged adults, both male and female, had intricate designs woven and webbed up and down their biceps and forearms. He stepped inside a coffee shop unfamiliar to him. It was all unfamiliar to him. He reached in his front pocket and pulled out a crumpled five-dollar bill, some of his last money from his commissary account. He plopped the cash on the counter and sullenly yet politely asked for regular black coffee. The large...

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The Rose

Submitted to Contest #164

The Rose The heavy metal doors locked into place. A loud clang echoed against the dingy prison walls. Immediately, the lights grew dim. This prison held no more than two hundred inmates at one time—every bed in use. He plopped down upon the thin, worn-out mattress, ignoring the impulse to scream. Sometimes confinement within the grey three-by-five cell could drive a person insane. Under the flattened pillow lay hope: a worn calendar full of slash marks, one for each day served. Five more and then fre...

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God's Toilet

Submitted to Contest #164

God’s Toilet By Anthony Mendoza 1  Geoff stared out the business class window of the airliner as it made its decent into Fortuna City. He hadn’t been in his hometown in 6 years and was overcome with anxiety and excitement. Set against the postcard-perfect Vagabond Bay, the port city of 4 million is a top destination for all who yearn to travel. A city exploding with world-class restaurants, the best nightlife, and dozens of points of interest, Fortuna City is luxury and glamour at its finest. Geoff didn’t know much of that wor...

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Remnants Of A Hometown

Submitted to Contest #164

My hometown, my hometown... Years ago, this place was a haven, a treasured, gatekeeping community of happiness and hope.I come here now and this place is gone, the community I once knew, gone, the people gone. Only despair to be seen and destruction, I now go to find out what has happened to this once great town, I now go to find out what has caused this destruction of the once beautiful landscape and the once happy people.As I make my way across the grey foggy streets over-encumbered in dust and insects I look to see the dilapidated buildin...

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Eyes on the Rearview Mirror

Submitted to Contest #164

The engine of my corvette purrs as I zip past the sign welcoming me to Lakeview—population 1932. There wasn’t a lake in the entire town or any body of water larger than a stream. The rationale for naming the desolate town died off dozens of years ago, about the time the coal veins stopped producing the black lifeblood of the area.   I glance at my silent passenger. Her blank expression hasn’t changed since we started this trip. She peers forward like she’s concentrating on a bug splattered on the windshield while her crossed arms rest ...

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Hermit Crabs and Goldfish

Submitted to Contest #164

When Auntie Sheila died, we all gathered together again. Most of us didn't have far to travel. I was the closest: I only had to walk down the sidewalk to her two-story brick house. My steps, enlivened by the crunching leaves underfoot, did not seem as sorrowful as they felt inside me. I felt a little like I was walking toward a catastrophe, and my heart grew heavier with each step. The squirrels didn't mind me, and continued their chittering and scurrying. They weren't fit company for my mournful heart, but I assumed my cousins and my uncle ...

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March, Before Dawn

Submitted to Contest #164

I returned home like a fox running to earth, retreating to a place of unexpected safety. It was before dawn and the sky was turning blue at its seams. I took a breath of the night air; it was cool and clean and made me feel intensely awake. When had I last been here, six months or more, last Christmas, before? I could feel the debris of the city sloughing off me, streaming from my pores to be neutralised by the salt air. The hospital stink losing its grip and seeping away in the pre-dawn light. The door of the house was unlocked, whic...

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Redemption in Pine Grove

Submitted to Contest #164

There hadn’t been many long drives in the life of Marcus Bourne. In fact, prior to this day, he’d driven over an hour just once in his life. That one time had been to steal away in the middle of the night from his home. Then, there was no destination. Away was the operative word in his head. He’d stayed at four motels, witnessed a dozen drug deals at truck stops, and eaten over twenty meals and roadside fast food shops before feeling as though he had covered enough distance, five days and thousands of miles later. Now, Marcus was driving bac...

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