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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story where someone finds comfort in an unexpected event, place, or person.

Posted in Adults on Oct 31, 2022

Submissions are closed

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✍️ 56 stories

“Long Distance Phone Call” by Marty B

🏆 Winner of Contest #161

You can talk to the dead on the pay phone in front of Seventh Street Market in West Oakland.  There is also a donut store where they sell burgers, and a check cashing store in the small strip mall, but everybody references the market when talking about the Phone. I didn't tell my Dad we were going to California so he could talk to his dead wife, my Mom, until we hit Olympia, Washington. “That is the stupidest goddamn thing I have ever heard of! We are driving to Oakland to have a seance on a pay phone?” He said when I tol...

85 comments 85
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“October Crises” by Michał Przywara

Submitted to Contest #161

Arlene heaved the last suitcase with a grunt, misjudged how heavy it was and how tired she was, and slammed it into the side of their baby blue Plymouth Savoy station wagon. The case bounced off and fell to the ground, opened, and a load of clothes splattered all over the lawn. Arlene lurched the other way, collided with the vehicle, and rocked it. She shook the dizziness away and trembled. “Ffffff–” she began, but then she saw the five pairs of quivering, wide children’s eyes within the car – from eleven-month-old Robert through nine-year-o...

62 comments 62
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“I Love You Too” by Graham Kinross

Submitted to Contest #161

“Redundant?” Harry asked. He melted into the plastic chair that had replaced the usual metal one, in front of the boss’s desk.             “Yes, Harry. I’m very sorry. The company is cutting back. The decision was made based on sales. It’s nothing personal.” The man brought in to give the news wore a plain white shirt and a soft smile. “You’ll receive a year and a half of your salary in the redundancy package. The company will provide you with a glowing reference. This action is not...

51 comments 51
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“Spin cycle ” by H L McQuaid

Submitted to Contest #161

[CW: emotional abuse, implied physical abuse]. .The lingering slap echoes in my ears, stings my cheek. The bathroom mirror reflects a pink flush, a tender swelling, but nothing noticeable, nothing I can see.She’s in the kitchen, assaulting cupboards, derailing drawers, slamming pots on the stove.“MARY PAT KUDE!” she screams.That’s me. The last name rhymes with moody.Though we have the same last name, she’s not my mother. My birth mother that is. She is married to my Dad. That’s him, relaxing in the orange-and-brown lazy-boy chair, chest hair...

19 comments 19
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“The True Divine Comedy” by Beck Rafter

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #161

Amid the shrieking wails of the damned and the crackle and pop of fire fuelled by sinners, a low chime alerted Office 101 to the arrival of a newcomer. The demon at the desk took its feet down from where they had been propped up against the bloodstained wood and folded up the equally dripping newspaper into a neat square. Blood-covered things were an unavoidable by-product of Hell. It just seemed to get everywhere with no logical explanation. Kind of like smudges on a freshly cleaned window. The new arrival jerked up from the ground with a ...

4 comments 4
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“Red String” by Madison Marvin

Submitted to Contest #161

My favourite Chinese myth is the one about how we all have red strings of fate connecting us to our loved ones, and that no matter what, no matter where we are, we are always tied together. The threads can tangle but will never break, and will keep us connected even through death. I’ve always loved that idea, of fate. It’s comforting. It makes me think that maybe I still have ties somewhere to my birth family. It makes me feel like maybe I have been connected to my adopted family from the beginning, like I was always meant to be theirs and t...

1 comment 1
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“Walking to a Special Place” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #161

Bob, A New Employee Asks a Question            “Where is the boss going? I just saw him rush out the front door of the building, and head down the road somewhere.”            “You’re new here, aren’t you, Bob? You don’t know about the boss’ walks to his special place. He goes there whenever he has a hard time resolving some problem or other. He will come back when it is resolved. It seems to work every time.&...

2 comments 2
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“The Gift” by Murray Burns

Submitted to Contest #161

The Gift“Remember, Tommy, thumbs together. You catch with your hands, not your body.”Legacy. It’s only natural. Kids often follow in the footsteps of their parents, from Bushes in the White House to Sanford and Son in the junk yard. Maybe it’s the planting of seeds of interest, or readily available instruction, or perhaps a desire to please. Sometimes it might just be a good shove.“You should probably get yourself up to the field to run some stairs in the bleachers this afternoon. Building up your calves will help with that first step off th...

8 comments 8
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“Spider-tailed Viper” by Alexander Brotherton

Submitted to Contest #161

Growing up in a family of hunters was the best place for someone like me. I was destined to be a hunter. My parents thought so too. Dad’s side has a tradition of waiting to see the child before deciding on a name. First time my mom held me and looked into my eyes she said, “This boy’s a Hunter.” At least that’s what I was told. I wasn’t there. My parents were moral hunters. Skill-wise they were amazing. They took the time to teach me how to kill anything painlessly, and explained how it’s sin to do otherwise. “If animals don’t torment thei...

4 comments 4
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“Moving On” by Paula Young

Submitted to Contest #161

Moving On By Paula Young 1198 words As Sarah walked up the wooded hill, the full weight of the events in her life caused her to fall to the ground. She held her breath until she was away from the house and Amy, and now let it all go. She’d never felt so low. Everything she held dear was slipping through her fingers like sand on a beach. She wailed.   Once spent, Sarah sniffed. “What a cliché my life has become,” she thought. She sat up in the weeds, breaking twigs with her fingers. “Tom has hooked up with Donna—s...

2 comments 2
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“Up on Blackberry Ridge ” by Carissa Cherrington

Submitted to Contest #161

We were just sitting down to dinner when Mama shared the news about Michael Farlowe.       “Poor boy jumped right off the old bridge,” she said, plopping down a heaping bowl of mashed potatoes. “Sheriff had to go down, have some boys help drag him out of the water nearly a mile from the bridge. I heard the news just this morning, from Mrs. Abernathy.”     “Michael Farlowe never had any sense,” Daddy said. “The whole family is bad seed. Pass the salt, would you, Danny?”   &nbsp...

2 comments 2
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“Counterfeit” by Lorilyn Roberts

Submitted to Contest #161

The powerful leaders of the New World Order sat eating lunch in the new Hanging Gardens of Babylon designed by Kai, a renowned horticulturist. Surrounded by tropical ferns, prickly succulents, meandering vines, and exotic flowers, they chatted about secret matters of which the common people had no knowledge. Kai knew their secrets because the garden he created was their favorite hangout. He noted that while the rest of the world ate green—they ate meat and other delicacies he couldn’t even identify. The globalists valued Kai’s knowledge onl...

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“Life's Journey ” by Ruby Pix

Submitted to Contest #161

Writing a story doesn't take experience, or guts, and while those things do come into play much later in one's life, it isn't as important as just writing is. To make something, you have to take the steps to actually start it. Ashley Folder, is an upcoming writer in highschool. She writes novels as a hobby and often wins in small contests. Her ginger hair is long and wavy, and compliments her turquoise eyes. She usually wears a black hoodie and rouge colored sweatpants. As a writer, Ashley enjoys the comfort of a quiet and peaceful atmospher...

2 comments 2
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“Making Peace with Her Thunderstorm” by Luna Fuji

Submitted to Contest #161

Asami liked clouds. Fluffy and soft looking, just like cotton candy. Pull them apart and you’ll probably see a dozen or more thin threads come undone. Then when the wind arrives, the two of them, clouds and wind, performed for children all over the world an abstract picture book with billions of interpretations to their meanings. In a way, clouds were to children the same way cave paintings were to paleontologists. The wind weaved, pushed, and tugged at the clouds, asking to play. And the clouds responded nonchalantly and with playful gest...

0 comments 0
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“The Price of Freedom” by Kaitlyn M.

Submitted to Contest #161

The darkness does not come without a price. The freedom, the boundless plains that lay before you under the glorious light of the stars costs you. Today, I tell you my story. The light, I admit, is fun at certain moments. There are stolen treasures, glittering under the sun. There is laughter with friends, jokes with family, secrets whispered underneath oak trees with joy... But the dark. In the dark, you can become, you can create and live and exist in ways you never have. I used to be light, I stayed where it was safe, travelled along...

1 comment 1
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🌟 Similar prompts

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Contest #161

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Ended on 23:59 - Sep 02, 2022 EST

Won by Marty B 🏆

Title: Long Distance Phone Call

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