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Set your story in a desert town.

Posted in Adventure on Jun 23, 2023

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✍️ 52 stories

Near Death Valley

Submitted to Contest #204

The warm desert air blew through Mia's dark hair and she smiled at some silly thing that Stevie said. In front of them, Route 127 unrolled across the barren landscape as they motored south toward Vegas. Scrubby land all around, purple mountains in the distance. A Neil Young song, Cinnamon Girl, played on the radio. Somewhere far south of a small town on the perimeter of Death Valley, they turned off the road and onto a dirt track and stopped. The late April sun slid down to touch the peaks of the valley mountains and leng...

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Under Construction

Submitted to Contest #204

The door was thick, brown, and it smelled like sawdust from the construction site across the street. Though that might just be the air quality in Arizona. I breathed in the smell, not knowing if the remnants of wood, powdered concrete, and dust would end up suffocating me, filling my lungs with gunk that the doctors couldn’t remove. That’s what happened to Pa. His death always made the world smell like chemicals, like asphalt and epoxy. The alley door was awkwardly placed, wedged between two brick buildings. It was too thin –like it had skip...

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Dirty Dan

Submitted to Contest #204

Buckeye, Arizona 1888 Dan Dobler slithers down Main Street spitting tobacco juice, his blind, milky left eye enhancing his threatening personality. Dobler’s poverty-stricken appearance and penchant for violence have earned him the nickname “Dirty Dan.” Townspeople find it hard to believe that the twenty-six-year-old Dobler is heir to Calvin “King” Coleman’s “King’s Ransom,” the largest ranch in Buckeye. A curious hound dog trails Dobler. He turns toward it, kicking it in the side. “Git away from me, ya mangy cur!” The dog barks angril...

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The Desert Gives and the Desert Takes Away

Submitted to Contest #204

A dusty SUV pulled beside a gas pump. A couple, Scott and Judy, got out, looking just as dusty. He filled up the tank while Judy went inside, searching for a restroom."Over there," an old woman behind the counter pointed to the bathrooms."Thanks," Judy wasted no time. She really needed to go and had for over thirty miles.After Judy finished, she perused the aisles, not looking for anything but relishing the cool air-conditioned store. Theirs went out just before leaving Oklahoma. They could hardly believe their dumb luck. Here they were, abo...

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A Change in the Weather

Submitted to Contest #204

Eustace Grik sauntered down the dusty roads of Cedar Rock. With one hand comfortably resting on his holster, he took great pleasure in surveying his desert kingdom. There were no sultans or shahs on the wild frontiers of the Nevada Territory. But for Eustace, no title held more power than— “Sheriff,” an old man sputtered as Eustace waltzed into the general goods store.  “Henry McClellan,” Eustace called out. He glanced around the half-bare shelves and unswept floors. “I’ve seen manure heaps in better condition than this.” “I’m sor...

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A Disappointment

Submitted to Contest #204

I rolled into the town just before dusk, eyeing the shuttered windows and tumbleweed-laden earth. Dry like a handful of raisins. This was not what I had expected. Meeting that prospector in the foothills of North Carolina had seemed an answer to all my prayers. It hadn't taken me more than a few minutes to pack up all my supplies. I was always ready to move at a moment's notice, for the right price. It wasn't every day I got news like this. It seemed heaven-sent. I had been lost the last few years. Couldn't scrape together ...

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The Last In Town

Submitted to Contest #204

Mattie stood at the bow of the caravan as its solar sails retracted and the momentum carried the enormous vehicle the rest of the way into town. She ran along the rail and cheered as the wheels that were as tall as her father rolled within an inch of the wooden sign that read “Welcome to Hazelmoor”. She bounced in place, then ran from side to side to look at all of the buildings as the vehicle slowed more and more.The caravan finally came to a gentle stop in front of a tavern. Hanging high over the double doors was a bronze sign, now fully g...

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Low Desert

Submitted to Contest #204

She waited at the window for him.The August heat was unbearable in this town. She felt like one of those Scarlett O’Hara types, those Southern dames. Slightly feverish. Slightly flushed. She waited.He turned up just after nine. Before, whenever he would pull up in his Ford with the radio playing that heartbreak music, there was a kind of cool wetness in the air. She would imagine rain. Tonight was hot and dry. And still. Like something big had been and gone. Like the circus had been and gone.‘I ain’t got a world of time’, he said.&...

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born again in the virgin river

Submitted to Contest #204

“i can’t believe you really did it”“i know. but i did. i really did.” “do you miss them?”“i do. this isn’t like my first divorce. i didn’t know what i was giving up then. i was too inexperienced to know anything. i never realized how useful ignorance can be. god damn, it’s hot here.”Steve carried one Jason’s suitcases into his apartment. “but the drinks are cold. you’ll get used to it - it’s a dry heat, you see—so, even at, say, 110, sure you’re hot, but it’s not like those places with humidity.” “sure, a dry heat, knowing tha...

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Boone

Submitted to Contest #204

Sound, in the true desert, is a force that catches you unawares always. In the bleakness of sand and scrub a shack adjoins a small house with two horses tied to a hitching post leaning their heads down standing aside the wall trying to stay in the shade and out of the hot mid afternoon sun. Inside, through a still, blanketed doorway and thick adobe walls is a dark room, cool by desert standards. There is a bar of thick oak planks atop a row of barrels. In front of the bar are two white cowboys in leather chaps and worn suit coats. ...

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Estrella Daza and the House at the Edge of the Road

Submitted to Contest #204

Stars. The glowing orb of hydrogen and helium producing heat and light through a multitude of nuclear fusion reactions. Also the twinkling lights, suspended in their extraordinary patterns, dazzling above me. They are also the inspiration for my name: Estrella Daza. I close my eyes, drinking in my surroundings. The warmth of the sun-baked sandstone beneath me. The coldness seeping from the night sky. The soft breathing of Alondra, my horse. The slow and steady beating of mi corazón, my heart. I listen as the coyotes howl to on...

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Will o’ the Wisp

Submitted to Contest #204

Will o’ the WispPerhaps it wasn’t the wisest decision I’ve ever made, taking that cutoff. Ten miles. That didn’t sound so bad.And so, even though it’s already midafternoon—and blazing hot—I turn off the clogged main highway onto a narrow but well-paved road. There’s not another vehicle in sight. After a quarter mile or so, the smooth asphalt comes to an abrupt end. Oh, well—can’t expect backroads to be well maintained. I bump along for about another mile, over ruts and through potholes. Up ahead, I spot a yellow sign. The...

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My Desert Rose

Submitted to Contest #204

The sun set low over the vast, untamed land, casting long shadows across the dusty streets of Wild Gulch. The townsfolk whispered tales of a notorious outlaw on the loose, a woman with a fiery spirit and deadly aim. She was known as Belle Cassidy, a name that sent ice down the spines of even the toughest cowboys. Belle had earned her reputation as a cold-blooded killer, wanted for the murders of a dozen madames who ran the whore houses that dotted the barren landscape. Some said she was driven by revenge, others claimed she’d gone mad. But...

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Not For Everyone

Submitted to Contest #204

Spindly and spikey spinifex rolled across the yellow floor, over and over it went at a dizzying speed into the barren beyond. Howling winds picked up sand and carried it across the dessert plain, swirling it into the air. It was hot and the fireball of sun glared down on the dry earth, scorching and drying everything beneath it. “Windy again” the old bearded man spat out through toothless gums. “Yep” she replied taking his money for the petrol he had just filled his rusty can with. “Be seeing yer”. “Yep”. Most of the old people in this d...

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BROTHERS IN ARMS

Submitted to Contest #204

BROTHERS IN ARMS The fusillade of shots sent the two Curry brothers scampering back into the empty saloon. Virgil, the eldest, crawled behind the bar. His brother, Josh, known as Kid, rolled away to the right of the swing doors. “Jesus, Virg, there must be a dozen o’ them bastards out there”. “You hit?” “No. Leastways, I don’t think so. You?” “Just a nick; left hand. Damn, it stings”. Kid checked himself over. One bullet had pierced his left boot; clean hole-but had missed his foot. “What now, Virg...

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