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Anna Frederiksen-Washington

Author on Reedsy Prompts since May, 2022

Stories (34)
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34 Stories

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Life in a small town

I leaned the powder blue vintage bicycle against the old shed. For a moment I was taken back through the years to when I was a young girl, around about thirteen years old riding my bicycle through the cobbled streets of Amsterdam. I smiled to myself. That was a long time ago. Now after all those years ago in another land and another time the smell of the rosemary that I was cutting brought me back to the present. I was trimming the rosemary plants in the garden section of the nursery and the beautiful scent was strong and intoxicating. I lik...

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A Lucia to remember

Submitted to Contest #232

A Lucia to rememberWith the passing of time, you have the luxury of perspective, and those moments you shared with others long ago take on a different meaning. Usually, it is the nice things we remember pushing the more unpleasant moments behind. I was born in a small rural town in the heart of Sweden. Warm, long summer days and cold, dark, snowy winters. Frozen lakes, skiing and skating, building snow men and watching the snowflakes fall outside my window, imagining the world outside. Traditions were something we held close to us, especiall...

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The First Snow

Submitted to Contest #227

November is a very dark month in Stockholm. This year it had seemed longer and more depressing than in previous times. Peter would drag himself out of bed in the mornings and found it hard to get motivated to start a new day. It was dark when he went to work, and it was dark when he finished at the end of the day. It was not welcoming to come home to an empty, dark cold house and he found himself longing for the change of season. This Sunday morning was different. The first snow had fallen during the night and now as he stood in the verandah...

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The Birthday Party

Submitted to Contest #221

The darkness was absolute. All she knew was a feeling of confinement. She could not move, and she could not breathe. There was the smell of damp rancid earth permeating the air. Then she awoke. Carina laid in her bed for a long time, staring into the half-light of a new day that was only just dawning. It was the same dream with the same feeling of absolute terror in which she felt no escape. Where did it come from and what did it mean? She could hear the birds beginning their morning song outside. Those beautiful little birds. She knew every...

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Owlva

Christmas at my grandparents’ house was always special. The food preparations started weeks ahead with the making of sausages from the meat my grandfather brought home from his butcher shop. Gran grinded the pieces in her hand-held meat grinder, added spices and pushed it through another machine which filled the intestines. We tied string in sections making sausage shapes, some were small, others bigger. My grandfather, being a butcher, used to say he would never buy a readymade sausage from a shop as he knew exactly what they put in it, and...

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Corner of the Eye

Submitted to Contest #219

Corner of the eye One of Darren Fishers first memories was of a tiny wooden glider. It represented much of his childhood. His family was poor, and it was not so much what he had as a child but what he did not have, that he remembered the most. The glider was brightly painted in the widow of the toy shop. When he had asked his mother if he could have it, she looked at him with sympathetic eyes. “I am sorry, we can’t afford to buy things like that. You need important things like socks and shoes. Perhaps one day.” He knew instinctively that d...

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Yabbies and Dill

Submitted to Contest #218

Yabbies and Dill There was an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables on display at the Central Market and Emma paused for a moment to take in the scent of freshly cut blood oranges, grapefruits, limes, and lemons. The smell of citrus was seductive and hard to resist so she picked out a handful of blood oranges for her basket. The skin was thick enough for easy peeling and the fruit felt firm in her hand. Mangoes were just in season fresh from Queensland, they spoke of a coming summer and laid perfectly cut in small cubes on the tray in fr...

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You can't judge a book by its cover

You can’t judge a book by its cover The chair creaked as Cheryl stood up and stretched her hands above her head. She had been sitting too long in front of the computer and her neck and back had begun to ache. It was not a good sign and she knew it would prevent her from a good night’s sleep again. The library was relatively quiet at this time of the year when all the assignments had been handed in and the university closed the lecture theatres. Most of the students did their work on-line now and the library was not used as much as before. ...

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Once upon a town

Once upon a town1963 was an interesting year. John F. Kennedy had just been assassinated, the civil rights movement was growing, and Marthin Luther King delivered his famous speech “I have a dream.” The Vietnam War had started and there was a new band called The Beatles.Jean walked slowly down the main street towards the post office. It was a beautiful sunny morning, and the shop owners were busy putting out the racks with summer frocks and colorful pot plants. She nodded briefly as she passed them.- God morning, Mrs Bently.- Lovely day, Mrs...

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Tree in a matchbox

Submitted to Contest #198

Tree in a matchboxA private school in Australia in the sixties entitled a child to a one-on-one learning basis. That is how Simon’s education started. His parents worked hard to pay for his fees. A blue cap with a matching blazer, embroidered with the emblem of St. Michaels became his first uniform. A small boy in a world where everything had its place and the world outside appeared strange and confusing. A cloak room that smelled of brand-new leather satchels and banana sandwiches.It was during this time he began to explore the books in the...

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My Beautiful Sunflower

Submitted to Contest #191

My Beautiful Sunflower It was early April and one of the last very rare Indian Summer Days where the light and warmth dressed the city in a final promise of summer. Lisen was looking through the florist window on Jetty Road, trying to decide what flowers to buy for her friend Carina’s funeral. She felt sad and strangely weak inside and somehow the flowers did not bring that sense of comfort and strength she had hoped for. She looked at the roses; red, pink, yellow and white and thought of Carina walking through her rose garden with the se...

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Odd ball Emily

Odd ball Emily “Speak now.” Emily felt a nudge and looked up at her mum who was sitting beside her at the table. “Come on, out with it! What do you think you were doing?” She looked around and they were all looking at her now, waiting for her to say something. She could feel her face turning redder than the tomatoes on the plate in front of her and she wanted to sink through the floor. There was no way out. “Come on Emily, you have got some explaining to do. What’s going on?” Her father lent towards her and his voice sounded angry. Why di...

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The Boy and the Mobile

Submitted to Contest #189

The Boy and the Mobile"It was so terribly cold. Snow was falling, and it was almost dark". It was the last evening of the year. Sergii looked up towards the sky, hoping to see a star, but there was only a thick grey blanket covering the area. Sounds of loud explosions came from somewhere far away and he knew instinctively this was not the fireworks that used to light up his town with all the colors of the rainbow to celebrate the coming of the new year. This was something different, something very bad. Missiles launched by the Russians were...

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Percy, the old rebel Swede

Submitted to Contest #177

Percy, the old rebel SwedeThere are no other sounds here at Kangaroo Point besides the heavy traffic passing over The Story Bridge. Main Street is always quiet. It is like being at a dead end and yet there is so much life there in the city across the river. This seems to be a secret place where the fruit bats hang in the paw paw trees at night and the rain flows under the wooden houses like a never-ending river. It is hot, humid and it smells of frangipanis and the tropics. We like sitting in the park under the big Moreton Bay fig tree in th...

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The Bringer of Stories

Submitted to Contest #176

The Bringer of Stories Matilda walked slowly along the main street. She was tired after a long day at school and browsed in the shop windows on her way back home. There was not much to get excited about, she knew them all and they always looked the same to her. Today she felt sad. The results from the latest math’s test were not good and she knew her parents would not be happy. It did not help how hard she tried, her marks never seemed to improve. When she came to the corner, she saw an old bus parked by the curb. It was painted in bright...

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