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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jan, 2020
The house was dark. The sky outside was dark with flickers of flashing light. A storm had decided to blast Jonesboro, Texas, and in the process slammed some trees to the ground, and knocked out several power lines, including the one in front of Zola and Chris Akins’ front gate.It was a summer day, and storms like these in Texas were typical, and normally, Zola, age 43, was prepared. She would have the flashlights charged up and set up in the kitchen, lanterns with batteries would light up the whole house and that would b...
Mistake is defined, according to the old Webster dictionary, as “an action or judgment that is misguided or wrong.”And Julia Barrett knew she had made a big old misguided action that she had to make amends for.If only she knew how to start.The mistake she made happened five days ago, but it still ate her conscience. Jules, as her family and friends called her, blamed that on her parents, and how they raised her siblings and her to be compassionate and genuine.Otherwis...
“Michael, duck down.” Stephanie Parker grabbed her brother by the sleeve of his Army jacket and pulled him into the doorway of a clothing store. Michael jumped, and looked around.“What? What is it?” His brown eyes were wide with anxiety as he followed Stephanie behind a rack of clothes, she was trying to look discreet as she stared out the window.Stephanie said, “It is Aunt Gillian.” She pointed at two older women walking across the way in the shopping mall – both carrying bags and big purses.
The sounds and smells of summer seemed to flop down at once in the little neighborhood of Costa de Meca – children could be heard playing in the streets and in the manicured lawns, the aroma of hamburgers or steaks or hot dogs on various grills crept through the air and then, there was the sound of the ice cream truck.Tracey Wingate sat on her front steps and watched as the kids started running to the edges of their properties, coins in hand. She laughed at her neighbors across the street – the bachelors, Rick and Matt, ...
Sitting in the middle of her bedroom floor, Raven McIntyre appeared to be in some of trance.“What is she doing?” Christina McIntyre, Raven’s mom, asked her husband, as they both stood out in the hallway, peeking at their youngest daughter.“Well, I thought she was doing her yoga, but she has not moved … you don’t think she is stuck in that position, do you?” Jeffery McIntyre asked his wife in a stage whisper – knowing Raven could hear him.Though her eyes remained closed, a slight smile ...
Saraya Johnson yawned and stretched out her legs in front of her. Peeking out the window, she tried to figure out where they were, but all ‘Ray’ could see were clouds and more clouds and a gray sky. Running her hand through her long, auburn hair, Raya took a sneak peek at the other passengers on the Concorde. Most were still asleep, a few were reading and some were like her – just waking up. She smiled an...
Write a story about a summer afternoon spent in a tree...
The room was cool – and there was a gentle breeze sweeping across the cool, brown leather couch that invited you to sit. You did, and literally felt yourself sink deep into its folds. As your whole body relaxed, you caught the whispering sounds of a classical piano playing as your cell phone rang, but you didn’t bother to go answer it. You smiled. Memories of your mom playing afternoons like ...
“So, you’re done. It is coming out in the stores today?” Kevin McGuire looked at his girlfriend, Jenna Smith as they walked from the take-out window at Neely’s – a local barbecue joint in Marshall, Texas, carrying their bags to his truck. Jenna was looking in a bag, “Yup. Lord, these fries smell great.” She smiled at him. Kevin felt the butterflies in his stomach. When Jenna smiled, she didn’t have dimples or anything, but her green eyes sparkled every t...
If you looked up the definition of the word ‘friendship’ on the Internet – you would get about 3,560,000,000 results … eyes bugging, right? More than half of those might actually deal with your question specifically.If you asked Franklin Madison, age 35, to define friendship – he’d give you his best thinking ‘stare’ behind his bi-focal, and say, “Myron.”When Franklin was growing up in Empire Crossing, North Carolina, the professor of literature at Columbia was a typical little boy … except he had a larg...
“I will pick you up in 20 minutes.” The text from my sister, Kim, beeped into the silence of my office, waking me out of my daydream. I shook my head, and picked up the phone sitting next to my keyboard.The thing about Kim and her plans are that her promises of 20 minutes usually meant about 45 minutes to an hour.So, I didn’t immediately get up to change out of my pajamas. Instead, I stared at the blank page staring back at me from my screen.I was supposed to be writing a short story f...
Sarah Chaucer lay back on the ground and twiddled with pieces of grass underneath her. She reached behind her head, and took her long, auburn hair out of its ponytail holder, and let it flow freely on the ground.She could hear her mom in her head. “Sarah, get up. You are going to get your clothes dirty and grass in your hair.” Sarah, now at age 50, laughed, “You are right, Mom, but it is OK. It will come out.” She said out loud to herself. Sarah stretched out her legs - rubbing out ‘imaginary’ wrinkles ...
Alicia Madison leaned against the wall in the hallway right outside the emergency room hub,and took two large breaths behind her blue surgical mask. Sweat was popping up around her forehead.Behind her goggles, a few tears were in her green eyes. She blinked a few times, and when she finally could catch her breath, she took her gloves off, and threw them in the trash can beside her, and lifted her goggles to where they lay on top of her head.Her dark brown, long hair was covered with a surgery ‘skull cap...
Well, dearest diary, here I am - sitting in hard back chair in the airport terminal waiting area. It has been a long two weeks, but today is the day that Joe comes home, and I feel like a kid waiting to sit on Santa’s knee.Joe, my husband of 35 years, had wanted to make the trip to New York to see the Yankees play since he was a kid. Life just got in the way. He was going to go ...
“The Same Old, Same Old,” Dani Williams stood at the bottom of the stairwell leading up to the front door of the log cabin building. There were rocking chairs lining the front, and big green ferns hung from hooks screwed into the awnings above a rail.She was reading the sign above the stairwell. “The Same Old, Same Old, Simple Cooking and Living.” There weren’t but three vehicles in the paved parking lot - one was the business vehicle w...
NOTE - Writer is inactive at the moment, though will be checking in and out due to projects through Reedsy Discovery. keep writing, yo!
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