Bob Ellis

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jun, 2020

Stories (7)

7 Stories

104 karma pts

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“A Thanksgiving Tail” by Bob Ellis

This is so not happening to me It can’t be true. The rumors have been flying around this place since yesterday. And for a place where nothing much flies, that is really saying something. This is my second summer here in Soupsbury, Delaware. It’s a pretty good life. Sure, each of us must scratch in their own patch of dirt to get some of life’s chickenfeed, but I’ve...

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“Damned if you do...” by Bob Ellis

“Find a way to pay me, or leave the bank,” my boss, Teresa Tedescho, snarled her ultimatum. My entire professional life felt like it was slipping away. If caught, I could lose my licenses, get fined hundreds of thousands, and be banned from the securities industry for life. Life, hell, I was only forty-two. Cutting lawns and plowing driveways for the next thirty-plus years was a decidedly unattractive pro...

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“The Fork in the Road” by Bob Ellis

Seventy miles east-northeast of Dallas stands the quiet little city of Marshall, Texas. Marshall is full of squat three and four-story office buildings where grey dust from the prairie swirls about, everything cooking under a fiery East Texas sun. Not much happens in Marshall in the way of commerce, ‘cepting the lumber harvested in them famous piney woods and the gushing oil wells that sprout like porcupine quills around...

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“In the Western Foothills” by Bob Ellis

Here in Japan, I live for the weekends. I can neither speak nor read the Japanese language, so I exist in an impenetrable bubble of people talking around me, at work, in the shops, and on the buses and trains. I, only half-joking, call myself illiterate, only understanding a few phrases and words. Unless written in Romanji, I can’t read anything. I cannot read any Kanji characters except the “Dai.” I float alone in a vas...

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“Marie Antoinette and the Morning After Halloween” by Bob Ellis

She was high-stepping down a deserted Ursulines, each chunky-heeled T-strap daintily lifted in turn, pointed forward, then gracefully touched down on the wet brick sidewalk with a “clack.” The merchants on this block of Ursulines had hosed down the sidewalks in front of their establishments late last night, clearing away the Halloween bacchanalia’s debris so they could open on time this morning. In the ea...

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“Indifference” by Bob Ellis

Eduardo and I sat on the bluff, overlooking the factory complex in the valley below. The gritty sand beneath us was a dusty buff color, matching our sweat-encrusted camouflage clothing. The air was warm from the day-long bright sun, now setting behind the Lliama Volcano in the southern Andes, and particles of dust swirled in the air. As the sun descended, the vents and air conditioning units on the rooftops of the Chilea...

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“Is he, or isn't he?” by Bob Ellis

A few minutes past 10 AM, with a little time to kill, I sidle over to Malcolm at Green and Steele’s market-making post. Malcolm is a New York Stock Exchange specialist, maintaining orderly markets in a dozen large stocks. Malcolm looks drawn and tired, his hair all askew, and we still have six hours to go in the trading day. Malcolm’s badge and blue jacket bear his company’s name and his personal exchange...

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Author bio

Bob Ellis is a retired financial services exec and consultant, residing in SWFL. He has lived and worked on three continents and swum in all the oceans of the world.