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Bob Faszczewski

Author on Reedsy Prompts since May, 2021

Stories (154)
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154 Stories

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End of the Party

Submitted to Contest #315

On New Year’s Day, Wilson gingerly sat up at 7 am and tried to clear the throbbing pain from his head. When he opened his eyes he found a 50s-era classic pinball machine wrecked and laying destroyed in a corner of the barroom. Disgusted and on the verge of vomiting, he fell back into a deep sleep that led him into a nightmare that never seemed to stop replaying. In his dream he had gone to the same country club party to which one of his software clients had dragged him for the last three years. It again featured the usual inane g...

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Be Careful What You Wish For

Submitted to Contest #314

At the end of most years, residents of the Northern Hemisphere looked forward to throwing off their layers of winter clothing and romping in the water with as little attire as possible. They didn’t realize that, this year, the sun they so fervently wished for could become the instrument of their destruction. As Mother Nature began to bring 2300 to a close she decided to play a cruel joke, starting on one of the most desolate places on earth, Oymyakon, Russia, by having the sun shine 24 hours a day. Medical personnel working in the area’...

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End of the Road?

Submitted to Contest #313

It started out as a pleasant jaunt along Route 50 East to Maryland’s coastline on the Atlantic Ocean. We headed out in the early afternoon, figuring it would give us plenty of time to bask in the sun of Ocean City and later frolic in the waves–perhaps spotting a few dolphins or whales breaching in the surf. We stopped in one of the boardwalk eateries for a little pizza and a few adult beverages before continuing our trip. We figured we’d return in the early evening to our bed and breakfast in quaint and quiet downtown Berlin. ...

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Time Runs Out

Submitted to Contest #311

CW: Contains depictions and/or references to gun violence, armed robbery, and kidnapping. Annapolis Police Sergeant Jim Jenson and his squad had their hands full in their crowded precinct as they tried to pin down the details of the busiest crime spree the capital had seen in his lifetime.Their unit had arrested so many suspects that no chairs remained in the bullpen. Smash and grab bandits had knocked over many of the town’s most exclusive jewelry stores so quickly that, between police, suspects and their attorneys and witnesses, not a spar...

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Stolen Pages

Submitted to Contest #310

One of the great unsolved mysteries in my small, upscale town of Westbridge, New Jersey, stumped police and amateur detectives for almost five years. A high-end home in one of the most prestigious neighborhoods in town had burned to the ground six months after the murders of two relatives and the suicide of the home’s owner. One of the community’s continuing mysteries stemmed from the fact that authorities never found the arsonist who torched the home. Shock had gripped that Thanksgiving weekend in 2001 when we found out about ...

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The Last Alarm

Submitted to Contest #309

Harry Spencer sat alone in his den, with the silence pressing in on him like a heavy blanket, smothering the usual sounds of his dull existence. He had become so used to the constant joy of every day in the company of his beloved Karen that the strains of his life since her death had enveloped him with an increasing cloak of loneliness. Afraid this cloak might close around him and choke him, he tried to contemplate a future without his lifelong companion. The all-engulfing flames of sadness that now confronted Harry seemed to s...

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New Year's Bashed

Submitted to Contest #308

On New Year’s Day Wilson awoke at 7 am and tried to clear the throbbing pain from his head. He sat up in bed to find his old-timey pinball machine wrecked and laying destroyed in a corner of his room. After running the strange turn of events from the night before over and over in his mind he fell back into a deep sleep that led him into a nightmare that never seemed to stop replaying. In his dream he had gone to the same country club party to which one of his software clients had dragged him for the last three years. It again feat...

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Shutterbug Shutdown

Submitted to Contest #307

On a boring Saturday morning I decided to take a hike on the outskirts of my home town, Berlin, Maryland. My adventure began on one of the many cornfields in the area.A thriving chicken-raising industry long ago had dominated this area, but now only abandoned grow out houses dotted the landscape. This seemed like the ideal place to search for historical treasures that might help me discover a forgotten link to the past that could highlight the new book knocking around in my brain for some time.Possibly risking a confrontation with some gun-t...

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Ruffles and Flourishes

Submitted to Contest #306

Ruffles and Flourishes Ruffles and Flourishes Tears filled the eyes of Sara Tomlinson as she spoke to her niece, Jane, and her graduation class about the world they would face after closing the door on four years at John Paul Jones High School in Bondsville, MD. On the one hand, tears of joy sprung from the aunt’s eyes because her brother’s daughter, the valedictorian of her class, would start her freshman year at Towson University in the fall to pursue a bachelo...

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Big Apple Takedown

Submitted to Contest #304

Publisher Joe Paulson laid it all on the line, “Dan, you either produce the next three chapters of Homicide on the Nile by the September 15 deadline or we will immediately drop you from our stable of writers. Paulson and his Magnifying Glass Publishing Company had released three New York Times bestsellers written by Dan Rodriguez in just five years. The Covid Pandemic brought everything to a standstill when the writer contracted a recurring case of long covid that played havoc with his immune system. Homicide on the Nile stood unfin...

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More Than the Leaves Caught Fire

Submitted to Contest #303

The abandoned mansion had marked the gateway to Sharpsburg, Maryland since around 1825. The well-maintained, authentic Colonial style home had served as a silent witness to many events, especially the multitude of Civil War battles fought on the 12 acres that surrounded the majestic structure. It seemed like the perfect setting for the spring fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity’s Washington County ReStore. Event Chair Melanie Granger figured that once the wealthy landowners and merchants from the nearby towns and villages filled up at...

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In a Holding Pattern

Submitted to Contest #302

The line seemed to slither as slowly as a desert rattlesnake stalking its prey as Jackson Tillman impatiently tapped his toe and anxiously waited to board the 747 that would take him to Chicago and the most important meeting of his career. His fingers itched to open his laptop and begin calculating the commission on what probably would become the largest software sales contract of his life. Aggressive foreign competition had caused earnings figures for his other colleagues to remain in a permanent deep freeze, but Jackson had found supp...

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Homerun for the Misfit

Submitted to Contest #301

Homerun for the Misfit As the midnight of their lives closed in on Harry and his high school buddies at their 50th reunion they mapped out a plan to come up to the plate one more time in a stickball game like those that had highlighted almost every afternoon in their teens. Harry recalled how he used to step menacingly up to the manhole cover with his converted wooden broom handle waiting for Joey or one of his other pals to wind up and let loose with the perfect pitch. Then he would get a real piece of it and send ...

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Up from the Avalanche

Submitted to Contest #298

Six strangers queued up in the ski line at the top of Bluegrass Mountain, each waiting anxiously to take their turns conquering the challenging, steep slope and carving their names into alpine history. Carl Jensen led off. He had graduated at the top of his MIT engineering class but found himself unable to climb beyondthe first rung of the executive ladder. Waiting behind him, Jan Smithson, an internationally-renowned artist whose work populated the mansions and museums the world over, but who had suffered through three violent and uns...

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Dawn Rises at Midnight

Submitted to Contest #297

As the midnight of their lives closed in on Harry and his high school buddies at their 50th reunion they mapped out a plan to come up to the plate one more time in a stick ball game like those that had highlighted almost every afternoon in their teens. Harry recalled how he used to step menacingly up to the manhole cover with his converted wooden broom handle waiting for Joey or one of his other pals to wind up and let loose with the perfect pitch. Then he would get a real piece of it and send the rubber ball flying down the ...

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