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Bob Faszczewski

Author on Reedsy Prompts since May, 2021

Stories (149)
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149 Stories

2985 karma pts

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Yanking Good Out of the Jaws of Bad

Submitted to Contest #219

Plagiarism–a word that should strike fear into the conscience of every aspiring author–no matter how young or lacking in experience. Society has many ways of exacting revenge on those who steal the writings of others by trying to make it their own. These penalties can range from putting a serious dent in the offender’s bank account to locking them behind bars for up to a decade. Not to mention putting an end to any ambitions in the realm of publishing. To a high school student with little exposure to the niceties of the adult leg...

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The Not-So-Happy Romp in the Woods

Submitted to Contest #218

     The acrid odor of burning wood made it impossible for John to inhale the freshly sprouting greenery in the spring pasture.       His dried out taste buds made his tongue stick like glue to the roof of his mouth.       Thus began another chapter in a dreamed-about fairytale that eventually turned into a nightmare.      John and his friends had looked forward to the camping trip at Emerson’s Lake for their entire final semester at...

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Agatha Christie--Not!

Submitted to Contest #217

The decrepit door on the rundown building creaked as he opened it, almost falling off its hinges. The eerie light in the cobweb-covered interior revealed a long, dark corridor illuminated on each side only by a series of book lights, one every few feet. John’s girlfriend Jane had texted him a half hour before and told him to drive to an abandoned mansion on what had deteriorated into the seedier side of their small rural town. She had forwarded directions, one message at a time, separated by agonizing intervals of five minutes. Her voice so...

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Takedown at the Beanery

Submitted to Contest #216

     As the rich, brown liquid flowed into his ceramic receptacle FBI Special Agent John Arrington mentally reviewed his plan to tighten the noose around Columbian drug lord Bochampo.     The special agent’s investigative unit had gathered every shred of evidence it needed over one of its most extensive probes in recent history, lasting more than six months.      Hiring a squad of carefully selected and vetted informants, Arrington’s team had traced Bochampo’s trail of dea...

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Pulling Back the Shroud

Submitted to Contest #215

          A full night’s sleep had become virtually impossible for Jeremy Stuart since he moved into the apartment above the Barcom & Sons Mortuary three months ago.             Of course, one would expect trouble resting in a building housing the remains of the dead, and possibly their spirits.             Jeremy’s sleeplessness, it seemed, stemmed from much more than b...

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A Matter of Degrees

Submitted to Contest #214

     As a lifelong resident of the Northern Hemisphere, I  normally looked sadly on the onslaught of fall and winter. During the summer my friends and I had romped with as little attire as possible in our local lakes and the Atlantic Ocean.  This year, though, we didn’t realize that the sun whose disappearance we so sadly mourned could become the instrument of the world’s destruction.      As Mother Nature began to close the curtain on 2300, news reports began to surface about natur...

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Be Careful What You Read After Dark

Submitted to Contest #211

        Words have meaning--but do they have life? Can they actually leap off a page to take you on adventures--even those which you don’t want to go on?        Berlin, Md. historian John Simpson, a long-time friend of mine, called me one Friday and excitedly asked me to meet him at the back door of the Berlin Library at 4:15, right after closing.       I couldn’t figure out why he wanted to meet at the library and why not during regular ...

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Unscheduled Lunar Touchdown

Submitted to Contest #210

     The July humidity continued to hang across Delmarva’s Ayers Creek this Friday long after the sun set and the full moon encased the area in its heavenly glow.  The hot moisture imprisoned the lone fisherman floating his kayak along the surface like a straight jacket.       Yet Dr. Fulbright at first had embraced the relatively minor discomforts of the eerie evening. He thought they would provide a quiet retreat from the pandemic-induced terror he had faced in six months of 18-ho...

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Road Trip to Another Dimension

Submitted to Contest #209

            As my car crept along a deserted road in the Virginia-North Carolina countryside, the passing scenery reminded me of the forest scene from "Deliverance." To add to the negative atmosphere, I had agreed to allow my fellow Realtor, Jill McIntyre, to partner with me on the trip and act as my navigator–more on Jill’s sterling character and background later.      Back to the drive–the stillness on this Saturday night made me feel like a solo mortician...

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Experiment in Democracy?

Submitted to Contest #207

       Lisa Mergenthaler was quickly becoming the most highly regarded journalist on issues regarding the intersection of science and politics in the United States.         Her daily livestream blog, The Scientific Politicizer,”  had become the manual for insights into almost all science-based discussion of national policy for thought leaders across the ideological spectrum.        Yet, she still greeted with some surprise the i...

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Pulling Back the Shroud

Submitted to Contest #206

A full night’s sleep had become virtually impossible for Jeremy Stuart since he moved into the apartment above the Barcom & Sons Mortuary three months ago. Of course, one would expect trouble resting in a building housing the remains of the dead, and possibly their spirits. Jeremy’s sleeplessness, it seemed, stemmed from much more than battling with the occult. Every time the newly-appointed funeral director attempted to close his eyes, around midnight. a loud howling sound assaulted his ears. The eerie noise, apparently coming from t...

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Unscheduled Lunar Touchdown

Submitted to Contest #205

     The July humidity continued to hang across Delmarva’s Ayers Creek this Friday long after the sun set and the full moon encased the area in its heavenly glow.  The hot moisture imprisoned the lone fisherman floating his kayak along the surface like a straight jacket.       Yet Dr. Fulbright at first had embraced the relatively minor discomforts of the eerie evening. He thought they would provide a quiet retreat from the pandemic-induced terror he had faced in six months of 18-ho...

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Personal Uber to Another World

Submitted to Contest #204

The scenery along the deserted road in the Virginia-North Carolina countryside reminded me of some of the most haunting scenes from Deliverance. To add to the negative atmosphere on this road trip from hell, my least favorite Realtor office colleague sat next to me The stillness on this Saturday night made me feel like a solo mortician closing up shop after the last mourner following the wake of the least popular crotchety old man in the neighborhood.        My fellow Realtor, Jill McIntyre, had a voice tha...

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Up from the Underbrush

Submitted to Contest #203

          Tom Potenski had crawled through the underbrush of his high school career like a fugitive trapped in a never-ending forest. He faced an uncertain future with limited prospects and no plan on how to move forward.         He had managed to bluff his way to decent grades at St. Jerome’s High School, particularly in English and history. He couldn’t see how this had prepared him for anything except standing in front of a classroom trying to jam som...

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Friendship Renewed

Submitted to Contest #202

                “Our mission, should we choose to accept it. . .”          The words blast from the speakers of my time machine. I had assembled it in my Maryland beachside backyard with the help of a few friends from the Wallops Island Flight Facility recruited for weekend duty on my fantasy project.        My friend Harry and myself hop onboard the high tech sedan as I set the contr...

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