Caroline Smith

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jan, 2020

Stories (9)

9 Stories

217 karma pts

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“The Pathos of Things” by Caroline Smith

Sixteen: Our gloved fingers intertwine as he steers me away from the ice patches in our path. The tinsel that shrouds the Christmas tree in the town square gives us a glittering wink as we take our cups of hot cocoa from the vendor with a grateful nod. We sit on the bench in front of Fancy’s Fudge, ignoring splinters digging into the backs of our puffy coats and the peeling green paint that bubbles beneath our jeans. We’re drunk off fumes of chocolate and pine, and from the spirit that lingers in the scene around us, laughing families win...

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“Only Words” by Caroline Smith

We strayed in far corners of your library, slow-dancing in a wood-paneled and wool-carpeted room. The paintings stared at us in disapproval, even the canvases with nothing but inanimate objects painted on their once bare bodies.I can just see a paintbrush tickling the white rough surface. The brush’s ends are stained a deep purple, the color of your favorite kind of grapes. Once purple meets white, there is no returning, no going back to a blank slate. You finish what you started or you get a new canvas.

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“Empty Nest” by Caroline Smith

Content warning: Brief mentions of animals being harmed. Stone Scalari lived alone. It was certainly more peaceful than living with his wife and children had been. He was 62. A lifetime of sharing space with loved ones had left him nothing but debt, headaches, and agony. Stone sat on the chaise lounge on his back patio one Saturday morning about a year after Carrie had left. ...

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“In Absentia” by Caroline Smith

It’s Jasey’s turn to host book club. The sangria in the pitcher grows warm as the curated landscape of candles thickens the air with the scents of spearmint and watered roses. Her friends sit in the living room and chat around the coffee table. There are eight of them and it’s likely none of them read the book. Sandra chose it and she always picks books featuring infidelity to make herself feel better about being a divorcée.Jasey hesitates to call them her friends, really. She had friends in college and even made some at...

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“Dragon's Daughter” by Caroline Smith

I’ve lived a thousand lifetimes, all originating from the space in my father’s skull. One night he spun a story in which I was a pilot, flying a ’50s-style turboprop over oceans made of sapphire; in the next, I was a cunning thief, pilfering from greedy ghouls who lined their pockets with the misery of others; yet another night, I was a magician, pulling rabbits out of a hat during the day and frolicking with them on my ...

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“Black Diamond” by Caroline Smith

They hadn’t been in the same room together in five years, after the wedding. That reunion had ended with a glass of bourbon leaving its permanent mark on the white dress, and they had all come to an unspoken agreement not to meet after that. But a group will always have factions, much as a broken chain still was once made of links. They were no longer a collective unit, but some bonds lingered, suspended ...

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“Fade” by Caroline Smith

Every year, the three women traveled to the Coney Island boardwalk on the first Saturday of the summer season to watch the fireworks. She didn’t know how to tell them that this year may be her last. That morning, Abigail had received an envelope in the mail. The envelope, the one that congratulated her and told her the admissions department at Stanford would be honored to accept her into its clas...

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“The Dress” by Caroline Smith

It was a May midafternoon when Mom called me inside to help her fold the laundry. I pretended not to hear her, because the sun was finally softly brushing the treetops after a strangely long winter, and humidity and the promise of summer vacation hung in the air, and I was spectacularly beating Henry, the boy next door, at a rudimentary game of street hockey.Mom wasn’t a shouter. Instead she sung my name incessantly, a pleasant incantation I didn’t particularly want to hear, like when waiters chanted “happy birthday” at ...

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“This Will Be The Year” by Caroline Smith

Laura’s mother always told her not to walk in the woods alone at night. But it’s 11:03 on New Year’s Eve, and she plunges into the mass of trees, armed with only a bottle of champagne whose gold foil rubs against her sweaty palm and a phone announcing unhelpful directions to her destination.“In 500 feet, take a slight right,” the robotic voice says. The screen displays three different paths ahead, all of which veer right.Laura has walked this path every New Year’s Eve for the past seven years; she shoul...

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Shortlisted 1 story ⭐️

Contest #154
In Absentia – read story