Carrie Fitzgerald

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Aug, 2020

Stories (8)

8 Stories

185 karma pts

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“Invisible Threads” by Carrie Fitzgerald

Submitted to Contest #117

I lost my brother. People usually mean death when they say that, but I had no reason to believe my brother was actually dead. When I began looking for him, I couldn’t remember how long it had been since that one afternoon, when after years of absence, I had met him at his workplace- a Ford dealership in rural upstate New York. After, we back to his apartment for a dinner of take-out pizza. We talked- laughed even- for hours, all the while careful to keep the past in its hiding place.   After that brief meeting, I wrote him, maybe...

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“Elements and Allegory” by Carrie Fitzgerald

Submitted to Contest #108

It’s raining now, as I write this, which matches my memory of the day I lost my mother for the first time. It rained at her funeral too, but I’m getting ahead of myself. With all that’s happened recently, my therapist wants me to write my story, “like I’m telling a dear friend.” There was an analogy there too- something about lancing a boil and getting the poison out, but that doesn’t sit quite right with me. I don’t feel full of poison. I don’t feel full of anything. I’m empty, even if the tears still keep flowing- a seemingly inexhaustible...

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“Time Gives Everything” by Carrie Fitzgerald

Submitted to Contest #106

In physics, there a principle known as the observer effect. Simply put, the act of measuring something changes it. It should be noted that this is not the same as the uncertainty principle, which tells us that we can only know so much about a thing. That is, if you know exactly where you’re making the measurement, you can’t know anything about when you’re measuring it. Or something like that. It’s been a few years since I’ve been in a physics class. Nevertheless, the map had me thinking about both of these effects. To be precise, it wasn’...

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“Lessons for a Medium in Training” by Carrie Fitzgerald

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #105

Just because someone is dead doesn’t mean that they know anything. I know, I know. This is not a sentiment you expect to hear from a medium, but it’s absolutely true. And if you want to be a working medium, you need to understand this. Repeat after me- the newly dead aren’t any smarter than they were when they were alive. Wisdom doesn’t come the moment your heart stops. It takes time and guidance. The problem is most of our clients want to talk to their loved ones soon after the death, when their grief is still fresh. They want to say ...

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“Look Away, Look Again” by Carrie Fitzgerald

Submitted to Contest #101

It started after the car accident, or rather “the collision”, as her father called it. Because it couldn’t have been an accident. “Car wrecks didn’t just happen”, he was fond of saying, “Someone had to have caused it.” But in Emma’s case, she couldn’t find a way to blame herself, nor could she blame the other driver. Best she could do was point to God, that is if you could blame God for bad weather. That night her wipers had struggled mightily to keep up with the downpour, and the wet road had danced with dizzying reflections of headlights a...

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“Timekeeping” by Carrie Fitzgerald

Submitted to Contest #99

The watch stopped at sunset. I could say that with certainty because we were all sitting outside with an unobstructed view of the western horizon. I looked down at the watch the instant before the sun dipped out of view. I saw the second hand move once, and then no more. I looked up again and the sun had vanished. In the time between heartbeats, the longest day of the year had ended and the shortest night began. “The watch stopped.” I say. Owen leaned forward in his camp chair. “What, really? Can I see?” I passed the watch back to hi...

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“The Apocalypse Did Not Go as Planned” by Carrie Fitzgerald

Submitted to Contest #60

The apocalypse did not go as planned. Not even close. Those of us on the lower rungs of the seraphic hierarchy could have told you there would be major problems, but no one wanted to listen to any of us. Bottom line, there were multitudes more souls than any of the archangels had expected. And worse, so many of these mortals were absolutely certain- and unfortunately at the same time- absolutely wrong about where they were supposed to go. I’m not saying that consulting with my cohort would have solved everything. Certainly not, but our ord...

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“Dream Garden” by Carrie Fitzgerald

Submitted to Contest #59

When I was a small child I had a dream about a building. It was mostly just me floating around darkened hallways and rows of doors. It’s a little difficult to describe, but some of these hallways ended, and led outside, and then they would start up again inside. Both inside and outside were in shadow, but not fully dark. It was more like the time between twilight and night. I drove my parents crazy talking about this dream. It was so incredibly vivid and strange, and I had it almost every night. It scared me a little, which is maybe why I...

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Shortlisted 1 story ⭐️

Contest #105
Lessons for a Medium in Training – read story