Christopher Kooker

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jan, 2024

Stories (6)

6 Stories

107 karma pts

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“Smoke” by Christopher Kooker

Submitted to Contest #249

DO NOT DRIVE INTO SMOKE. The yellowed road sign was already a dwindling speck in his side mirror, hardly worth devoting any extra energy on, but Bryan couldn’t shake the nasty thought that a sign like that was just the sort of unimpeachable non-action that authorities like to take in a crisis. Notably, he didn’t put much thought into the actual substance of the warning. Wispy gray clouds of smoke rolled somewhere ahead, their exact distance impossible to judge against the resolutely flat landscape. Besides, driving into the smoke didn’t see...

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“My Father's Study” by Christopher Kooker

Submitted to Contest #242

I was five years old and had not yet grasped the extent of my father’s failings. As children do, I accepted the world as I found it. Here I was, flitting up and down the carpeted halls of our family home, skipping between the patches of light refracted through the high windows. There was my father, nestled somewhere in the corner of our home known to me only as his study, wholly absorbed in whatever affairs occupy men in their private moments. It seemed natural if not inevitable that we should exist on opposite sides of the stately French do...

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“Overnight Rain” by Christopher Kooker

Submitted to Contest #239

It was scary at first, but I’ve decided I like the Overnight Rain. The storms are so loud after dinner, clacking hard off the roof and pinging against the windows like a rubber band shot from the back row. The whole world gets jostled up and no one wants to talk about it or anything else, even though you couldn’t hear them anyways. By early morning it’s different though, there’s something nice about when it’s still dark ...

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“A Grape in Hand” by Christopher Kooker

Submitted to Contest #238

Gallaudet raised two calloused hands to his chest and shook them, palms up and fingers splayed, as if in prayer. Then he held up two fingers by his head, flicking his wrist forward to draw attention to the gesture. Want. See. Nervously, Sawyer studied the deft forms. Then he raised his own hands to sign as he mouthed the words. I don’t understand. What...

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“John Paul, from TV” by Christopher Kooker

Submitted to Contest #235

Two weeks before election day in Columbus, Ohio, everybody already knew that John Paul Anderson would win. After all, abortion had become a swing issue and his challenger was saying all the wrong things. Furthermore, several key precincts were majority Black, so it was simple demographics. Perhaps a select few people even knew about the internal scandal brewing in his opponent’s camp, which threatened to topple the nasce...

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“In the Hall of Two Truths” by Christopher Kooker

Submitted to Contest #234

“We have all the time in the world,” she said. I think that was supposed to be reassuring, but her expression was hard to read. The Assessors sat silently, heads bowed in fealty. I tried my best to emulate their formal demeanor, but I desperately wanted to ask about the turquoise feathers sprouting from her arms. After an excruciating wait, I was finally at the head of a massive line that...

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Author bio

I'm a technical writer working on branching out into fiction. Readers and feedback are always appreciated. I live in Oklahoma City with my wife and son and a growing menagerie of pets, as sometimes happens when you have a son.