Clara Martin

“How I Lost My Love for Horses” by Clara Martin

How I Lost My Love for Horses(Warning: some racist context added)I can remember as a young girl watching The Wonderful World of Disney. That particular Sunday they played the movie Black Beauty. I was mesmerized when I saw this beautiful creature galloping freely through the wind-swept plains. It's mane streaming behind it like a wild banner. My eyes glued to the TV screen as my heart raced thinking of being on its back feeling the cool sensation of a breeze flowing across my back as I held on for dear life riding it along the prairie. After...

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“It's Raining Chocolate Gold Coins” by Clara Martin

It's Raining Chocolate Gold Coins I awoke early this morning to the sounds of something beating hard against my rooftop. I arose from my bed to see what was going on. I pulled my curtains back from my bedroom window and peered outside. To my dismay, I saw falling from the heavens an abundance of gold coins. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I had to rub both my eyes to make sure that I was not dreaming. There were gold coins all over the rooftops, cars, yards and in the streets. People were coming out of their houses screaming and ...

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“Southern Comforts” by Clara Martin

Southern ComfortsJanet Ellison decides to cook her husband Raymond his favorite southern dishes for their Valentines Day dinner. Raymond is always talking about missing his grandma's cooking when she was alive. When they spent Christmas with Raymond's parents for the holidays, Janet gets a list of Raymond's favorite southern dishes from his mother. His grandmother kept a large recipe book which was title: My Recipe Bible. Janet took the recipe book to a local copy center and made copies of the recipes from the list of his favorite foods. Ray...

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“The Secret Door” by Clara Martin

The Secret Door It's a rainy Saturday morning at the Tanner's home. Grandma Sarah always baked her magical cinnamon sprinkle cookies when it rains. My little sister Lisa and I love to help grandma bake. Grandma Sarah opened the bottom cabinet and took out a large floral bowl. She placed the bowl upon the kitchen countertop. Grandma opened up the refrigerator to get out the eggs, butter and cream. The flour, sugar and spices were inside the pantry. “Will you go into the pantry for me Maya?” asked Grandma. “Yes ma'am,” I answered. Grandma'...

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“Spooky House Tour” by Clara Martin

Spooky House TourEvery year in October, the town of Sutherland, Alabama chooses the creepiest house in the surrounding area to tour. This year the board choose the Ivy Grove Manor. The morning of the tour, there were lines around the block for miles. There was a large iron gate around the property. The owner of the manor Mr. Glenn unlocked the gates for the tourist to drive inside. Mr. Glenn was a tall lanky man with gray hair and wore dark glasses. As we entered inside the gate there were seven tombstones around dead oak tree. The yard was ...

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“The Cabin” by Clara Martin

The Cabin Since graduating college, the six of us would always rent a cabin during the Christmas holidays in Gatlinburg Tennessee. The atmosphere and the kindness of people in Gatlinburg is amazing. This year it's only going to be five us. Thelma Brown, Kenijah Taylor, Bernice Robinson, Jody Smith, and myself Megan Riley. Last Christmas our dear friend Prissy Glover decided to get drunk, took a crap on one of the beds, and broke many expensive items in the cabin we rented. The owners, The Moore's, banned her from all of their cabins. This ...

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“Where Is Buster?” by Clara Martin

It's 8:00 am. Thursday morning. I start coffee for me and my husband Albert. Then cook breakfast for Marcus before he goes to school. Then onto my daily chores of making the beds, cleaning the house and feeding our dog Buster. I grabbed a bag of dog food and went outside to Buster's doghouse. Usually, I can hear him barking before he sees me come around the corner. I see an opening in the fence around the doghouse. Buster was nowhere in sight. I walk down the street and back to our house and began calling him “Buster, Buster!” I hear no bark...

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“New Beginnings” by Clara Martin

The weather in December 2017 in Palmer Alabama was the coldest that has ever been in decades. It's under twenty egress and snowing heavily. Schools were closed because the roads and bridges were too dangerous to cross. Churches would become cold-weather shelters for homeless people. In the springtime, most of the homeless lived under the underpasses of bridges. Janice Weaver was a homeless woman who got fired from her job, lost her twin boys and her home all in the same year because of her drug addiction. Janice worked at the Caraway Center ...

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“Education and Today's Youth” by Clara Martin

Back in my day, education was important. My brother and I were cared for by a single mother who had strong feelings about the importance of getting a high school diploma. Schoolwork was just important as doing your chores. My mother made sure of that before we went outside to play or watch the television. Children today are addicted to social media and cell phones. As teenagers, we didn't have cell phones or social media sites to roam. The only things that fascinated people were the beepers. Most kids today don't even go to school regularly....

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“Restoring Our Family Bond” by Clara Martin

This Friday was a cold and dreary day. The sky is pale and gray as the rain beats down hard upon our windshield. There is an eighteen-wheel truck alongside us throwing up gushes of water from its large tires. We are on our way out of town to the next county. It'll take us about two hours and forty-five minutes to get there. I sat in the backseat with my son as my husband drove to the funeral home to see my Aunt for the last time. There have been several of our family members that we have lost this year. It has been so stressful because ...

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“Rainy Day in the City” by Clara Martin

It's 3:15 on Friday afternoon. Maya Turner has just got off her seven to three-shift at the Missionary Hospital. She looks out the long windows before she goes outside to her car in the driving deck. It's raining so hard that Maya could barely see across the street. She puts on her raincoat and exits the glass door of the hospital. When she finally reaches her car at the far end of the driving deck, she's drench with rain. The three o'clock traffic in the afternoon is awful. Traffic on the street near the hospital is always bumper to bu...

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“The Floating Apparition ” by Clara Martin

Submitted to Contest #102

On October 31, 1975, there was a strange sighting in the small town of Primrose, Alabama. Residence in the community reported seeing a floating apparition adorned in a red cloak. The mysterious creature floated into nearby woods and vanished into thin air. It was Friday evening around seven-thirty on the foggy night of Halloween. Donald Ryan and his wife Andrea were getting groceries out of the trunk of their car when they saw the strange figure. The couple's three children stared at the object outside the window of their home. The Ryan's ga...

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“Psychic Dreams” by Clara Martin

Submitted to Contest #98

It's June 11, 2021, the last day for the students at Glendale High School in Trenton, Alabama. The Beta Club students sold enough chocolate candy to go on their yearly summer vacation trip to Disneyland. All the students were to meet in the auditorium at the school to get their tickets and leave on the Trailways bus on Friday morning June 18 at 10:00 a.m. After school, the buses were parked in the front of the school that afternoon to pick up the students to take them home. Bryant Monroe picks up his little brother Devin from school that aft...

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“The Insomniac” by Clara Martin

Submitted to Contest #97

Amber Rayne sits on her bed looking outside her window at the stars twinkling in the midnight sky. She's having another restless night of sleeplessness. Her mind is spinning thoughts a mile a minute. She watches as an ambulance goes by her window with lights flashing and sirens blasting loudly. The dogs in the apartment complex began to howl as the ambulance goes by. She hears scratching at the front door and goes downstairs to investigate the sound. When she looks out she sees a stray cat licking its paw and purring softly. She goes into he...

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“The Kindness of Strangers” by Clara Martin

Submitted to Contest #96

Jennifer Wynn lost her husband Gavin in a gas explosion at the Kotobee mine in Burkesville, Alabama. She and her three children were in desperate need of help. Gavin was the sold breadwinner of the family. Jennifer had to leave her job to take care of their special needs daughter Reagan. The family had moved from their hometown of Trenton Kentucky to Alabama because of Gavin's job at the coal mine. They hadn't been in Burkesville a year before Gavin passed. Jennifer didn't know any of her neighbors in the small neighborhood. The family was b...

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