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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Sep, 2022
Submitted to Contest #209
“Okay. Next one. You ready?” The stout man with the black toupee pauses. Marti looks over from her spot at the lottery machine. “Yeah. Go ahead,” she offers, her voice flat. “Gimme four, two, one, three-–fifty cents boxed. And fifty cents straight on a separate ticket.” The door buzzes. “Hello,” Marti acknowledges automatically, without looking over. “Is that all?” she wonders. “Sure—send ‘em through!” The man slaps the counter enthusiastically. “And grab me a couple of those ten dollar scratchers—your choice as long as they’re winners...
Submitted to Contest #201
Kimchi jiggae is my comfort food. I'm a really good cook. I had to teach myself with YouTube videos. They're really handy for learning things like cooking an octopus when you were born into the wrong family. I still don't quite have the knack of that. But I'm a kimchi jiggae expert. I'm sure Taemin will agree. Everyone thinks he's serving his military time right now. It was just perfect timing, really.I turn off the flame under the pot, then return to my room. It's such a mess right now. I just couldn't decide earlier which dress to wear. Bu...
Submitted to Contest #199
Like a crimson leaf descending to the ground in the autumn, I lazily drift above my body, which lies motionless in the bed below, until its gravity draws me back inside. Back inside, where I feel like a violin inside its case. Silent and still. Trapped. Hidden. Not at all the me I become when I float away and am free. I open my eyes. Even as I hear footsteps in the hall, somehow, I feel it is different now…. I had an intention. I had a yearning. How did it go awry and yet, so perfectly? Was I meant to meet you instead? Who are you? As s...
Submitted to Contest #186
Content warning: adult themes HerHer black woolen coat. Silver skull buttons. Bobbed brunette hair pinned to cheekbones by the beanie she’d crocheted. Along the railroad tracks, our sneakers catch on jagged rocks–scraping, clinking. Laughter. Hazy moonlight. Spritz of spray paint. Intoxicating sweet scent mingling with her violet perfume. Feeling airy inside. Her hand. Slender fingers, nails tipped in ribbons of red. Her waist. As I pull her to me, her can rattles a cacophony of surprise to find itself tumbling over rocks. I muffle her giggl...
Submitted to Contest #181
My feet, it seemed, snapped every twig beneath them. The sleeves of my jacket caught on every branch to my sides. Behind me, I barely heard a sound. It had been like this for several minutes. As if he could feel my annoyance rising, finally, he snorted. At least he was still back there. Sometimes, I couldn’t be certain he hadn’t tired of my ineptness and left me alone with the trees. “Are you sure you know where you’re going?” he wondered; although, the question came out more like a statement. Of course, he knew I didn’t. But, just that fact...
Submitted to Contest #180
Please note: This story contains use of strong language and adult themes.Marti returned to the register, the beer from the six pack dropped by the local drunk causing her shoes to stick to the floor. “Hi,” she acknowledged, hoping to avoid as much conversation with the plump, middle-aged man as possible. “Why are you in such a bad mood? You should smile more. You’d be so much prettier,” he admonished. “You need gas? Where you at out there?” She eyed him indifferently, ignoring the comments so typical of insecure men. It was like th...
Submitted to Contest #170
Sunday means the day will begin at 10:12 a.m. The shower water needs to run for two minutes before it warms, if the handle is turned to align with the chipped tile to the left. A squirt of shampoo the size of a quarter massaged into my scalp in twenty counterclockwise circular motions cleanses my hair quite well. The bar of Irish Spring needs to be rubbed onto the washcloth six times to produce adequate suds lasting through two up-down motions over every section of my body beginning with my left arm and ending with my left leg. Drying is acc...
Submitted to Contest #167
A wisp of smoke snags, caught as if in a spider web, then breaks apart–fractals of light and color, kaleidoscope….Struggling to stand as the air thickens, voices chattering incoherently. In the mirror before me, mother and sister laugh. How am I like them? I must stand. Stand. Wisps of smoke again. A few shaky steps to the bed. I hear you, chemical, as you hiss. Your hand reaches forth below me, through my spine, into my stomach and pulls me down. Down with vibrating electric. The ten times strength in little black crystals and I witness you...
Submitted to Contest #166
“I quit! Before you, I will lay down the failure of all of this.” She raises her eyes to the top of the mountain across the lake. Stars begin to fade as the sky becomes bruised with the first hints of dawn. In her outstretched hands, she holds a leather bound notebook. Mist rises lazily from the lake below her. Her toes feel the coolness of moisture on the wooden dock planks.It’s all here, scrawled upon the pages in her minimalist cursive–everything she could remember that had ever gone wrong in her life. No longer would she carry it wi...
Submitted to Contest #165
Sue sipped an Americano she’d drowned in french vanilla creamer and gazed out the window of the cafe for a moment. Outside on the patio, a teenage couple flirted, laughing and scribbling in a notebook, taking turns with a Sharpie. Sue couldn’t help but smile to herself, wondering if they would be together after high school, still meeting up at the cafe, or if theirs was only a fleeting moment never meant to last. She pressed her hands to the warmth of her mug and looked down, watching the steam swirl for a moment before glancing up. Acr...
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