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Deborah Sanders

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2021

Stories (9)

Comments

Library

10 Followers

17 Following

9 Stories

189 karma pts

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Wednesday’s Child

Deborah Sanders

Submitted to Contest #289

Content warning - mildly offensive languageWednesday, February 12, 2025Wednesdays! So often people complain about Wednesdays. At the beginning of the day, it is an uphill climb to the top of the week. But by evening, the middle is in the past and, with a bit of luck, the rest of the week will be a an easy slide down to the weekend.This year, I am embracing Wednesdays. My college classes end at noon on a Wednesday, and I can ride the buses back to my home, or rather the apartment building where I am staying with my uncle. ...

7 likes

Beyond Broken

Deborah Sanders

Submitted to Contest #285

 Trigger Warning: car accident involving children,grief, anger“Michael? Are you going to walk the dog?”“Soon,” I called back.The mission of clearing out the basement was well underway. My wife, Rachel, and I were emptying out my dad’s house, my childhood home, preparing to sell it. I wanted to sort one more box, the one marked “Mike”, before taking Daisy on her walk. Inside, I found my high school yearbooks which were keepers, and below them, various sports team pennants and towels, all of which I decided to discard as donatio...

3 likes

Out of the Blue, Embracing the New

Deborah Sanders

Submitted to Contest #283

Trigger Warning: car accident, grief, child lossEveryone knows that Christmas can be a lonely time for some people. Claire had never considered that she might find herself to be amongst the “some people” some day. She had grown up as part of a large extended family. She was the oldest of two girls, with aunts and uncles as well as five cousins living nearby. So, in her youth, her home had always been a hive of activity, with plenty of gatherings and social happenings. Christmas had always been a time for family and traditions. Reminisci...

6 likes

The Tunnels

Deborah Sanders

Submitted to Contest #282

Bruce was spinning, both literally and figuratively. He was spinning at his desk in his office chair while his mind was spinning on overload. This year was turning into a disaster, a string of disappointments one after the other, bam, bam, BAM. He banged his pencil down hard, causing his notepad to slide along the desk, knocking a virtual reality headset to the ground where his sweatshirt softened its landing. Bruce glanced down at the headset and considered picking it up. It belonged to his brother who had annoyingly left it ...

7 likes

The Party

Deborah Sanders

Submitted to Contest #275

Todd sat on the couch contemplating the downside of being a teenager. Eighteen was the worst, caught in limbo. No longer a child and not yet an adult, at least not in this province and not in this house either. He was looking forward to turning nineteen next year, but that seemed an eternity away. Although his childhood had been happy, he longed for the freedom that he believed adulthood would bring, and a release from all the rules he had to follow. His parents were laid back in many ways, but Todd’s teenaged brain would rather not hav...

11 likes

The Lake of the Lost

Deborah Sanders

Submitted to Contest #274

 Sensitive content: griefZac Porter drove the van along the winding gravel road, with his wife, Sarah, next to him. He was thinking about the days when they would have been blasting the tunes to break the monotony of the long journey, but things were different now, and it did not seem like they would ever go back to such carefree ways. Just this morning when they were setting off the children had objected to his music!Suddenly, Sarah’s voice broke the silence. “We must be nearly there now,” she insisted, “unless you missed the turn.”“I’...

7 likes

Tick Tock

Deborah Sanders

Submitted to Contest #273

 Sensitive content regarding mental health, grief, and suicide.Dear Diary,I was twelve years old when I last kept a diary. It had a green spine, a flowery cover, and a little lock and key. I found that diary last year, up in the attic. It was in a bag, in a box along with some other remnants of my childhood, including the “Fabulous Five,” also known as my bedtime buddies: Big Teddy, Little Teddy, Black Kitty, Dainty Dolly, and Puffy Penguin. For most of my childhood, they shared my bed. My favourite, Puffy Penguin, had the pillow s...

6 likes

Halloween Harvest

Deborah Sanders

Submitted to Contest #272

Warning: content includes references to missing and harmed children I startle awake and look at the ceiling where the time is projected in red, 03:00. This light, combined with the streetlight coming in through the window, illuminates the room enough to cause some shadows.But I am no stranger to shadows, and they do not bother me in the slightest. What does bother me is the early hour, and the sounds I hear outside. “Did you hear that?” I ask my companion, Beau. But he does not answer me. He is snoring softly while taking up more of th...

8 likes

Around the World

Deborah Sanders

Submitted to Contest #271

Jesse watched the taillights of his parents’ SUV as they left the college parking lot and merged into traffic to start their five-hour drive back home. He raised his hand to wave one last time before heading back to the dorm building. Earlier that day, he and his parents had unloaded the contents of their vehicle into his room. Unpacking and organizing now awaited him.Jesse had turned eighteen last month and this was his first time living away from home. So, in addition to bringing along the essentials, he had also packed a few comfort items...

6 likes