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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Aug, 2019
Submitted to Contest #158
Sharp pain crackles across Evelyn Brooks' frontal lobe as she attempts to open her eyes. Today, twenty-four years ago, she gave birth only to experience a mother's worst nightmare. "Be better off dead," she utters to herself.Her breath is foul. Her stomach threatens to erupt.It feels horrible to feel horrible. "What a silly thought.""Will it ever cease?"Is it even possible for her to feel full rather than empty? Can she experience ease, instead of needing to fight to live life? How can she win, if she is always losing? "It's n...
Submitted to Contest #126
*This story contains mild expressions of sensual intimacy.*Highway 180 was congested during a drive to Mount Binah. This offered unpleasant movement through uninhabited space locals named Potential.There were an assortment of vehicles headed in the same direction-all paused for an unknown reason. Some drivers honked their frustration as others created hell within their minds and ruminations. Rana Poston had been guilty of both expressions during other times like this, but when urge arose this time she set her gear in park before checking her...
Submitted to Contest #109
Break through barriers-physical, mental, invisible-as though an ultimate requirement of youth branded Katalyst Smith upon birth and grew within her alongside her zest for life. The community college dropout cared little for History, her intended major, due to passive reviewing of what she judged as boring. She preferred to be free in embrace of life during a time new information about the world, the people in it, and their aspirations rode the winds that circulated through her community. Stagnant Falls was a small city in compariso...
Submitted to Contest #105
Unusual words and definitions: Anole-a green lizard Setae-small hairs that assist lizards in movement. A green lizard, named Jolie, saw water droplets dripping from the inside of a decaying log located in an unkempt backyard. The spring snow was melting and this caused hunger and excitement to course through the anole, sending her in a fit of circles at the threshold. She slid into the depths of the log, by way of setae on the bottoms of her feet. Speaking to her frog friend, Fritz, through release of a chemical through her scaly skin, she...
Submitted to Contest #103
"You're it."Miriam swore when she saw white words written on the back window of her red Ford Focus as she exited a large white church. Uneasiness washed over her causing her to look about the parking lot during her walk from the south exit. Dead vehicles revealed no clue about who had left the message reminding of a text received the day before. It wasn't exact, yet similar enough to stimulate concern."Are you it?" read the text following a previous text describing offer of opportunity to subscribe to an online program designed to assist the...
Submitted to Contest #102
Two sisters sit in a light blue SUV surrounded by ashy tombstones."I do the best I know how," one of them says to the other. "It's not like I have had the best examples, you know."Her words respond to indirect accusing of her failure to carry out birth placement duties."Can't say what you had or didn't have," the taller sister responds. "You're my big sister. I'm your little sister. What you went through ain't none of my business. You're suppose to take care of me regardless."The shorter sister stare at rusty corners of a once white sign pos...
Submitted to Contest #100
"Marry me," I heard.My tongue was feasting on a juicy miniature tomato from the salad we made. Cool tomato juice mixed well with the forkful of baby spinach wearing ranch dressing. My mouth smiled happy with the taste. I was happy in the moment, then he stole my vibe.The lake date had been my idea because I wanted a chance to meet up and actually receive Aries' attention. I had always given my attention whilst remaining responsible for my household when he visited over the course of twenty-two years. I felt we needed to do more than share a ...
Submitted to Contest #27
I had a dream that jolted me awake in consideration of it. Four silvery illuminated moths had entered her home, each claiming a corner of the squared structure. What did this mean?She was dead, and had been for awhile. This, utterly, surprised me when I found myself in a position of need. I seeked her out, but she was gone, almost a year after our last visit. I began a new path in life-moving along with the new year. This somehow had taken me away from her.Some would think poor of me knowing I didn't notice our separation. Life mov...
Submitted to Contest #26
He wasn't my father, yet I respected him much more than my own. Partly because he and his wife Gianni took me in and raised me as their son. There was no way I could replace the twins they lost years before we met, just as they couldn't replace my mother. I didn't care about my father, who in my opinion was a coward. We each did the best we could to be a real family beyond our orchestra family. This took more effort some days than others, such as the day my life changed, again.On the chilly evening of the Tribute to Mozart, Horace-I didn't c...
Submitted to Contest #25
Quitters never win.That's what I've been told as inspiration, oftentimes. But has it been useful? What do I aspire to win?I ask myself this question as I join the drive thru line at Icecream Palace-an act of disregarding my diet. Four cars in front of me, I assess. This gives just enough time for my attention to wander, my eyes looking over other parts of the shopping center seeing people move about captured within their own bubbles. There's a woman smoking a cigarette standing at the door of a department store; a man holding a multi-le...
"Papa, will you tell the story of when you met Ma?"This request comes from a tall dark skin man holding a stuffed blanket against his chest; spoken using a shortened sign language due to only one hand being free to move.The elder man, who understands, struggles to sit his body forward on the single mattress beneath him, and then to fold his legs just so. Once he is successful, he close his eyes, cusp his hands at his apex, and then starts to hum. Baritone vibrations fill the space in which the man begin to rise. His mouth opens wider. AUM co...
Submitted to Contest #23
A voicemail alert flashes across the upper portion of the screen of a cellphone held in a right hand. With a gloved thumb, the driver touch the alert. The message plays."This call is for Johnnie Iota," speaks the recorded female. "You are being reminded to make a payment to remedy your delinquent account no later than midnight, tonight, Central Standard Time to avoid terminating your contract and thereby causing legal action to be taken against you. Visit our website for details on how to submit your payment online or call the payment center...
Submitted to Contest #22
During the human year 2019, in a sparse dimension just beyond the physical membrane of Earth, animals about the Chinese Zodiac Wheel gathered in celebration of the ending Year of the Earth Pig and the beginning Year of the Metal Rat."First, we shall eat and be merry," Pig, the archetypal pig, addressed the others. "Next, we will share personal highlights from this passage of space that humans measure as being time. Then, alas, we will dance until we arrive in the Year of the Metal Rat."Trash beneath him was gathered through his sorting of th...
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