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Delbert Griffith

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Apr, 2021

Stories (79)
Comments
Library
306 Followers
39 Following

79 Stories

4660 karma pts

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Hello, Venus!

Submitted to Contest #237

Author’s note: the word “love” doesn’t appear in this tale, but there are several instances of the letters l-o-v-e in the tale, either within a word or within a combination of two words. The day began normally, but ended with three deaths, a minor rant, and a married couple reposing in a field of clover.Here’s how it all happened.                                    ...

31 likes 26 comments 26
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Thursday's Child

Submitted to Contest #228

                                                                     Thursday's child has far to go.               &n...

25 likes 16 comments 16
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A Dangerous Year in Purgatory

Submitted to Contest #227

                                                             June 3, 1987 The drive back to Ft. Worth was surreal. I had made this drive many times, but in the company of my wife. She was no longer my wife. The divorce was in the works, and I...

19 likes 14 comments 14
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The Occasional Assassin

Submitted to Contest #226

Author’s note: all quotes are from Voltaire.                                                               1945 Lizzie’s blunt pencil scratched across the surface of the foolscap paper. She wrote slowly, carefully, pensively. The light...

24 likes 13 comments 13
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Love Songs for the Deaf

Submitted to Contest #225

                                                                 Monday I can paint anyone and make them look good. Except myself. Why this is the case remains a mystery to me. Right now, for example, I’m studying my jawl...

25 likes 23 comments 23
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All the Angels, Singing to Me

Submitted to Contest #224

I stare at the alarm clock. It’s a superfluous thing in my life. I never use it as an alarm clock because I’m always awake before it activates. 3:27 am. I wait and watch. The minutes feel like decades. I wonder – and I do this every morning – why a minute feels like an eon. I won’t get out of bed until it reads 3:30. For some reason, it feels like a sin to be up before 3:30. The clock hits the magical moment and I get out of bed. Sometimes I have an adrenalin rush when I do this, and no coffee is needed, though I still drink unbelievable amo...

31 likes 52 comments 52
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Pegasus Sky

Submitted to Contest #219

The Pegasus sky is the color of Tim Burton dreams, the texture of crunchy nightmares. This makes me happy. A trio of dragons fly by, and I stare at the girl astride the smallest of the three. She doesn’t acknowledge me. This also makes me happy. The two angels that accompany me are snorting cocaine and imploring me to “do my duty.” This makes me unhappy. I stare at the computer screen, unsure of where to go next. I have a main theme: redemption. Which may or may not be the right theme. The angels symbolize something or other. Maybe I need so...

21 likes 34 comments 34
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White

Submitted to Contest #218

         “…no man can ever feel his own identity aright except his eyes be closed;               as if darkness were indeed the proper element of our essences…”                                              ...

26 likes 39 comments 39
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The Sugar Thief

Submitted to Contest #216

Things I don’t like about Ina:1.   She’s old.2.   She smiles too much.3.   She always tries to use coupons that have expired.4.   She wears cheap, ugly clothes.5.   She calls me “dearie.”Things I like about Ina:1.   She’s a sugar thief.                                     ...

44 likes 55 comments 55
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Microscope, Telescope, Mirror

Submitted to Contest #215

This wasn’t the sort of place one came to for fun, unless shooting up and dying a semi-slow death was one’s idea of a good time. Ellie peered at the addicts through the gloom of the abandoned hotel foyer, certain that every flight in this three-story ode to misery contained similar specimens.She moved slowly, cautiously, pistol still in her holster, wending her way through tweaking zombies, trying to ignore the stench of unwashed bodies and fetid standing water. Ellie was not to be dissuaded from her task, however. She was here to catch a mo...

43 likes 59 comments 59
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The Rules for Crying

Submitted to Contest #214

She walks through the room in silence, yet she’s never silent. There is a liveliness to her, a lightening of the room, a lifting of the spirit that stays long after she’s gone. Madison is almost perfect. Unfortunately, she has bad taste in men; she married me. She likes that joke less than I do but she smiles and kisses me anyway. “Why is there a bottle of champagne on the table?” I ask this merely for information. I admit that Maddie sees more than I do. Always has. The champagne on the table is evidence that whatever is going to happen to...

30 likes 34 comments 34
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The Letter Whisperer

Submitted to Contest #212

                                                    September 21, 2015 Martin Schuler read the letter. He then re-read the letter. Miriam waited patiently as the new dean of mathematics stared at the words on the paper. Schuler tossed the letter on his desk and toward Miriam. “What doe...

28 likes 42 comments 42
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The Miracle of the Damaged Jesus

Submitted to Contest #211

Marilyn and Beatrice arrived at work early, as usual. Beatrice opened the door and held it open for Marilyn, as usual. The ladies took off their coats and put on their sweaters, as usual. They started re-stocking the books that had been checked in the evening before, as usual.The body of the head librarian lay in the Historical Fiction aisle, her lifeless eyes and bluish tint signifying that she was well and truly dead.Marilyn wiped her glasses, the grim expression on her face softened somewhat by the absence of eyewear. When she spoke, the ...

47 likes 56 comments 56
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Raise High the Roofbeams, Carpenters

Shortlisted for Contest #208 ⭐️

                                                                              Raise high the roofbeams, carpenters.        ...

42 likes 82 comments 82
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The Millicent Boone Method for Ending a Bad Romance

Submitted to Contest #207

Millicent sat across from the interviewer, relaxed and confident. A man pointed a finger at the interviewer. Five cameras softly whirred into action. “We’re here today with Millicent Boone, best-selling author of the self-help book, Ending a Bad Romance. In this book, Millicent takes us, step by step, through the process of getting out of a bad relationship. So, Millicent, can you expand on this a little more?” “Certainly. But we have to understand where we’re going before we know how to begin. That is, we must consider the endgame. To achie...

25 likes 40 comments 40
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