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Diane Murray

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Mar, 2021

Stories (6)

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6 Stories

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Day Late & Sorry

Diane Murray

She was always a day late and a dollar sorry. Julie wasn’t sure who said it first but it definitely applied to her. She could run fast in third grade, but was the last pick to play soccer after classmates saw her kicking too late, missing the ball altogether. She could jump high, and run fast but no one wanted her on the basketball team, throwing the ball after a foul. she could swim a mile and was on the swim team but became the “towel girl” after missing the start of several races, standing on the platform while others were swimming laps. ...

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Shed or sail

Diane Murray

Both women were done. One had a patch of scalp missing, the other one had shoes that didn’t match and clothes that were askew. “Did you get it, did you get it?” the mismatched one asked. “How can you even ask me that?” she sighed. “Look at me does it look like I got a room? If I got a room , I’d be in it. Do you think I’d be sittin here on the stoop with you if I had a place to lay my head.?” “Yougot a point there. I just thought you might be sitting next to me because we’re friends.” “What gives you that idea?” the one with the missing hair...

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John Glenn and the Static on TV.

Diane Murray

Its the underwear that I remember. It seems irrelevant, a little patch of cotton: white showing under my skirt, but that's how I see myself. Sitting on the couch watching John Glenn orbit the earth. My mother with her arm extended. Relaxed, happy, proud of the astronaut and country's ingenuity and ability to not only send a man so far, but to bring him back. My little legs not reaching the ground. The soles of my shoes worn from running and climbing trees.We had a black and white television, with a long plastic coated wire that ran to the r...

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The last piece

Diane Murray

The dominoes are in place. One-by-one the man placed over a million wooden dominoes in an intricate pattern across the gym floor. For months he'd dreamed about the design. A math teacher, he calculated the fall rate if one line of dominoes were to trigger three other lines. He drew a rough draft. Bought several cases of the black dominoes, carried them home in the station wagon, asked the school principal for permission, filled out a liability form taking on all risks. (He never considered dominoes held any risk whstsoever but apparently al...

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The touch

Diane Murray

One little poke. That's all it would take and the whole town would topple. Just one touch and the whole miserable peeling paint place would fall into the deep dark of the abyss. The witch held her long bony finger on the edge of the blacktop, the last stubborn driveway that marked the end of the town, holding the dirt with all its might. Sticky with tar and rough to the touch, gravel tumbled across the black pavement that held the town in place.The town was never her favorite, it was a place of poverty and people who lived there couldn't get...

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Clueless Caper

Diane Murray

Submitted to Contest #96

Dirk was dropped off just outside of Kansas city. He dusted off his sport coat and straightened his tie realizing the clothes he wore were his first mistake. "Hey mister need a ride?" a farmer yelled over the roar of the tractor engine."two more swipes and I'll come back for you." Dirk nodded and found a dry place to sit along a fence. "Why the hell did I apply to the U Protection Force?" he asked himself. The "interview" if you want to call it that is being dropped off in parts unknown to the applicant and having to survive with no money ph...

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