Don Tucker

Author on Reedsy Prompts since May, 2021

Stories (13)

13 Stories

240 karma pts

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“Fat Town” by Don Tucker

Submitted to Contest #224

I could still hear my leg groaning and barking at me, it felt like pieces of my femur were rubbing against each other, spurting off bone shavings into the nether regions of my body. It sounded like an old screen door at a beach house, withered away from years of salty air. According to the latest X-Ray, I was fully healed. Good to go was the term Dr. Thibodeau used. I asked him are you sure? He said yes. I asked for another X-Ray and he said no. I asked him to recommend another doctor and he told me to get out.     &...

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“Water Cooler Rendezvous” by Don Tucker

Submitted to Contest #212

To: sbrennan@harperaeronautics.comSubject: Tuna SandwichDear Susan,I have left several notes on the refrigerator in the break room, but it keeps happening. Three times in the past two weeks, my sandwich has gone missing. My friends and family call me boring; I like to think of myself as a man of routine. For the twelve years that I have called Harper Aeronautics my home, I have eaten a tuna sandwich on rye bread for lunch. Now I know what you're thinking, why would my dedication to tuna sandwiches and how I prepare them be of a concern to Hu...

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“The Greatest of All Time” by Don Tucker

Submitted to Contest #209

       I lit a fresh smoke and hand-cranked the window down a few inches, watching the smoke swirl at my dashboard, fighting for a way to escape into the morning air. The rain relentlessly pounded the roof of my Lincoln Town Car. I was willing to wait it out, I spotted puffy white clouds and blue skies in the distance. Only a passing storm. I flicked the growing pillar of ash onto the sidewalk as a singular fat drop of rain landed on the ember, extinguishing it. I lit another one and coughed until I could f...

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“Richmond, 500 Miles” by Don Tucker

Submitted to Contest #201

I would say it started happening right around the time that Fiona left me. She could have left me for any number of reasons throughout the years. The flicking of the light switches three times before we go to bed. The washing of my hands until they were raw. Maybe it was getting out of bed three or four times throughout the night to make sure the stove was off. Now that I think of it, she was really pissed when we were late to her sister’s wedding. I turned around halfway through the three-hour drive because I thought I left the front door u...

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“Long Way Down” by Don Tucker

Submitted to Contest #197

“Do you want me to call you a chariot, Ada?”Her slender body slipped out of the comically large bed and rays of sunshine from the open balcony illuminated her sleek legs as she slipped on her Gucci tunic. Maybe she heard him, or maybe she ignored him, but she said nothing as she exited the master bedroom and slammed the door. Eros, who was barely conscious on a couch made of solid gold next to his own female companion for the evening, reminded him, “This is Ada,” he said, motioning to the sleeping woman next to him. “That was Zenobia.” ...

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“Thirty Years In” by Don Tucker

Submitted to Contest #195

It had been years since anyone was allowed to smoke in their tiny break room, but it had been even longer since anyone from administration had ventured down to their little corner of the world. One would have to walk in the main entrance, past the gymnasium and the glass trophy dust caked with a thick layer of dust. Girl’s Basketball State Champions, 1981, Boy’s Baseball State Champions 1989, 1993 were inscribed upon some of the forgotten plaques. Down the stairs, through the hallway adorned with faded yellow bricks, take a right through the...

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“Leg Day” by Don Tucker

Submitted to Contest #182

It was true, he was sleeping with her. For months in fact. Hector Torres would sit with percolating anticipation on his days off, which were Sunday and Monday. Like clockwork, right around six in the morning, his phone would vibrate with his favorite text of the week. Sometimes it would just be a simple Now. Other times, when her window was larger, it might say Come now but u need to be gone by 11. And on the days when words were not good enough, he would receive a picture that would nearly make his impatient twenty-two-year-old erection sho...

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“The Semi-Golden Years” by Don Tucker

Submitted to Contest #156

Retired couple James and Martha Newcombe were using their sudden heaps of time to do and see new things. They had five children who were no longer children and long ago moved out to start lives of their own. James, a former physician, and Martha, a former high school history teacher, would often dream and hypothetically speak about the journeys that would take place once they had the time. More than once, usually over morning coffee or evening wine, they would be walking the Valley of the Kings in Cairo or admiring the astonishing views of t...

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“Medium Rare” by Don Tucker

Submitted to Contest #141

Back in the sixties, Roland’s Steakhouse was the best restaurant in town. People came from far and wide to devour any cut of meat they wanted while drinking the best wines in the city. A rustic wood interior with high ceilings offset by the white tablecloths throughout the dining room. Long gone are the days that Roland’s was considered the fanciest spot in town and a must stop for celebrities and politicians that happened to be in town. When you first walk into the restaurant, guests are greeted by a wall covered in framed pictures of my gr...

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“Devil in the Dugout” by Don Tucker

Submitted to Contest #136

It was my fourth year of patrolling left field in Bowie, Maryland. Not Baltimore, not D.C., not Philadelphia. I would even take Milwaukee or Kansas City at this point. My fourth season of not getting moved up to AAA ball, but also not being sent down to single A. I guess that was a positive. When I was in high school, I hit .513 and had major league scouts at every game. They recorded my every move and kissed my parent’s proverbial asses in the hopes that I would ink a contract with them. I signed right out of high school with the Baltimore ...

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“Bottoms Up” by Don Tucker

Submitted to Contest #130

Nine times out of ten, I would have hopped on A64 to make the trek from Leeds to York. Car trouble led me to the train station this morning, with sales still needed to be made. I managed to find a seat that wasn’t facing backwards and sat with my arm resting on my suitcase. On a typical day, I would be traveling a little heavier in the merchandise department. I was doing some unannounced visits to pubs in York today. My boss has been climbing up my ass in small increments as he notices the glaring blank space on his map of the York area. I a...

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“Peril in Produce” by Don Tucker

Submitted to Contest #123

During my trip to town this morning I stopped at the market to pick up flour and potatoes to create my homemade pierogis. A young boy in tattered clothing passed me and saw the ingredients in my cart and he said, "Good sir, you wouldn't be happening to be making pierogis, would you?" It took me aback for a moment, but I looked down at this sad looking boy and I replied, "Where are your parents, boy? Mind your Pa and now git!" He looked up at me with forlorn eyes and said, "Sorry sir, it is just that I have a pierogi secret that will chang...

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“Monument of Consumerism” by Don Tucker

Submitted to Contest #122

It was my own fault to even be in this situation in the first place. Every year I do this to myself and every year I always promise that I will never do it again. Every year I promise that I will change, turn over a new leaf, call my Mom more, read a book, something. This year proved itself to be no different. I stood where I have stood for as long as I can remember, the mall on Christmas Eve. I have an uncanny ability to end up here, some sort of gravitational pull that lures me every 24th of December like a moth to a flame.  &nbs...

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Author bio

High School Teacher, Writer