Doug McGuinn

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Oct, 2022

Stories (4)

4 Stories

55 karma pts

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“The Relay Race” by Doug McGuinn

Submitted to Contest #235

The handoff was flawless. Sitting in my wheelchair on the track’s Astro-Turfed infield, I could almost feel the aluminum baton in my hand, watching my daughter leave the exchange zone and head down the rubberized homestretch, soon entering the near turn, showing perfect form as she ran the anchor leg of the 4 X 1,600-meter relay race in the state high school championship relays.Quickly turning my wheelchair around, I wheeled like mad across the infield, heading for the backstretch.Still showing perfect form, she came out of the tur...

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“Almost a Suicide Bomber” by Doug McGuinn

The email was sandwiched between two others in my inbox: one from J. C. Whitney, the other, the University's chancellor's weekly newsletter. At first I thought the email between those two was one of those sexually explicit pieces of spam that had, through clever wording, managed to make it through Yahoo!’s filter. The e-name of the sender was shar_moota, which, I guessed, probably was meant to draw my attention to it; “sharmoota” is an Arabic cuss word that means “whore.” It was the subject of the email, though, that kept my mouse point...

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“The Tree” by Doug McGuinn

Submitted to Contest #170

The three Land-Rovers slid to a stop at the base of the crescent-shaped dune. From the first Rover scrambled Professors Hassan and al-Risala, members of the Faculty of Science at the Libyan University, their red fezzes emerging from the cloud of brown dust kicked up by the tires. They waded excitedly through the deep sand to the tree that stood alone on the barren plain that surrounded the dune. World-renowned Egyptian nature photographer Ali Abdu Hakim, who always wore a varicolored skullcap, hurriedly collected his equipment from the...

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“The Happy Valley Fiddlers' Convention” by Doug McGuinn

Submitted to Contest #169

The lightning bolt seemed to have come out of nowhere, scaring me half to death, its flash of white light very briefly illuminating Laura Foster’s tombstone that had chiseled on it, LAURA FOSTER/MURDERED May 25, 1866/TOM DULA /HANGED FOR CRIME. Looking up, I saw that the darkening sky was clear except for one lone cloud floating in front of a full moon. Not only was the moon full, it was a blood moon, huge and red-orange. Laura Foster’s gravesite is located just inside the camping/parking area of the Happy Valley Fiddlers’ Convention. Laura ...

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