Ed Vela

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Apr, 2020

Stories (21)

21 Stories

551 karma pts

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“The Drop Off” by Ed Vela

Inching along in bumper-to-bumper traffic is never fun and is always frustrating, but for middle-aged Ari and not quite teen, Leo, it was an opportunity."Where I come from we don't MISS the bus!" Ari bellowed at Leo."They had buses back then? I would've thought covered wagons.""You do realize now I'm going to be late, because I'm in this funeral procession of a line to get you to this magic drop off point. I don't know why they can't just let us drop you guys off anywhere on this street?""Because they kind of want us to LIVE to get INTO the ...

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“House Boy” by Ed Vela

Report 561-FIncident reported in sector 7-982 of the Black Oaks region.Incident Commander Hector Suarez - AnalystZarian was the latest thing in android technology. He was actually a prototype in service to Marcus Randolph, CFO of the AI tech company: BroadSword, where Zarian was constructed and programmed.What follows are excerpts from a transcript of the audio and video evidence obtained from the surveillance cameras at the Randolph home.I will fill in details of the visuals. In my own usual, non-professional way, but that's the only way I ...

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“The Outlier” by Ed Vela

I remember a time when the Earth existed, a big blue marble in the darkness of space, but that was a long time ago. It almost seemed like a dream now, the sound of birds, the feel of grass beneath your feet, the sound of the wind racing past your ear in a whoosh, the view from a mountain, the grandeur of a valley.But that was so very long ago, before I and few others escaped the dying Earth on this space ship, this ark of sorts called: The Outlier. I was young man then, and not unwilling to even contemplate the notion of dying with my planet...

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“Phenomenology” by Ed Vela

It had been happening for months, years really, our nice, safe, suburban life eroding around the edges like a rotting piece of wood. Society becoming undone more and more by a lack of resources and violently differing opinions about how to address it. My Dad used to call it: phenomenology. Not because that's what it was, but because back when he was taking a philosophy class in college that concept baffled him. He could never understand it, just like he couldn't understand what was happening to the world in which he had grown up. The world...

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“Mooning the World” by Ed Vela

Today's the day I change! Or, more accurately, tonight's the night I change. The moon will be full and I will, in the immortal words of my 12-year-old son, Stone, "Wolf Out."My name is Pembrothy Van Aucken, and for the past 5 months, every month, for at least 1 night, I become a werewolf. I am also an ACH dwarf! And, trust me, having achondroplasia all my life was nothing compared to the last 5 months from hell!Stone has always felt guilty about my current situation because it was on a camping trip with him that I got bitten by the wolf, or ...

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“All Reach... No Grasp” by Ed Vela

"Where the hell am I?" said the man suspended in space."Where do you think you are?" said the transparent man who came gliding in to meet him."I was on the bus!""Oh, yes, that bus got T-Boned by a rather large cement truck. Ah, the terrible consequences of sleep deprivation among truckers.""So am I dead?""No, my boy, you are at the boundary between your realm... and the next."He looked about and acknowledged his floating status."Is there no gravity in the boundary?""Very well. If it makes you more comfortable."The wraith-like man waved his h...

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“Fatigue Makes Cowards of Us ALL” by Ed Vela

Submitted to Contest #101

Rux, Leo, Zayd, and Dom sit at a table at an Italian restaurant finishing up eating some pasta and salad.Rux, a middle-aged man, with a protruding belly, used to coach the high school basketball team on which this trio of young Seniors still play.The three have come to Rux for advice as the team they're on is on the brink of the state championship.Rux: Fatigue makes cowards of us all!Dom: Coach, c'mon, we know how you always preached conditioning.Zayd: And we've been working hard this whole year that you've been gone.Rux; Retired, I'm not de...

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“Not Exactly the Way I Pictured It in My Mind” by Ed Vela

Submitted to Contest #79

Eve nervously gnawed on a breadstick as Will slammed back wine, refilling it from the bottle on ice he had insisted the waiter leave at the table, the first of two he had pre-ordered for the table. This was NOT going to be a fun night for him and he already knew it.Thirteen year old fraternal twins, Bo and Ann, looked at their parents then at each other. They had wanted to join their Mom and Dad on this outing about as much as when they had forced them to see a three hour opera the year before.“Twenty-three years!” Eve said, violently chewin...

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“That's How the Wookiee Crumbles” by Ed Vela

Submitted to Contest #71

My son, Aloysius, dressed (as always) as a Wookiee, roared his disapproval. This wasn't the first year his Dad (and my husband), Paulson, had tried to "recreate" his Great-Grandmother, Teresita's, Holiday Chocolate Cookies, or as my overly bright (and HONEST) 9 year old called them... "Grandma's Little Crap Cookies!" Aloysius proclaimed then let out his low, sad roar of defeated contempt. I knew this roar well, it was the one he usually reserved for me in response to a request to finish his homework or clean his room. Paulson, being VERY...

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“Sentient Zom” by Ed Vela

Submitted to Contest #60

Long before the Zombie Cataclysm wreaked its havoc on the world, there were living humans all over the Southern California coastline. Now, instead of surgically augmented girls trying to get an even tan, or blonde, bronze, surfer boys looking for that perfect wave... You got Zoms aimlessly wandering the sand and surf searching for a delectable human on which to gorge. And on a 400 foot yacht, once owned by a rich social influencer, called: The Magnus Opioid, two New Zoms fished a body out of the water off the side of the boat on which they...

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“Phases of the Rhoon” by Ed Vela

Submitted to Contest #54

Treatment for proposed TV series.Anthology show: SECOND CHANCESEpisode One: Phases of the RhoonScene One-We open on the cluttered, messy, but not filthy double wide trailer of Langdon Janssen (late 60's), a weathered old cuss with thinning white hair, known as GRANTHER to his trio of grandchildren all from Granther's daughter Shaunessy, the... Free Spirit. DOBBIN (12) is a befreckled ginger with a mop of blazing red hair, the bangs from which tend to cover his eyes like a shaggy dog. SOJOURN (9), from a different father, is a slightly built ...

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“Powder Keg” by Ed Vela

Submitted to Contest #50

“So, are you planning on proposing to my Mom?” Uh-oh! The question Ron Hapgood had been dreading since his current significant other, Laurel Treviot, introduced him to her extremely precocious daughter Salisa. Salisa, the asker of this dreaded question, had just turned eleven, had a recorded IQ of 161, and did not suffer fools well. She was also an absolute zealot where her Mom's rights were concerned and never wanted them to be trampled on in any fashion, in short she was a pre-teen powder keg. In an attempt to keep her from exploding a...

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“Inextricably Linked” by Ed Vela

Submitted to Contest #48

Her name was Lyona Torgersen, and she was one of a very special group of humans who came to be known as: Out-Breakers, but she was one of the first. Before they had a name. Before she came to realize there were others out there like her. Before the Sci-Focus Community was conceived... She was there, using her powers, but they weren't just her powers. She was part of a triad, a trio, a triumvirate, inextricably linked.It was the summer of her fifteenth year, a 70's baby, an 80's kid, now a 90's teenager, in the full blossom of awkwardness. It...

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“The First Pancake” by Ed Vela

Submitted to Contest #46

Treanna and Zelman Ostermann were an average couple of middle-aged empty nesters. With their children Sandra and Kurt living their own lives far away from their old home town, the Ostermanns had settled into a quiet, casual existence.A once fiery passion had succumbed to a comfortable love. Zelman had what amounted to tenure at the high school were he taught, and Treanna had always maintained part time employment at the local library.She had always loved books and stories, so Zelman was not surprised when she began taking a creative writing ...

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“Out-Breakers by Ed Vela” by Ed Vela

Submitted to Contest #45

“We really need to get a better pin-point on his position at the moment.”“Yeah, but as the Rolling Stones once sang: You can't always get what you want!”Xan, of course had to sing that last lyric, and then do his best Mick Jagger, shaky dance after.“If you're trying to make me laugh... Well, you're no Henny Youngman.” I said, knowing the reference would slide right past my younger partner.“Look, Hoffbrow, we both know that he has more than the requisite skills to take us both out.”“Separately, but not together.”“Jeez-us, Hoff, the last time ...

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Author bio

Ed Vela started out life as a HAM actor, then bridged into playwright, winning National Contests for both his full length and one act plays, and having several plays published in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. Later he tried his hand at screenwriting with his initial screenplays winning awards at Film Fests across the country. Currently he is diligently working on a novel, and although the novel form has always proved daunting to him, he is trying his best to embrace prose as best he can. Now with over 30 stories on this site he's feeling a little more comfortable. Though with one story (Sensorama) he still "cheated" and did in a form he likes to call: Script Novella (present tense, name with a colon after for the dialogue instead of quote marks). This form can also be found (somewhat) in the story: Phases of the Rhoon. And an even weirder format was utilized in one of his latest short stories: House Boy. ReedsyPrompts is a GREAT proving ground for prose. Although Ed finds himself sometimes sticking religiously to the prompt, he can occasionally stray a bit and just touch on the exact prompt (see his stories: Sombra de Soledad and Out-Breakers for evidence of that) to tell a story he wants to tell (see the ENTIRE Pyke/Luger saga for evidence of THAT). He mostly works in Sci-Fi/Fantasy or character driven comedy/dramas.