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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jun, 2020
Submitted to Contest #184
The phone rings continuously. He had constantly threatened to do this and go completely off-grid, but I never thought he would actually do it. Jack had been my best friend when my father passed away unexpectedly. Now, I was staring down thirty and a divorce, and I needed him. I hang up, knowing continuing to call will be pointless. Now, I have only one option: make the three-hour drive and hope he still lives at the same house I spent countless hours in. In the past week, I have tried calling a dozen times and sent several emails without an ...
Submitted to Contest #66
“It doesn’t count if you’re already planning your defeat.” The words hung in the air for a moment surrounding me with doubt. I knew better than to confide in my mother. This was the very reason I had tried to keep her from finding my writing, but my attempts had failed. I hadn’t realized she still searched my name once a week and one of the sites I posted to had my real name attached. It hadn’t been anything special, but it had set her on the path of asking me for updates on my the work. With November being National Novel Writing Month, she ...
Submitted to Contest #63
By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. It was pitch black save for the bonfire, and it was only a moment ago I had stepped into the nearby house for a bathroom break, but as the one in charge of the flame, I suppose I shouldn’t have left the work to others. There was something serene in the dry leaves, dancing with their newfound flames, but I knew I couldn’t let them continue to dance. We were too close to the farm and already I could hear the animals protesting. Grabbing one of the prepared buckets, I threw the water onto ...
The familiar call is starting, resounding in my head. I coo, letting the world know I hear her urging. I am not alone in this. The flock responds in kind; a rustling of feathers and voices rise to the sky. It is a comfort to know soon we will take flight, head to our other home in the south where the warmth will once again penetrate our feathers and embrace our core. For only a few more days will we get to enjoy the ample supply of soybeans and corn these fields provide. Another coo surrounds me and I respond. It is not a warning, but a than...
Submitted to Contest #61
It’s been a long time since I was in high school. I’d like to say I have pleasant memories of the place, but the truth is I thought it was my personal hell. I know, I know; everyone says that, but I have my reasons. I was uprooted the summer of my senior year, leaving behind the city of 40,000 I had always known and transplanting me into a nowhere town with just shy of 4,000. Everyone in the senior class, all 62 of them, had known each other for their entire educational career and here I was, an outsider, dropped in as though I were an alien...
Submitted to Contest #59
The death came right as the air turned cooler, the breeze blowing in fall and sweeping the crunchy, brown colored leaves down the street. Not that anyone stopped to notice. New York City bustled around him, the constant movement a reminder of what he had lost. After all, Bentley Applegate had always been the type to keep to himself. It was a wonder he had ever married in the first place, and though it was only weeks ago since the passing of his beloved, it felt like a lifetime. For the past several weeks Ben hadn’t needed to venture...
Submitted to Contest #58
How do you sum up a life in a few short minutes? How do you total the sum of the love shared, the laughs, the heartaches, in a few short words? The funeral is tomorrow; my husband has been dead for a week. I suppose we aren’t really married anymore, but that hasn’t completely sunk in because I can’t let. I still find myself turning around, hoping to catch sight of Charlie, but then I remember and a new wave of grief hits. Most of the time I walk around the overly crowded house numb, taking in the amount of callers, but barely registering the...
Submitted to Contest #53
2:14pm August 1, 2019 There was something about the laziness of summer that called to Allison. The heat comforted her, surrounding her with the warmth of sunlight reflecting off the pool, ever increasing the natural tan she seemed to carry throughout the whole year. In summer anything seemed possible, a far cry from the start of every school year and mundane routine established with it. Summer meant vacations, parties with friends, staying up too late and sleeping the day away. It meant those stupid flings that seemed perfect in the summe...
Submitted to Contest #51
Pictures had never done the old family farmhouse justice. None of them had ever managed to completely capture the elegance of the decrepit building, learning slightly to the left as if ready to collapse back into the ground it had been created from. The trees and mountains loomed in the background. Their ageless facades seemed untouched in comparison with the house. The once bright white paint had faded, revealing the wood that had been used for siding underneath. Yet, none of them remembered it this way. None of the family, the descendants ...
Submitted to Contest #49
The sun is brightly shining, beating down on my back as I sit on the outdoor patio of our favorite cafe just a few blocks from our house. Waiting. It seems to be the one thing that keeps the relationship together. Once more I glance at my watch and a sigh escapes my mouth. I’ve already dealt with the server once, requesting her to wait just a bit more before putting in my drink order. “He should be here any minute.” I know the words are hollow, even as I say them, and there is a bit of doubt not only in my tone, but my eyes also. Alre...
Submitted to Contest #48
The store was firmly shut and looked. The massive chain draped through the handles, secured with a lock that would hold the imprisoned titans from escaping, gave little doubt the place would ever open again. We watched the man work, spreading the large boards over the glass windows, screwing them directly into the siding. Soon they would be tagged with graffiti, left to rot away like the rest of the boarded up shops in this neighborhood; startups with high goals and an economy that couldn’t sustain them. I’ll never forget the look on my cous...
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