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Esther Andrews

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2020

Stories (31)

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95 Followers

2 Following

31 Stories

653 karma pts

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The Mirror

Submitted to Contest #295

It was the curve ball I least expected. Dave died a few months ago. Let’s just start by getting everything out in the open. Dave was an asshole. By the time he had said and done all he could say and do, I despised him with every fiber of my being. And while my lifetime collection of interactions with others have led me to strongly dislike a few people, this was an entirely different kind of hatred. Abhorrence. Bone-chilling. To the core of my soul.Upon realizing how quickly my situation with him had escalated to a life and death scenario, I ...

4 likes

Barefoot Express

Submitted to Contest #293

Glancing down at my watch, I suddenly realized I had just ten minutes to leave my eighth-floor office, take the elevator down to the ground floor, make my way through the narrow back hallway to the employee exit, run the six blocks to the train station, then navigate through the evening commute crowd to the platform where my train would whisk me home from another long, grueling day of work. I quickly scooped up all the documents from my desk and threw them into my bag so I could keep reviewing them on the train and ran out the door. “The sta...

8 likes

Purple Vindication

Submitted to Contest #292

Melinda had no idea she was supposed to know, amongst all the colors on Earth, which one was her favorite. She learned this in a most unfortunate way at the age of six while out shopping with her mother, who impatiently asked her what her favorite color was.Melinda stared blankly. She didn’t know how to respond.“C’mon girl, that’s not a difficult question. Which lollipop do you want? The red one? Or the purple one?”Melinda continued staring, then softly mumbled, “It’s not the color that matters. It’s the flavor. One is cherry. One is grape.”...

11 likes

The 'Perfect' Date

Submitted to Contest #289

As stylish diners stream in through the entryway, the overly perky hostess promptly escorts them two-by-two to candlelit tables. With each jaunt to the dining room, her arms laden with menus, she scrutinizes a pretty young woman anxiously tapping her toes on the hardwood floor who appears to be perched precariously close to the edge of the my-date-is-late bench. The I’m-probably-getting-stood-up bench. The this-is-so-embarrassing bench.Alana repeatedly checks her watch, expectantly awaiting her date, who is now more than ten minutes late. He...

12 likes

Class Act

Submitted to Contest #241

Being hastily excised from both my mother’s life and her will cut deep. It was the most unfathomable betrayal. I didn’t see it coming. I probably should have. But I didn’t. For sisterhood is a sacred bond. At least that’s what I had always believed.When I was a toddler, before I could walk, my sister would grab me by the arm and yank me up off the floor. She wanted a playmate and I was just the person to fill that role. Meanwhile, she shoved my twin brother down to the floor every time he attempted to stand or walk. It was me, and only me, s...

15 likes

The Last Sail

Submitted to Contest #240

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The earth was still. Tranquil. Diminutive waves gently grazed the shore. It was simply not possible to conjure a more perfect late summer afternoon, though you innately sensed the weather was about to turn. The deep green foliage along the coast would soon transform into fiery shades of orange, yellow, and red.We were young, kids really, my husband and me. Newlyweds. At times it felt like we were just play acting at being adults. We were broke, just trying to survive from day to day. We shared a tiny one-bedr...

7 likes

Night Breeze

Submitted to Contest #240

Whirring fan blades insulated my ears from the cacophony of cars and late-night dog walkers beneath my bedroom window. Curled up under silky sheets with a thick, fluffy duvet tucked tightly around me, I unwound the events of the day in my head and felt myself slowly drifting off.But sleep would not come so easily that night, for, just as my mind quieted and my muscles relaxed, a strong gust of wind blew across my face and into my ear, making its way quite painfully all the way down to my eardrum.“What the hell?” I wondered, immediately shoot...

9 likes

Who am I?

Submitted to Contest #238

Sensitive themes: Violence, Mental Health Who am I? I’m a monster. I’m grotesque. I am, in equal measure, an alluring woman and a venomous snake, coiled and ready to strike. I surreptitiously draw men in by exposing my exquisiteness while simultaneously masking my repulsiveness. Then I attack. My poisonous venom oozes through their veins, seeps into their brains, and drives them to the brink of insanity. I slowly, but systematically destroy them. They call me Echnidia. Whoa. Though one or two of my exes might beg to differ, I’m pretty sure t...

5 likes

Dear Stupid: A Love Story

Submitted to Contest #237

Saturday, 10:00 p.m.Them: “Your stupid.”Me: “Excuse me? You’re coming in a little hot there, buddy. We haven’t seen each other in how long? And that’s what you have to say to me? I’m stupid?”“And FYI – It’s ‘you’re’ (not ‘your’), as in you’re the one who’s stupid here. Obviously. First, for calling me stupid completely out of the blue. And second, for not being able to put together a simple, grammatically correct two-word sentence.”Them: “Wow. Feisty! I just remembered…you always had to be the smartest person in every room…constantly correct...

12 likes

The Way Home

Submitted to Contest #189

It was so terribly cold. Snow was falling, and it was almost dark. Christmas Eve. It hadn’t been snowing when we had first headed out on our walk down the dirt and gravel road, now frosted in a thick layer of white. Nor had it been so windy. Clearly nature didn’t want to disappoint on this holiday eve, delivering an idyllic display of feathery flakes that landed gently on my exposed hair and dampened it before freezing it into icicles in the sub-zero temperature. As we continued down the path, the ice forming in my long dark hair sta...

14 likes

Emma & Lars

Submitted to Contest #183

“You gonna stab me with those scissors?”“Yes. Yes I am,” I quipped. “I’m going to puncture your flesh with dozens of wounds. I’m thinking I’ll fashion a very large and extremely conspicuous pattern on your torso. Maybe a pentagram. Maybe a peace sign. I haven’t decided yet. Then I’m going to cut you up into tiny little pieces with these very same scissors. I’ll do it slowly. One tiny hair or fragment at a time. I’ll really relish the process. Then I’ll dispose of each individual specimen in a solitary and extremely isolated location. A ...

6 likes

Marla's Cabin

Submitted to Contest #181

Marla’s personality, from the time she was a toddler, could best be described as an “I” on a Myer’s-Briggs personality test. She was undeniably an introvert, who often hid behind her older sister and refused to speak to adults she didn’t know. Whenever someone curiously queried about Marla’s unusual behavior, her mother exasperatedly muttered, with a dismissive wave of her hand, that Marla was shy. Marla’s mother spoke to anyone. Actually, Marla’s mother spoke to everyone. She made new best friends in line at the pharmacy, in waiting ...

12 likes

Bonicia

Each day’s struggle serves to remind me I’ve reached the final chapter of my life. Consequently, though not without apprehension, I spend my time in quiet retrospection of not only the events I conducted along my journey, but also those thrust upon me. My objective is simply to determine if my scale was at least balanced, if not more heavily weighted, toward the good I was able to perform in my lifetime. Of my earliest recollections, I remember… ***** It wasn’t supposed to be this way, her hard-scrabble life. For Bonicia had been born ...

1 like

U-Turn

Submitted to Contest #124

“Stay in the left lane.” “In one mile, make a U-turn.” “In 800-feet, make a U-turn.” “In 200-feet, make a U-turn.” My GPS unrelentingly urged me to perform an illegal U-turn while I remained steadfast in my refusal to play along. With all of its intelligence, shouldn’t it know better than to demand I make an unlawful turn? If it can pinpoint my precise location on the entire planet, to the exclusion of all other locations, and knows the location of my destination within just a couple of feet, it doesn’t seem to be a str...

7 likes

Sunny

Submitted to Contest #123

Her name couldn’t have been more befitting of her disposition. It was as if the gods had convened and prophetically chosen it for her. In truth, however, she was unintentionally christened when her mother, thoroughly drained after thirty-eight hours of labor, simply looked out her hospital room window and muttered, “It’s sunny.” A nurse who’d been attempting to complete a birth certificate for more than twenty minutes assumed this was the answer to the question she’d already asked three times, to no avail, and proceeded to write it d...

8 likes