Esther Andrews

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2020

Stories (27)

27 Stories

575 karma pts

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“Melissa & Candace” by Esther Andrews

Submitted to Contest #56

Not everything in life turns out how you expect, or at least hope, it will turn out. In fact, most things don’t.  That fact didn’t dissuade Melissa from eventually getting remarried after several years of not dating at all after a very protracted and unpleasant divorce from her first husband. He stalked her endlessly throughout the divorce process, spouting ridiculous protestations about his dissatisfaction over their separation and tormented professions of his undying love for her.  “God help me,” she thought to herself e...

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“Summer Vacation Secrets” by Esther Andrews

Submitted to Contest #55

That summer started out like every summer that came before it – swim lessons and bible school, followed by the obligatory three-week long August road-trip to visit our relatives in the mid-west. Those summer vacations always involved lots of sleepover parties with cousins, playing with new litters of kittens or piglets, helping with cows at milking time, riding tire swings, ping-pong matches, having ice cream sundaes for dinner and going to the movies. Our aunts, uncles and cousins were infinitely more interesting to me and my siblings tha...

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“In the Dark of Night” by Esther Andrews

Submitted to Contest #47

Have you ever left in the dark of night, with nothing more than a suitcase in hand, heading toward the station, so to speak? You might have left to hop on a bus, or on a train, or you might have driven away in your own car. No matter. The train was leaving the station and it was abundantly clear it was time for you to go. Despite the circumstances surrounding how you leave, for some of us, there are happenstances in life when we have no choice but to leave, suitcase in hand. I do wish for you, dear reader, that you've never ...

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“I Just Had to Say It” by Esther Andrews

Submitted to Contest #47

Are you an honest man? A truthful man? Or do you bleed the souls of others solely for your personal gain?  Will you convince a woman that you love her, when your deep underbelly quietly reveals you’re using her for whatever you can get out of her – money, sex, a responsible partner who can pick up the slack of your irresponsibility, and the children you deserve to have? Will you quit drinking tomorrow? Or is that just a story you keep telling me to kick the can down the road another day? Will I have to tiptoe around you and watc...

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“Glorius Chills” by Esther Andrews

Submitted to Contest #46

Beth didn’t understand why the other kids in her class always groaned on Friday mornings when it was time for their weekly spelling quiz. Especially if the quizzes had fun words in them, like the time their teacher had all rhyming words in the quiz – words like hairy, fairy, bury and marry. Beth giggled as the teacher called them out and carefully spelled each word correctly.  And why on earth did the other kids not like writing essays or poems about their summer vacation? It was awesome to think about all the fun things she had done ...

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“Sideways Heart” by Esther Andrews

Submitted to Contest #44

Sandra was born with a sideways heart. She lived 38 years of her life without any knowledge of that fact. Only after she’d endured frequent heart palpitations for months, did Sandra finally seek out a medical professional to ascertain her body wasn’t planning to kill her any time soon. Sandra waited for months before even considering scheduling a doctor’s appointment because, frankly, her life wasn’t ‘anything special.’ She went to work, she came home to her tiny studio apartment, and she took two weeks of vacation every year to go...

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“The Giraffe of San Francisco” by Esther Andrews

Submitted to Contest #43

With a shiver, I tugged on the collar of my thick wool coat to pull it up higher and button it tighter around my neck to stave off the cool early morning fog and harsh wind coming off the bay. From a few blocks away, I could hear the charming ding of a cable car bell. Quintessential San Francisco. Freezing cold and windy all year long, but there’s nothing like the sound of those bells to help you romanticize your intense suffering at the hands of Mother Nature. I sighed and carried on.Struggling to keep my body upright while carefully toddli...

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“Peter, Flopsy, and Hasenpfeffer” by Esther Andrews

Submitted to Contest #42

When I was a kid, my best friend Jane’s house was the 'awesomest' place to go. She had three bunnies, a dog, AND a cat. At our house? We had guppies. They died. We had a tiny turtle. It died. We needed better pets. I made this point abundantly clear to my parents, annoying them day in and day out with my proclamations:“I want SOFT pets.”“I want FLUFFY pets.”“I want CUDDLY pets.”Their response was always a resounding, “NO!”One Saturday afternoon; however, I discovered there was something that looked like a cage on raised wooden legs in t...

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“Boo Boo” by Esther Andrews

Submitted to Contest #40

I’ve always longed for an elusive something…a void in my life I never seem able to fill. Early in my career, I became a workaholic, with my drive for perfection steering me on my unrelenting path. But year after year, the elusive 'it' was missing. In parallel, I sought out relationships, failing miserably at every turn. The gap between what I had and what wasn’t there only seemed to grow. Shouldn’t one of these two most obvious things fill me up?I then pursued an endless laundry list of hobbies—climbing, hiking, camping, ...

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“The Last Two People on Earth” by Esther Andrews

Submitted to Contest #39

Monday started out like any other normal day. I slapped my hand (hard) on the snooze button a few times too many, knowing with each slap that I was pushing the envelope on the amount of time it would take me to shower, get dressed, and do my hair and makeup, yet still get to work on time. By the fourth time the alarm buzzed incessantly, I muttered, “Ok, ok, I’m getting up now.”For good or for bad...I have this habit I can’t seem to break. I personify inanimate objects as if at some point they will actually be able to hold a meaningful conver...

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“Worst Date in the History of Time” by Esther Andrews

Submitted to Contest #28

On my quest for love, my path has, most unfortunately, intersected with an electrifying hoard of men vying for my attention. And by ‘electrifying,’ I mean not-one-bit-electrifying. Many a man I’ve had to throw back into the dating pool so they could swim off. Preferably to some other woman who is not me.Many a man has tried to convince me they were my knight in shining armor, all the while strategically concealing their narcissism, sociopathic tendencies, or straight up bipolar disorder. That and the one with an ex-girlfriend with borderline...

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“A Day Late and a Dollar Short” by Esther Andrews

Submitted to Contest #28

I married a dumbass. Unfortunately, I’d become acutely aware of how much of a dumbass he was several months before the nuptials, but please don’t judge me too harshly. The ball was rolling down hill and there didn’t seem to be any way to stop the wedding. Relatives from my side had already booked their transcontinental flights and my fiancé’s father was a public figure, so scores of people whose social status eclipsed ours by thousands of miles made the final cut of our invite list. My mother was having the time of her life planning the cere...

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Author bio

I'm a freelance writer/editor and blogger. Random stuff happens, I write about it: https://wordpress.com/view/mylifeisacautionarytale.wordpress.com. I'm also published on SharpHeels.com and Jottful.com. I torment myself over the content of every email I write to ensure it is articulate and ever-so-slightly whimsical. You're writers. You get it.