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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jun, 2020
Submitted to Contest #69
The first thing I notice when I open the door to 3920 Cherrywood Drive is the smell. Pumpkin spice Bath and Body Works candle; vanilla scented shampoo, my mom’s favourite; and cranberry sauce, simmering on the stove. I recoil. She’s here already, then. “Laura!” My mom greets me with a mile-wide smile stretching across her wrinkled face. “You’re back!” I open my arms to hug her, and get a whiff of cheap perfume. My mom only wears Chanel, and only on special occasions. More proof that Maurice is here. “So, how’s college? How are you...
Submitted to Contest #49
A clock is ticking, somewhere. It’s one of those sounds that drills itself into your ears and makes you want to rip your fingernails off, one by one, just to have something to distract yourself from the agonizing pain of it. I hate this place. It’s the hideous tan-and-orange speckled walls, the depressingly cheerful framed quotes scattered around, the beige carpet with what appear to be blood stains hastily cleaned with bleach, the understuffed ‘sofa’ that’s harder than cement, and the far-off sound of a snotty little brat crying. The colou...
Submitted to Contest #47
I clutch the straps of my worn denim backpack in my sweaty fists, reaching for words. There are a million things that I could say, but only one of them is right. Only one of them will stop you from walking away right now. But which? “Don’t go!” I could say. But that’s cliche and anyway, I’m not nearly assertive enough for that. “I love you!” Too upfront, and we’ve never said that before. In fact, we’ve never talked at all. At least, not in real life. “Wait!” No, no, no. It’s all wrong. “I have so much to tell you.” That would scare...
Submitted to Contest #46
I hold the fragile bundle of pressed bark and animal hide carefully. It’s delicate, with fine spiderwebs of curly writing on the front cover proclaiming The Journey of a People. Carefully engraved plants and animals decorate the border of the leather, crisp in the middle and worn at the corners. I hug the book to my chest, embracing years of difficult work hunched over a rickety stone-chiseled table with a dripping stylus in hand, straining my eyes to see in the gloom of the cave. Often my only companion was the drip… drip… drip… of a singl...
Submitted to Contest #45
“Big catch this morning, eh?” I glanced up from where I was kneeling on the salt-encrusted dock, sorting through a meager morning catch of fish, to see grizzled No-Bones Jones hobbling towards me in all of his ancient former-sea-captain glory. The early-morning sun soaked him in golden light. “No, sir.” I sighed and dumped the fish into a barrel along with some briny water. “Never a true catch anymore, amiright?” Jones asked. “No, sir.” I replied, brushing my fingers through my sandy blond hair and twisting the crooks out of my back. “...
Submitted to Contest #44
I flop onto the small square of dying grass that we call our yard, dropping my suitcase and resting my weary feet. The gloomy sunset is giving way to night, leaving breadcrumbs of scarlet clouds floating in the plumb-haze soupy sky. “I’m back!” I call. On cue, a little boy sprints up to me, yodeling, “You’re home! You’re home! You’re home!” at the top of his lungs. I warmly embrace him, inhaling that soothing scent of his- baby shampoo, the slightly burned orange-chocolate muffin he just g...
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