Gene Strother

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jun, 2021

Stories (3)

3 Stories

46 karma pts

?

“Anywhere but here” by Gene Strother

ACT ONE – MIRROR, MIRRORI don’t want to be here today. This is the first time in my 50 years of pulpit ministry that I can say that. I can, however, say it today and I can say that when I do, it is an epic understatement. Sonny pauses. He looks himself in the eyes. Once known for his piercing gaze – a gaze that could penetrate marrow and melt the icy heart – he finds the eyes looking back at him cloudy and colorless. He studies the row of forehead furrows, plowed into his proud brow by a harvester whose name is Time and whose plow is steady,...

0 comments 0
Read story

“The Masters of Lamaze” by Gene Strother

Submitted to Contest #119

"Hee...hoo...hee...hoo...hee...hoo." I was three months shy of my nineteen birthday when I married. My wife is five days younger than me. It seems insane to admit this in the twenty-first century when kids are still kids well into their twenties – and a few into their thirties. We lived differently, my young bride and me. We were not seeking a safe space to hide from ideas contrary to our own. There was no one to coddle us and cradle us in the arms of safety from the meanies in the world. We had no time to shout down dissenting or aberra...

15 comments 15
Read story

“Cade and the Kid” by Gene Strother

Submitted to Contest #99

“That’s just the way the sun sets out here, I reckon.” Sam Cade squinted into the western sky at its brilliant shades of orange, yellow, pink, and red. The sun was sizzling, melting into the jagged peaks of distant mountains. Sam squatted over a small fire. Out here in the badlands, a big fire might draw the unwanted attention of thieves, malefactors, or Indians. He had built the fire and boiled the beans for himself alone. That was before the redheaded youngster asked to join him. Couldn’t have been more than 16, traveling the wilds of...

4 comments 4
Read story

Author bio

I'm a lover. I'm a fighter. I'm a midnight writer. I'm a husband. I'm a Dad. I'm a DooDah (so named by my grandson). Sometimes I write to right the wrong. Sometimes I just write the wrong. I will write until I get it right. I cannot say whether I shall be read. I can say I would rather be read than dead!