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Gip Roberts

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Mar, 2020

Stories (36)
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332 Followers
13 Following

36 Stories

1865 karma pts

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To Believe or Not to Believe

That was fast! Darin dashed for the door when he heard the gate's dead-waking hinges. The remodel guy was here. Soon this eyesore of a house would get whipped into something livable and his visions would become reality. New paint to replace the ugly, weathered white. Stainless steel sinks. Fresh, velvety carpet. And the list went on. "You must be Mr. Barry Brewer!" "Howdy! And you're...is it Darin?" "Darin Doubtfield," Darin accepted the clean-cut man's vigorous handshake. "Pleasure to meet you sir. This is my daughter, Naomi. I'm tr...

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A Night not to Remember

Sounds of gunfire rang off the walls. Tracy and Trina huddled together, their limbs jerking each time the Magnum barked out another."I counted six, babe," Tracy turned and whispered. "Always figured he was bluffing.""It was definitely only five. Watch and learn!"Callahan stood over the whimpering, bleeding rat-haired excuse for a life form with a face as straight as the mole on it was rigid. The end of the matte black barrel grazed the culprit's sweat-covered cheeks without the inspector having to lean to get any closer. The afternoon sun re...

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Belated

(Trigger Warning: Language and mentions of suicidal ideation) But now you got to fly "Fly high!" Fly to the angels Heaven awaits your heart And flowers bloom in your name Earbuds blasting, Taz continued prying and singing along. It was an oldie she'd never heard before, but it beat nothing. Anything to soften this hard-labor chore. Anything to get tomorrow here faster. "Shit!" She backhanded the culprit board with the hammer's side and wiggled a splinter with a tear, until her finger was free of it. "What a pneumonia hole!" H...

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The Fosston Tea Party

The topic for Sunday's weekly discussion? Mervin. What better subject for the four ladies to dissect. He was the new neighbor, and something was odd about him.Maybelline sat at the dining room table, watching through the window with a red ink pen in hand, analyzing the young man's every move the way a circling buzzard hones in on fresh roadkill.Observation #47, the pen squiggled in speedy, forceful motion onto a canary yellow legal pad, Subject seen looking around in all directions while picking up newspaper.An evil-eyed smiley face marked t...

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A Touch of Rockwell

It's sleeting outside. Alan shuts his eyes and spends the next forty-five minutes tossing this way and turning the other. But it's a lost cause. He was hoping to get a full twelve hours in. School's out; why not? Instead, as dreams of flying dragons in a faraway fantasy land dissolve leaving reality, two things demand his undivided attention: The sharp taps on the windows and the unmistakable scent of game.He sits up, eyes drawn to the fuzzy shadow of early morning on the wall. Such a contrast. Sleet. Cornish game hen. Icy, drafty, and drear...

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The Forbidden Poot

CW: Immature themesIn the beginning, everyone had the god-given right to poot in the land of Olfactia. The air was hazy with the fumes of cabbage, eggs, and everything in-between. A massaging reverberation of thousands of unique notes - all different pitches, all different tones - mingling to play haunting, beautiful music had become the unofficial world anthem. Partaking of the sacred poot was synonymous with blessing. By the year 2000 B.O., the planet was a giant ball blanketed over in methane. Letting it out was so ingrained into Olfactic...

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The Dark Cloud

(Contains some strong language) It was the longest the hallway had ever been. An oblong dungeon. Stale, musty with the scent of aged spills and my own perspiration. No one was back there. I tensed, eyeing the light that blared through the swinging doors at the end of the tunnel. The soles, though soft, ricocheted slaps of sound off sealed concrete. Every corner shadow looked like an outline of the bastard's egg-shaped head. Any noise could have been him. I could never be sure if the slapping sounds were me, or he flying up from behind. The...

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At the Summit of Sunflower

Submitted to Contest #105

I already knew there would be no mountain here. That isn't the reason I came. But I can tell by the vacant looks on the other folks' faces, they assumed there would be. Mt. Sunflower; it's the highest point in Kansas and is labeled as such on the map. At over four thousand feet, it's easy to be misled if you don't know a thing or two about the state.I find the whispering wind healing. It makes the grass breathe, much like the wind on an alpine meadow. The view here is of square miles of blonde vegetation, one after another, melting into a so...

72 likes 46 comments 46
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Ethan's Moments in the Sun

Submitted to Contest #99

In all the years I've been around Ethan, I've never seen him like this before. Whether pacing back and forth in a restaurant parking lot, yelling indecipherable words into the beam of a cop's flashlight, doing some crazy dance while strolling down a sidewalk, or swatting at the air inside this liquor store, the one constant about him has always been unpredictability. So now that I think about it, I really shouldn't be too surprised that he's acting perfectly normal this morning. After all, he is unpredictable.  When I say "perfectly n...

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Who Did This?

Submitted to Contest #95

(Author's note: Depictions of abuse that may not be suitable for all readers.)I see two doors. Same two I'm faced with every morning hours before sunrise. I wish the green and gold uniform reflected how I really feel about my job. But I realized a long time ago there is no job that's free from interaction with the other gender.My gloved hand curls into a fist. One which I often daydream of using for something besides knocking. I have to control myself. I have to look golden, like these ridiculous stripes, eight hours a day, five days a week....

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Behind The Scenes

Submitted to Contest #91

Mark did things the old fashioned way. It took longer, and it was more work, but like grandpa had always said: You can't turn a lump of coal into a diamond with a pair of pliers. Mark was the lump of coal. Inconsequential to the world. A Senior in high school, but a Freshman in life, going nowhere. And now that grandpa was gone, he felt like a fish out of water, going through the flapping motion of trying to plan a future.The library was about to close, and he was on his way out with a stack of "recipe" cards covered front and back in nervou...

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Goodbye, Old Friend

Submitted to Contest #89

It was like trying to swim the English Channel. Jeb's knees were wobbling by the time he opened the gate to the fortification that was Carl's yard. The winter wind fought him every step of the way down the gravel path and up the rickety porch steps which creaked and popped as the stout breeze toyed with loosened boards.Carl, the closest and only person to a friend Jeb had left, still liked this setup it seemed. Ever since the psychotic break ten years ago, he had developed a fetish for the bizarre. There were perfectly-spaced fence posts sur...

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The Life After

Submitted to Contest #86

The last thing he remembers before waking up to...this was all the sensations disappearing. Clear up to that moment he'd been shivering, and it had become painful as his exhausted body had struggled to keep him awake.He looks back at the tracks leading to his car. No signs of melting, and now it's getting darker. Panic sparks again, but it never quite materializes as a full-blown feeling the way it had earlier.He recalls the temperature: The in-dash thermometer had shown seven below zero. That was at noon. It has to be even colder now.But he...

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Average Joe

Submitted to Contest #78

He wiped the dust off an old book, and the vision from twenty-six years ago came back. With instinct, he felt around the back of a neck that was starting to sag. No hair. None. Was the memory a fact of the past or a dream? The aftermath of long months spent getting the hair just right had left Joe with nothing but dead, faded remnants. Once a thick ebony, now thin and frayed. Once, it hung over his shoulders like a royal curtain. Now, it colored his sunburned scalp in pale patches.Joe thumbed through pages of tablature. They were a sick yell...

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The Mantra

Submitted to Contest #76

It falls. It seeps. It gathers. They Grow.Druwa. Filtris. Occue. Amasee...***"I await. The darkness is my blanket and my shield. The dampness is my friend. You are my teacher, and I await...What in Hades am I doing wrong? The mantra is simple enough.Patience.These four words all feel good to say. The setting is right, the noise level is perfect, my spine is as aligned as I can get it without pulling something. What the hell?I'll try focusing on 'the beat'. Maybe that'll help get the chakras woke up."Plink!"Breathe in: One, two, three. Breath...

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