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H.e. Ross

Author on Reedsy Prompts since May, 2023

Stories (53)

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17 Followers

4 Following

53 Stories

936 karma pts

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The Call of the Conch

H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #311

The call of the Conch is the sound of the sea’s sacred tones. It is vibrant and subdued a basic creation of duality and recognition of choice. “Do you drink, boy?” the old man asked the lightly lapping beachfront.“A little rum, a little wine, an occasional brandy; not much really.” The interviewer looked out at the same sea.“Well, drinkin’ alcohol is a sin clearly as the day has sun and the night stars. There’s only two ways for man to go, boy… to heaven, to sing eternally the glory that is God… or to hell, to bask in the agony of hate and w...

1 like

Chantal

H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #309

phThis was my first evening in Port au Prince and the emphasis was hot. The rattling taxi did nothing to relieve the heat with three of the windows down and one not working. The rectangle of the rear view mirror showed my driver was shining drips of brown framing bright white eyes and long lashes spring boarding drops that he was constantly wiping with a crumbled wet handkerchief.We curved up a driveway and finally I was able to peel myself out of the springs under a thin coating of synthetic seat material to look up at my first impression ...

9 likes

Desert Dunes

H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #308

Bill lay back in the water, his lips tasted of the salt. Raising his head to keep it above water he saw two seagulls circling the other as though playing tag. Bill smiled at nature and how it was so much like us. Then remembered that he was a part of nature and while laughing at himself the water rushed around his head and the sky turned into a thick moving collage of lights. With the press of his blinking the world turned progressively dark and he was dry. This was curious. This dark world with his eyes wide now. But Bill was strangely onl...

9 likes

The Town

H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #305

The Town Was he dreaming? Was there a mist forming around him or was he still at home in his bed?There was a muffled bang like a firecracker. He blinked and wondered why did he think he was in his bed? He opened his mouth, strained and looked up at the sky. It was blue. There was no mist. Brad was confused. He was standing and there in the mist that had cleared was a grove of trees and to each side of the grove were two very different streets.To his left was his compact, neat neighbourhood with cars parked, a kid on a bicycle throwing a roll...

4 likes

Tempest

H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #304

Tempest It had to be that night with the seas building and my fears beginning to mount. I was sure this was going to be it. I was about to die. I know I started thinking about my good times in the City. I ran through walks and conversations and bars and fights and sitting on the sidewalks in the rain. I began to give myself a pride at being a San Franciscan. Later, I wrote sitting at a small bar that I never went to since it was off my normal path through the City. The people were yuppies in the extreme and every so often I would be asked wh...

5 likes

TAR

H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #302

TAR Jerold came into by cube with some papers in his hand and very large eyes. Jerold has large eyes but now they somehow expanded to the extent that he scared me. ‘Jus look at this, B.’ he almost yelled, ‘Jus look at this. I can’t believe my eyes but what the fuck.’ My breathing returned and I stopped typing to turn and take his sheets. The title ran, The African Race. I looked back up at Jerold and hunched my shoulders as in, so what? Jerold always wanted to be my buddy. He was always inviting me for a drink after work, inviting me for ...

4 likes

Tijuana At Five

H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #300

Words woke me and I looked up through the smell of car mustiness and petrol to a smiling moustache on a strange face. I was still curled in the darkness of the backseat and didn’t know if it had been on a long drive or if we had arrived in Mexico. I didn’t know if I was awake but I did know that we were sitting still now with the engine still vibrating. The moustache man wore dark glasses under a slouchy light brown military kind of hat with a shiny bill. I saw brown skin and a smile but he was just a blur with a background of glaring lights...

5 likes

Lightning X

H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #297

Lightning X The sliver of a new moon hazed over in what seemed the no motion of cloud with its light filtering away as though slowly being turned off. Scudding clouds at a much lower level raced above me from port to starboard until they disappeared all together into a nothingness that was my night.Off to the port bow was a barely visible thumping show of dull light flashings. A small ball of a lightning storm on an invisible horizon. I become a bit lonely having nobody to share the intoxication of it. I was beam reaching with mounding sea...

7 likes

The Slowest Train

H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #293

I was not exactly sure why I found myself in Oaxaca City. It was not a planned visit I had just gone to a bus station and the name stood out and I bought a ticket, slung my backpack on my shoulder and boarded a bus.  Sometimes when you just meet somebody and they are not who you think they are but you fall for them and life becomes a wonderful swelling of heart and memory. I had met Carmen at a barber shop with her laughing at my trying to get a cut the way I wanted and the barber insisting on doing something else. We spent the next fou...

7 likes

Tijuana at Five

H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #290

Words woke me and I looked up through the smell of car mustiness and petrol to a smiling moustache on a strange face. I was still curled in the darkness of the backseat and didn’t know if it had been on a long drive or if we had arrived in Mexico. I didn’t know if I was awake but I did know that we were sitting still now with the engine still vibrating. The moustache man wore dark glasses under a slouchy light brown military kind of hat with a shiny bill. I saw brown skin and a smile but he was just a blur with a background of glaring lights...

18 likes

The First Nor'Wester

H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #288

The First Nor’Wester I wanted to know more. Being around sailors most of my life I wanted to know more. The oceans have scared me and brought me to the height of ecstasy and I still wanted to know more, so I started writing stories about others’ experiences as a way of life. Collecting and experiencing and mixing the both a lot. Here, on San Sebastian Island, there was an abundance of sea tales spilling from the sun cracked mouths of old time sailors. My column in the local magazine, Islands Chronicle, was about those who those who had ...

11 likes

The Meeting

H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #286

The meeting was held at the San Sebastian National Trust Public and Private Meeting Facility Room. The sign above the door stated this and I was still a bit fuzzy in trying to put all of those words in context. The afternoon turtle hangover-remedy stuffing my insides created a lethargy that put the fluorescent lighting of the hallways into a venue that could not be on some Caribbean island but maybe somewhere in the Midwest. The night’s blackness outside the tinted windows isolated my thinking even more in mixing up my geographical fix. I ha...

6 likes

Arrival

H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #284

The Air Jamaica jet bumped its way through the mist nine hours late and most of the lights below never grew brighter. I looked incredulously upon a wonderful scene, my first and I guess most impressive of Port au Prince. There were no tall buildings visible in the darkening landscape. A mountain grew up from the sea. Streams of traffic flowed during the commute hours on several arteries. Trees everywhere softened the outline of the architecture. Small fires trailed smoke toward me. The amber of kerosene lamps in contrast with the brightness ...

8 likes

The Black Rose A Christmas Sea Tale

H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #283

This happened to me when I was a little one and I only knew the whole story when I met an old sea captain who explained how it came about. And this is how he told it to me. It was like he was there. I know I was. The storm had slowed its pace and finally broke into easy winds and slowly mounting swells. The skies were streaked with grey clouds over grey seas and all around under that was deep blue with white crests breaking but with little force. The sea was becoming a kitten once more and it was just in the nick of time. The crew were exhau...

5 likes

Conversation with a Haitian Police Detective in 1980

H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #280

The sun was setting. The trees hiding the homes of Port au Prince were half on fire half in deep green. It was hard to see the sea at sunset from the Grand Hotel Oloffson. There was a glare in the haze of dust and ever present simmer. Noise of traffic was there when thought about and not there when not. It was just too hot to complain about the noise so in Haitian fashion it was stuffed casually into its own box of non-consciousness. We were having coffee on the verandah of the Grand Hotel Oloffson in Port au Prince. Toulouse, my friend, was...

4 likes