H.e. Ross

Author on Reedsy Prompts since May, 2023

Stories (26)

26 Stories

420 karma pts

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“Hands of a Sailor” by H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #245

I sat in front of Dobie as he got animated while telling his tale of the Turtling hurricane that he survived. I know a little was going to be from his imagination but I sat to hear the tale of a real storyteller on a starry night with a warm breeze against my cheek and the gentle rock of my ketch in the change of tide swell. He took a gulp of rum and began with a nod of head.‘The wind started to go all wrong and Cop’n had to order a reef in the main. Then he had to order the jib topsail down, then another reef. The seas were kicking up with ...

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“Saut d'Eau” by H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #244

I left Labadie for the Turks and Caicos Islands spending a year establishing a magazine there with my lovely friend, DianaLou. Every chance I got I was back in Haiti until I finally moved to a loosely situated community called Merger, twenty kilometres south of Port au Prince. It was an ugly little box of a summer cottage I rented but sat on a rectangular acre of land bordered by coconut palms, the railroad tracks and the two lane highway beyond them, a line of thorny shrubbery with fallow farmland on its other side and the sea. I had a brea...

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“The Best Dinghy In the World” by H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #240

It started with buying a boat that was sunk. I had saved up the money to buy a boat and was wandering around a boat sales place when I saw the upturned stern of a small sloop. I could tell is was a sloop by the mast partially angled out of the water. The cabin was completely submerged but the rounded stern was beautiful with the rudder giving little jerks with the falling tide movements. I ran back to the office and told them about the sloop. They hadn’t been out on the dock that morning and hadn’t seen that the boat...

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“Sailor” by H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #239

I anchored Magic in a little cove that was bordered by coco palms and fern over a black sand beach. It was one of those perfect beach scenes that I dreamt about as a child and now I was here. I got the dinghy in the water faster than ever with the thought that maybe the cove might disappear. I had my rum and a sandwich in my backpack to celebrate a small delight at finding this place. Before I touched t...

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“Football” by H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #235

Football It lay across my chest like a moist log and I knew it was just Carman’s arm but it seemed to push down on me as I inhaled and it made me gag. I sat up quickly as the bile rose in my throat, singeing the sides, forming bitter spots in my mouth. It was coming up and I could not breathe. My eyes searched shadows with moonlight hard against walls and still curtains. Her eyes were wid...

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“Wanted: Dead or Alive” by H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #228

There was the time... I was presented a plate at a friend’s house that had four little ribs that had been barbecued over an outside grill laying next to an ice cream cupped mound of potato salad with a little pile of green peas.They were all set on a nice plain white plate. I looked at it and ate them, smiling at my host at the texture of the meat I was chewing, smacking at the just enough sweetness of the potato ...

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“Salt and Pepper” by H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #224

Zihuatenejo was one of those places that seemed to widen as you wandered its streets. There was a very large and very busy central part of town with traffic from all parts junctioning. There you would find movie theatres, street vendors, a lot of sweet-smelling portable taco grill stands, shops, a brown leafed plaza park, dust noise and even a few beggars. Thankfully, the day was finally ending, though its warmth kept t...

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“Obsolete in A Dead Man’s Land” by H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #222

Sensitive Content: The story reflects the life of a young woman who is abused to the point of suicide but is rescued by strangers who see that she has special powers. There is drug abuse and sexual harm in the story. You are the man of my dreams. You are. And, I wish to tell you my story. I wish that you know me, my love. What I tell you now I have never told another, at least not...

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“Fate is a Route” by H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #221

Sugar found that he was not being permitted to leave Coatzacoalcos by the gang he had become a part at the cantina. Don Marcello arranged a hunting trip for him with two brothers, Enrique, or Ric, and Tomas, or TT. They sat outside the first morning of his stay sitting on two brown horses with a third saddled pinto waiting for Sugar. The brothers wore short brimmed conical straw hats that Sugar had seen around...

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“Carpet” by H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #220

Bill shut his eyes, feeling pressured weight trying to move him. He smiled, turned his head away, He still felt the pressure and wondered who it could be. Bill opened his eyes to see sand. There was sand all about him and a slope was sliding to his side a bit. He was alone with a sun that was just overhead, now about to set. The quiet spoke to him with the hollowness of an empty world. He looked this ...

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“Big Pete” by H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #219

Big Pete thought. It occurred to him that he was thinking. I think somebody is listening to me think.‘Ah, the patient awakes, Monty.’ The voice echoed through a pale darkness. ‘Untie his eye blinders, Monty. Okay, the blindfold, idiot. Let him see the light.’Pete thought he heard a chuckle as he saw his eyelashes raising and brightness penetrating his head in spear points and lightening strokes. He thought it unusual to be thinking so eloquently and thought it strange to use these descriptive phrases. He wondered,...

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“Merger” by H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #216

Tomas was pissed. From my Merger rental he marched along the highway stumbling in ruts and over branches making him more and more angry. He delighted in kicking coconut sheathings out of his way. It was black dark. Trees all lining the highway road. No lights. He knew there was a mountain climbing straight up on one side of the roadway. He knew there was still sea a short distance through the brush on...

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“Through the Valley of Volcanoes to the lake of shimmering light” by H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #215

The train pulled to a stop with a lot of shuddering at the mainland seaport of San Carlos near the top of the Sea of Cortez. They got off. The journey from the border was too much. The train felt as though it had no springs and every little bump registered on their backsides. They were told that the connecting train to Mexico City was more comfortable and had sleeping compartments. If it were true then that would be gre...

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“Passage” by H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #214

It was on the third day out that they both wanted to call somebody to pick them up. I was bringing dinner up one plate at a time. Damian took his plate and made the announcement. I smiled. ‘Damian,’ I had to look up at the sky and not at him. Little puffs of cloud on a stark and clear deep blue. ‘where do you think you are? You aren’t really asking to be picked up by somebody, are you?’ He nodded...

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“Fido” by H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #213

I got Fido at the local pound, or animal rescue service, by mistake or accident. I went to get a terrier and found one but in the next cage was a almost long haired puppy cowering in the shadows of a corner. The terrier knew he had me and was jumping up and down with expectations flowing from his half mouthed tongue, so I got the puppy. Fido was beautifully thankful and I felt like a true parent maybe because of his fix on me as his leader and teacher. Our relationship was never owner/mas...

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Author bio

I am a Black San Franciscan who has been sailing for over 55 years and writing for about 30 of those years. I have either created or assisted the creation of four maritime heritage organisations with an emphasis on African Diasporic contributions to the skills involved under sail. I have written for publications and have published two magazines, one maritime heritage book and a self-published novel. I am presently sitting on several unpublished novels, short stories and quite a bit of poetry. My partner and our sons live in Cornwall, England and I had about thirty years of living, working and sailing in the Caribbean.