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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Oct, 2022
Submitted to Contest #301
THE BACKGROUNDExcerpt from JANE’s old diary, APRIL 1985.It no longer matters if I’m a failed teacher.I’m as scared of dying as the next person but knowing I’ve only months to live, gives me a kind of courage. Things that used to matter no longer have the power to topple me.Now the worst has happened, what’s left to fear?So, here I am. Living with one of life’s great paradoxes. If my body has betrayed me by filling my lungs with unwanted cells, my mind is super charged. Where once I trudged through life, now I have a purpose. The way I move, ...
Submitted to Contest #297
A bird must learn to spread its wings, or it will fall like a pebble. Unless it’s a puffin. In which case it might land in a comical heap on the ground or end up in a classic belly flop on the waves. Such antics, combined with a plumage designed for attracting a mate during the Spring months, may be why this colourful auk is sometimes called “the clown of the sea.”Just before midnight, a pair of red-ringed brown eyes peep from a burrow opening set high on an Atlantic clifftop. Belonging to a fledgling puffin named Puffle, they are mesmerised...
Submitted to Contest #295
Forty years after leaving Kevin’s seaside home, the decline is palpable along the winding streets. Many of the old places are boarded up, and some businesses have changed hands more than once. He passes the usual tawdry trinket shops designed to trap tourists into paying exorbitant prices. Less than five minutes from the sea, with the seagulls circling, he finds himself making a detour into one of the dilapidated side streets.That’s when he sees it.Set back a little and squeezed between two equally insalubrious establishments, a blue plaque ...
Submitted to Contest #291
Dipping and soaring, we fly through skies of rippled blue, eyes fixed upon the ocean. Constantly shifting shape and focus, waves churn up spume which land like snowflakes on the shore. To the distant eye, we appear like specks of grey in the sky.Playing at Peekaboo. Now you see us, now you don’t.Sometimes called “parrots of the sea,” we’re not all we seem. Flying at speeds of up to 55 miles, our wings beat extra hard as we wait for the sea to calm. Other times we avoid the tumult by ducking and swimming underwater. Using our wings and feet a...
Submitted to Contest #289
Half trueFalling in love is like being on the best ride.Falling out is what happens when you get off.As the bus drew close to the American airbase drop off point, nineteen-year-old Lottie applied another layer of Strawberry Potion to her lips. Earlier, she’d sneaked out of the home she shared with her strait-laced parents in a village a few miles away telling them she was staying over to watch tv with an old school friend. The staying over part was true but she wasn’t sure her mother believed the rest.“Just because you’re a grown woman doesn...
Submitted to Contest #286
The envelope joined the pile gathering dust on Mike’s table. He would read its contents, but only after his run. He dreaded a confirmation that would seal his fate almost as surely as if he’d thrown himself off the rocks and plunged into the oblivion of a churning sea. But no. In spite of everything, he wanted to live.Besides which, Jeff would have expected him to fight rather than cling onto a past long since gone.There was no point running away from problems.But running away was exactly what he’d been doing – for months, even years now. As...
Submitted to Contest #284
Nothing is more challenging than the start of a new year when people have been clearing out their unwanted items after Christmas and the donations are piling into the charity shop filling up every inch of spare space. It’s not unknown for this state of affairs to continue even after we’ve closed when you get donors literally banging on the window demanding to bring in boxes of goods they can barely lift themselves. You’re expected to receive all this with a smile of undying gratitude, even though you’re desperate to cash up so you can get ho...
Submitted to Contest #282
I vowed I’d never return to this street yet here I am.With my mother’s soul hanging in the balance, the need to revisit has come swiftly like the blooming of flowers from a baobab tree at sunset. Or maybe I’ve lived too long in an emotional desert and am seeking resolution. A kind of remedy for my own soul’s pain. Even now when I think of mum, I think of a fighter. She’s always been a fighter. Or she was before her spirit got broken. I can only hope she’ll be drawing on that former resilience to aid her in the hardest battle. On the sh...
Submitted to Contest #281
Christmas is round the corner and I’ve never felt less Christmassy.Here I am surrounded by all manner of festive gifts and must-have seasonal cuties. The boxes of crackers may look appealing but seeing the person I want to pull them with is no longer around, maybe not so much.However, even I have to admit the very reasonably priced snow globes with their miniature snowmen in funny hats and colourful scarves, have a certain charm. One of the store’s best sellers, only one remains waiting to be shaken and given a good home.These new goods are ...
Submitted to Contest #279
LabyrinthHalf man/half bull, he was the most famous mutant of them all. Asterion’s existence had come about when the Queen had mated with a beautiful white bull on the island of Crete. Regarded as a freak of nature, he was contained by the queen’s husband, King Minos, in a series of elaborate and confusing chambers constructed somewhere beneath the royal palace. The mutant’s prison became known as The Labyrinth.***On returning to their clifftop eyrie, the eagles deposited a sheep as a reward to Minna, the young dragon, for guarding their egg...
Submitted to Contest #276
The Social WorkerNames and places have been changed. Some who played a part in this are not included, but in essence this is a true story.Whatever I was expecting, Mrs Lauren wasn’t it. An older woman, well spoken, with not a hair out of place, wearing heels and a power suit, she didn’t fit my image of a typical social worker, whatever that was. The first time I saw her; I didn’t think she’d be much help.***A voice called from the half-open door where my favourite teacher Mrs Swanson was conferring with the school secretary.“A quick word, He...
Submitted to Contest #275
Club lifeTW: some swearing and mentions self harm.Aren’t you a bit old to go clubbing?Why do you say that?Well, look at you!What do you mean?You’re hardly love’s young dream!Maybe not, but…But what????But…But, but, but….Don’t be mean.Isn’t it time you started facing facts? You’re too old to be dressing like a…Like a what? What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?Wearing clothes that are meant for the young and gorgeous. Exposing your midriff. Tuck it in for fuck’s sake.Stop swearing! You know I hate it. Mum and dad hated it too. I like wearing the...
The SmokeLondon, 1941As usual, Bill woke at dawn and was driven out to his aircraft. The order to scramble had been given and he felt the familiar tug of fear and excitement. He checked his jacket pocket for the doll his sister had knitted as a lucky charm. She told him she’d made two dolls but his was the best. He felt the rough cloth and bumpy stitches, complete with tiny bag and hat, beneath his fingers, and smiled. The thought of his little sister’s face gazing up at him the last time they met, brought a lump to his throat. It gave him t...
Submitted to Contest #274
Amber EyesFor thousands of years cats have been teaching humans a thing or two, including how to live in the moment and when to let go.It was just after dusk when the cat tiptoed its way across the garden. Fur ruffled by a breeze blown in from the desert, it regarded the woman through languorous amber-gold eyes. Carrying a lantern, she trod the path cautiously, anxious to avoid the sting of a passing scorpion. The animal already knew she was special, but this marked her out as wise. The woman whose name was Zara made h...
Submitted to Contest #272
Turn over your shoes to stop the pixies and ogres walking in them. Shut the drapes so the moonlight doesn’t drive you mad.Keep your ladies of the bedchamber close for tis now you need them most.Gold and silver thread shimmer in my candlelit chamber. The figures of three noblewomen standing beneath a garden tree in the tapestry opposite feel as much part of me as the veins in my still slender hands. One holds a bunch of flowers, one carries a basket of eggs, and the third stretches out her hand to a pelican. Symbol of motherhood, it is said t...
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