Helen Z

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Aug, 2020

Stories (4)

4 Stories

69 karma pts

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“The Story of a Minute, then a Quarter Hour” by Helen Z

Submitted to Contest #102

*Notice/Caution - I don’t want to seem like I am spoon-feeding anything, but I want to explain my tense and dialogue choice (in case my future self reads this and cringes at me for using bad technique). Please forgive me (and brace yourselves) for the confusing shifts between past and present tense that will occur. Everything is written from a retrospective perspective, but I just wanted to experiment with the contrasting effects the past and present tense can have on a story. When she remembers seeing and interacting with the character and ...

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“Tutu Skirt” by Helen Z

Submitted to Contest #101

Daddy got me this tutu skirt with truffles (or were they called ruffles?) today but they’ve been itchy ever since. Don’t get it dirty, he made me memorise, we still have to return it. I repeat it every once in a while in my head so that I don’t forget. The party looks sweet. Daddy tells me he hasn’t seen any of them since high school. I haven’t seen any of them at all. The curls on her head look like cotton candy and this other guy must have stolen Santa’s beard. Her nails give off a transparent green gummy bear colour. I start to chew my ow...

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“If you should see me dead tomorrow” by Helen Z

Submitted to Contest #83

The land feels weird after being cradled by the waves. My stomach still convulses to the motion of being rocked back and forth, but the still clouds above tells me I’m just as stiff as them. I feel pathetic for having to die this way. They’ll say I did it on a whim, that it was a tragedy of forethought and rationality. That I had so much potential. The dance team will probably regret rejecting me: she wouldn’t have lasted for long, anyway. And how will he react, if at all? At least they’ll find the waves guilty. I had agreed to ‘race you to ...

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“Sparkling Water” by Helen Z

Submitted to Contest #54

After I missed out on the 10-year high school reunion, Dylan and I scheduled to meet up personally, just to reminisce. He invited me to attend his concert, after which we would meet up at dinner. I have been waiting at the restaurant ever since the concert started. The waiter came twice to take my order, and after refusing him and being surprised by his politeness, I realized that the formal restaurant and concert resembled the way Dylan would approach me: reserved, sophisticated, rather courteous like that waiter, and with a mild caution of...

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