Hugh Russel

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2021

Stories (5)

5 Stories

95 karma pts

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“Where Am I?” by Hugh Russel

Submitted to Contest #85

That’s the thing about this city, everything is perfect, it’s so fabulous that foreigners fill the streets, the restaurants and the shops. I know it sounds ungrateful and selfish, but there are times when I think we’d just like to have the place to ourselves. My city is for my people. Wherever I go there are strangers in the way, prattling on in languages I don’t understand. What’s really irritating is that a lot of them...

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“The Lazy C” by Hugh Russel

Submitted to Contest #83

The Lazy C A small pod of bubbles announced her immanent return and moments later the crown of her head gently broke the surface of the warm turquoise clear water. She took her first breath after nearly four minutes; then easily swam from the reef she had been diving off to the sandy shallows. Quigley removed the diving mask from her suntanned face, slipped it over her wrist and ...

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“Aida's First Contact” by Hugh Russel

Submitted to Contest #82

Aida’s First Contact Her first tentative steps outside were thrilling, the wind, the heat of the sun, the taste and sent of the air, all of it anticipated, but the full impact of the experience was unexpected. It was better than she had imagined. She could imagine something. Just minutes ago, her mother said she could do anything the humans could do except give birth, eat and eliminate waste. She could do the last...

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“Catherine and Will” by Hugh Russel

Submitted to Contest #81

Catherine and Will He was only nineteen when he came back to Vancouver, the physical wounds from Vietnam would heal quickly but he was damaged, some would say he was broken, though he didn’t know at the time. He was suffering from delayed PTSD, a strange term that they wouldn’t conjure up for another ten years. But what it meant for him was that there was a gap in time, a gap he tried to...

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“Kent State Massacre, 50th anniversary” by Hugh Russel

Submitted to Contest #80

The anniversary was as painful to him that day as it had been last year and the year before. It was as if no amount of time could heal the wound he suffered on May 4th, fifty years ago. He stopped on the path to Taylor Hall to let the ache in his stump calm down, it had been a long walk to his destination and what remained of his leg always complained. Yes he suffered from PTSD, but even that didn’t compare with the emotional damage caused by what happened down there on the field. An incident remembered in such terrible detail ...

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Author bio

It's hard to look back on what I've done. Since COVID the past is a story that seems like fiction filled with this and that. Now it's just the two of us and this house, trips to town every week or so to pick up the groceries that someone else puts in our car. One day is every day now, I tuck myself into my office and write. that's who am now.