Jacob Brown

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Nov, 2022

Stories (8)

8 Stories

491 karma pts

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“Your Favorite Student” by Jacob Brown

Submitted to Contest #183

Dear Ms. Miller, Remember me? It’s Ian, from English class, 2016. I don’t blame you if you don’t, it must be so hard to keep track of all your past students with all the work you have to do—those essays don’t grade themselves! Remember when you always said that to us? I do. It’s February now, hopefully the ones your kids submitted in November are almost done. Oh, please pardon me, I forgot how busy you are coaching the girl’s volleyball team. Sorry to hear you went 0-16 again, you’ll get ‘em next time!  Your Facebook account is publ...

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“Exalted Above the Hills” by Jacob Brown

Submitted to Contest #181

“They say when you reach the top, you can raise your hand toward the sky and shake hands with God,” Reverend Paul Hume said to Zack in fragments, broken up by large gulps of air. The trail was steep and dotted with roots and rocks which Paul had to take extra care not to trip over, as he would certainly tumble a long way down before coming to a stop. With each step of his right foot, he stabbed the end of his hiking pole into the ground, leaving a trail of uniformly spaced punctures in the dirt. He twisted his left ankle a while back and cou...

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“Beautiful Ornaments” by Jacob Brown

Submitted to Contest #178

In a town not too close yet not too far—what would best be described as an inconvenient drive away—I experienced the distinct misfortune of meeting a couple by the name of Fella and Darling Collins. They are in their house right now; I am safe in a hotel room. In the interest of maintaining my safety, however, I shall not name the hotel nor its location until my second draft. It is not my intention to disparage them, as it is not my place to speak ill of another’s, let’s say, tradition, but it is my duty to recount the events as they occurre...

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“Nana's Vacation” by Jacob Brown

Submitted to Contest #177

I heard Nana speak, but I didn’t understand what she said. It was hard to understand her because I couldn’t see her face. Her bed was up on a frame too high for me to see over. The grownups all stood above the bed and looked down at her. I figured out where her face was because all the grownups were looking there. I heard Nana asking to see me but none of the grownups wanted to pick me up.Nana put her arm out over the bed, but the frame was too high and my arms were too short to reach her. I even tried standing on my tippy toes. Nana was wea...

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“Spaghettification” by Jacob Brown

Submitted to Contest #175

“‘Finally, if you were foolish enough to jump into a black hole, you would experience the exciting phenomenon called spaghettification. This is when your body gets stretched into a noodle by the extreme tidal forces as you approach the singularity, and you’re eventually torn apart atom by atom. Some would say that it’s the most noble way to go out. In the next chapter, we will calculate how long it will take for the black hole to dissipate after it absorbs your mass.’” Nobody doubted Dr. Ken Tychonoff’s skill in the field of astrophysics, t...

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“How to Return a Book Titled "How to Improve Your Writing in Five Easy Steps" in Five Easy Steps” by Jacob Brown

🏆 Winner of Contest #173

It was an anxious and desperate night; my sweat fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by the violent shriek of a middle-aged white woman with an unchecked ego which swept up the aisles (for it is in Walmart that our scene lies), rattling along the plastic toy displays, and fiercely agitating the volatile attitude of the underpaid sixteen-year-old who struggled against the onslaught of last-minute shoppers.There I stood, holding my unopened copy of How to Improve Your Writing in Five Easy Steps, resting on my tw...

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“such a pretty flower” by Jacob Brown

Submitted to Contest #172

Content Warning: Non-consensual kissing-----did i tell you about him he's mine yes he has to be mine he's all mine yes because i love him and that makes him mine yes all mine yes i told him he was mine because that's how it is and how it will be yes and he said no but i said yes and that means he's mine all mine and he said he had a girlfriend or maybe he didn't i wasn't really listening but he said something that wasn't yes and i just couldn't take it no couldn't take it you know what i mean i just couldn’t take it i wanted to tie him up at...

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“Daffodils: Twice Trampled” by Jacob Brown

Submitted to Contest #171

Time is not an arrow, it’s an incomprehensible line that curves smoothly in some places and bends sharply at others. There are intervals where it moves slowly at first and then accelerates to catch up to itself. Time is fickle, it doesn’t like to do the same thing over and over. Sometimes it darts onward into the future, sometimes it curls and burrows into the present, and sometimes it loops back and intersects itself in the past. Sometimes it rides alongside itself asymptotically, getting arbitrarily close but never reaching itself. Other t...

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Author bio

PhD student in math, writing in my free time.

Winning 1 story 🏆

Contest #173
How to Return a Book Titled "How to Improve Your Writing in Five Easy Steps" in Five Easy Steps – read story