Jed Cope

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jun, 2022

Stories (154)

154 Stories

3352 karma pts

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“Who Am I?” by Jed Cope

I have to admit to noticing him a number of times before taking the time to attend to his existence. Fleeting glimpses in the midst of a crowd. A chance sighting as I sped past in my car. The blurred reflection in the train window. I dismissed each and every occurrence as a waking cheese dream. You see, I have a pet theory, a half-baked hypothesis that I concocted on the hoof as it were. My musings centre...

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“Glass House” by Jed Cope

John’s mum used to say that you ended up with the house that was meant for you. When he was younger, he was uncharitable towards his mother’s sayings. He found them to be twee and ultimately irrelevant, but as he calmed down and relaxed into his life, he found merit in what she said understanding that she’d done a fair amount of living, mostly before he came along and changed her into a parent and mother. She’d been more...

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“One Fine Day” by Jed Cope

I can’t remember the last time. We all have this in our lives. We have done something in the past. We know for sure we have done it and we have instances that we can recall, or we have a collective recollection, a bundled up set of experiences with a blurb that explains what they are. But when we come to think about it, we cannot select the most recent instance of that experience. For me,...

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“Where Night Meets Day” by Jed Cope

“Tell us the story of the sun and moon, Grandpa!” Shell smiled her best smile at the old man and he returned her smile warmly. Faun, her older brother looked up from his play and scowled, “that isn’t right. It is the tale of day and night, not the sun and moon.” Grandpa smiled again, the same smile for the boy as he had had for the little girl, “both are right in their own ...

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“The Witching Hour” by Jed Cope

“I can’t sleep.” “Well, at least try!” Maureen harrumphed, grabbed a fist full of duvet and span over taking more of the bed clothes than was fair. This was her protest. On the face of it, her protest was about George encroaching upon her precious sleep, but as with many arguments there was more to it than that. This argument had history. George was aware of some of the history. H...

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“Hidden in Plain Sight” by Jed Cope

By the time I discovered the room my Uncle James had told me was hidden in the Bodean Library I had discovered far more than the room itself. In fact, my voyage of discovery almost eclipsed the original reason for my search. I had hunted high and low and had long since given up on the room as I suspected that it was a device of Jimmy’s to hook me and have me undertake something useful in my three years away from home. Su...

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“Changing Lanes” by Jed Cope

It was whilst driving that Professor Giles Latham made the momentous decision. This rash and outlandish decision had been brewing for some time now. In the airing cupboard, far too close to the immersion heater it sat bubbling away. The proportions of the ingredients thrown into the ponderously burgeoning container were perilously incorrect and so an explosion was inevitable. It was anyone’s guess as to when the explosion would take place, but the magnitude would be attention seeking, that was for sure. Also for sure was the mess it would...

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“Hard Lessons” by Jed Cope

“Ow!” I cried, “what was that for?!” “So you will remember,” my father said sternly. And I did. Now, if you were to ask me. If you were to request that I look back down the years. Through the jaded lens of the person that I am now, not the fresh and craze free lens of the green boy that I was then. If you were to say to me, did your parents ever hit you? I would gi...

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“Talk is Cheap” by Jed Cope

Twenty years it took me. Twenty long, hard years. Twenty years to discern the meaning of just a few small words. But then, that’s living and living is all we’ve got. “You’ve got this,” my Mother said these words whilst wearing a pained smile and then she let go of her very last breath, letting go of my hand and her mortal coil as that warm air wheezed out of...

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“Get Real” by Jed Cope

School was completely shit. I need to get that straight from the very start. Filled with a bunch of tossers and the worst of them were the teachers. Sanctimonious know- it-alls spouting crap that was neither use nor ornament. Surviving was all it was about. What a waste of time. Good job I had a good bunch of mates. We had a laugh. That was all there was. It...

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“Deus Ex” by Jed Cope

There are moments in life where everything narrows to one point. For a heart-stopping moment, it’s as though the air itself solidifies and either side of you there are walls and the walls are closing in. They close in so much that you’re trapped in a tunnel. A spec of data travelling down the wire. Then, as the transition makes itself fully known to you, it all makes sense and the surging tide of fear settles. The fear h...

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“I Just Called...” by Jed Cope

“It just doesn’t feel right…” Sally gave John The Look. The Look was actually a suite of looks, but John lumped them all together because one way or another he was in trouble when she looked at him like that. Maybe it was more nuanced than he supposed, but John played it safe all the same, and so far he’d kept the fallout restricted to the initiating trouble and held off most escalations. As far as was p...

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“Hard To Accept” by Jed Cope

I read a funny quote once. The problem with stupid people is that they don’t know they are stupid. The joke is a paradox. Stupid people read it and they laugh. The problem is we’re all stupid. That’s the joke. And it’s not funny. It’s not funny and I’m certainly not laughing. If I’m honest, I doubt I’ll ever laugh. Another oft used quote is somethi...

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“Wish You Were Here” by Jed Cope

“Are you hungry?” Words dropped into my dream state. Swirling me around in a blur of confusion. I push up into consciousness and my eyes open of their own accord, not yet mine. They relay visual information to my brain, but my brain coughs, splutters then hiccups. “Very,” I say it because that is the only thing that makes sense right now. My stomach growls as though to punctuate the one f...

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“Disappearing Completely” by Jed Cope

It was a promise I made. We’re only as good as the promises we keep, even if those promises are made to ourselves and only ourselves. This promise I made to my best friend. The sort of promise you make when you’re young, never thinking you’ll ever have to do anything about it. Wendy and John once promised each other that if they hadn’t settled down and married by the time they turned thir...

16 comments 16 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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Author bio

Author of over twenty novels. Please look me up on Amazon and Facebook. Amazon Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/kindle-dbs/entity/author/B08VJD4VBT?_encoding=UTF8&node=368165031&offset=0&pageSize=12&searchAlias=stripbooks&sort=review-rank&page=1&langFilter=default#formatSelectorHeader My Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/jedcopeauthor

Shortlisted 1 story ⭐️

Contest #220

Disappearing Completely – read story