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Jerilyn Kolbin

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jan, 2025

Stories (13)

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7 Followers

20 Following

13 Stories

175 karma pts

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It's Not All Black and White

Submitted to Contest #299

(This is a continuation of the piece I entered previously, the Ladies Tea Circle.) Tuesday after Labor Day, I entered Junior High, seventh grade. Alone, among other kids in my neighborhood, I walked to school down the long hill to the traffic light intersection. I crossed the street toward my newly integrated school world. It was a large brick building with a newly built wing to the left. The wing used to have glass out front, but it was vandalized and replaced with plastic windows. I arrived at the same time as a long row of yellow school b...

2 likes

Easy Peasy with the Cardinals

Submitted to Contest #298

Mae never mowed the lawn before. In her lifetime, mowing was a male’s job: her father’s, brother’s, husband’s, uh, ex-husband. Surely, it couldn’t be that hard. She had watched enough men in her life to know how to get started. Pump the little button thingy a few times, squeeze the handle, pull the cord really hard in one quick motion, and then rev down the shift thing. Geared with long pants, hard toe shoes and eye goggles, she pushed the button to raise the garage door and wheel the mower onto the driveway. While unscrewing, checking and r...

3 likes

Drawing Dreams

Submitted to Contest #295

Drawing Dreams I am sort of an odd duck. At least, that’s what my parents, teachers and all the other grown-ups say, when they think I’m not listening. How can I not be listening? I’m sitting right there. They think that because my head is down, while I draw, I am not paying attention, I hear every word. I am coloring at at a desk in the opposite corner from my teacher and parents so I can’t hear what they’re discussing. They think by whispering, I won’t hear. But whispers are sometimes louder than regular voices. “All she does is draw and ...

5 likes

No Words

(I missed the deadline of the previous contest, #294: Words, Words, Words, but wanted to add the story to my page, even though I know it cannot be in the contest. The prompt: Write a story in which the first and last sentence are the same.)No Words“I had no words,” mom sobbed at the kitchen table, clutching a wad of tissues and constantly dabbing the water pouring out of her eyes, nose, mouth. At one point, she just put her head in her arms on the table and just bawled. Her body convulsed with each gasp. “We could never figure out what or wh...

1 like

Simple Stupid

Submitted to Contest #293

Quote from the novel Freeman by Leonard Pitts, Jr.“People are just people, behaving according to how they've been taught, but that is no excuse for ignorant behavior. A [person] must not be defined solely by the things they have been taught. They must also be defined by their willingness and capacity to learn new and better things."------------Simple Stupid“Life used to be simple. You were a boy – or you were a girl. You were white or you were colored. Everyone knew their place and knew the rules. It was simple then. Now we have every stupid...

7 likes

Blue

Submitted to Contest #292

Blue‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ kids are frequently asked: A Doctor, a Lawyer, the President? But no child ever realizes the sub-categories within each choice. What kind of doctor? What kind of lawyer? President of what?Same with colors. In grammar school, you were taught red. Which red? Fire engine red? Stop light red? Stop sign? Yellow meant slow, and the sun, and daisies. Blue, was the sky, and the ocean, and….. the hottest color. This, she learned for the first time, as an adult because she didn’t pay a...

3 likes

Diane and Norm

Submitted to Contest #291

WednesdayDiane was in the sauna, wrapped in a towel, still in her bathing suit. She had just finished water aerobics and came in to warm up before showering. Just as she settled in her favorite corner spot, another woman from the class sprang in, holding herself tightly. “That hallway is freezing!” she said as she spread her towel on the bench and sat down. Diane recognized this woman by her swimsuit: bright yellow with a red waist band. She was three rows behind and to the right of her and every time she jumped up, the flash of ye...

5 likes

A Mushy Love Story

Submitted to Contest #290

It was Steve’s first day, first staff meeting. This meeting came with a meet and greet and welcome back Potluck before getting down to business. Steve sat at a table with Principal Tate, Vice Principal Harris, and Susan, the head secretary. “Are you finding everything you need, Steve?”Susan asked. “Oh yes. Thank you Susan. You have been so helpful.” He had the habit of accidentally over loading his plate at buffets and was a bit embarrassed by his heap of lasagne on top of another assorted items he couldn’t resist. He was work...

5 likes

Lost Love

Submitted to Contest #289

In Carol’s sleep, she was twirling and laughing. He had such a cute smile. Every Friday night at the town Grange, there was a contra dance. She went every week. This was Jacob's first time at this Grange, though he had been to others and knew how to do it. Jacob eyed her from across the room and asked her to dance. She explained that her “dance card” was full for the next two, but she’d put him down for the third.Jacob was adorable. He had a big black bush of curly hair, with a red bandanna around his forehead. He wore a faded, yellow Black ...

7 likes

The Ladies' Tea Circle

Submitted to Contest #287

(This story deals with racism.)It was late August, and the coolness of school approaching was in the air, capping the evenings shorter by the minute. In the daylight savings, evening light, the mother-housewives gathered with their chairs, blankets and cups of tea on the walk in front of the Singers’ house for their usual evening catch-up chats. Motors hummed in the background, as the father-husbands competed to having their lawns be the crispest and the greenest. Morty Singer’s was always the best by far.Johanna, and the other neighborhood ...

3 likes

Martha

Submitted to Contest #286

My name is Martha.Just Martha?Yes, just Martha.Why is it that you have no last name?It’s a long story.The director turned his head from side to side, to glance at his two co-judges, the women teachers on either side of him, then back to Martha. Well, it sounds like a story that I would love to hear, but of course this is not the time. After today, if all goes well for you, perhaps I will then have plenty of time to get to to know you more. I wish you the best of luck, Miss, uh, Martha.Thank you. Martha clasped her hands together as if t...

5 likes

Voice Training

Submitted to Contest #285

The Message It was a gray afternoon, that hour just after schools let out and just before dinner preparations began. Usually, this was her low energy time, but not today. Becca pulled the little piece of paper with the telephone number on it our of her pocket. “Sing with Van,” it said, with the number. She pulled the portable phone off the receiver, then sat and placed the number on the table before her as a child might place a bug she’s just captured and wants to examine. Taking a deep breath, she dialed, then sprang around and went out to ...

5 likes

The Beautiful Gift

Submitted to Contest #284

Jane was an ugly child. One day she would be beautiful, when she was old enough for plastic surgery. But five years seemed like an eternity away. For now, her big hook nose was going to have to stay. She couldn’t even picture herself ever being a teenager. Her only saving grace till then, was her hair. “Jane has such beautiful hair,” grownups would always say. “If only she would take care of it,” her mother would dutifully chime in. Class picture day was coming up and her mother sat her as she did every day on the red st...

6 likes