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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2020
Submitted to Contest #55
Was I dead? I had to be. The last thing I remembered was walking home from a girls night out. I was only a block from home when I realized it was darker than it should be. A black feeling came over me and I shivered. Suddenly tense, I looked around at my surroundings. The normally familiar street felt strangely ominous. Then I looked up and realized a streetlight was out. That’s all it was, I thought. Still, I picked up my pace a little as I rounded the corner, turning onto my street. That was when it happened. A figure ju...
Submitted to Contest #54
The sweet scent of flowers was oppressive. Jasmine stared at the line of friends and family who had come to the viewing. It was getting monotonous. Everyone was sorry for her loss, but she had processed it already as much as she processed any emotion. That was one of her failings, she knew, she tended to bottle things up, keep them compartmentalized. But she had had time to adjust to the idea of life without Mike. The doctors had warned them there was no hope and together they had gotten his affairs and her emotions in order. She stared at t...
Submitted to Contest #53
* * Wednesday* * “Liz, get up,” her mother said as she opened the blinds to bathe the room in sunlight, causing Liz to flinch and pull the weighted blanket over her head. “You have to be at your check-up in an hour.” Liz tried to focus on the comfort and warmth of the weighted blanket covering her, but she could feel her mother’s presence in the door to her room and pictured her standing there with her hands on her hips. She stifled a groan and slowly pulled the covers back and muttered, “Okay.” “I shouldn’t have to wake you up. You are l...
Submitted to Contest #52
She was just wrapping up her instruction when there was a knock on her classroom door. Ashley Leone walked toward the door as she told her class to open a worksheet on their iPads. She opened the door to find Cathy Miller, one of their daily subs outside her door. “Mr. Hackett needs you in the office,” the sub said, “so they asked me to come up and cover your class.” “Oh, okay,” Ashley replied. A myriad of questions sprang to the forefront of her mind revolving around why she was being pulled, but she forced herself to focus on practical c...
Submitted to Contest #51
Staring up at the summer sky was the one indulgence of her day. After she put the kids to bed, she would retire to the back deck and collapse into her hammock. Some days she felt at peace, wrapped in a warm velvet blanket and other days the dark sky would press down on her, stifle her. Yesterday had been one of those days. She felt like she had spent the whole day fighting her youngest. “Eat your breakfast.” “I’m not hungry.” “Clean up your toys.” “I don’t want to.” “Take a bath.” “I took one yesterday.” “Brush your teeth.” “No...
Submitted to Contest #50
Sarah glanced at the clock. 2:00. Just like quarantine, this day was stretching on forever. In the morning she had worked on the treehouse she was making in the backyard, then ridden her bike with her brother and played on the playground. When they came home, he had claimed their mother’s iPad and she had drawn a picture of her friends from school. She had not seen them in so long and missed them. Then her mother had made them lunch, after which she had read for a while, but she had a hard time focusing with her brother yelling with his frie...
Submitted to Contest #49
This was the least exciting thing to happen to Alicia in the past 48 hours. If she hadn’t just woken up from a nap, she probably would have fallen asleep. She was sitting in the store waiting for the customer service representative to activate her new cell phone, or whatever it was they do when you get a new phone. This was her first errand since crossing the ocean and it was just as mundane as the process back in the United States. The upside was that it was giving her time to mentally process everything. The downside was that she had prom...
Submitted to Contest #48
I know what you are thinking, what you are feeling, but I don’t know who I am or how I can do what I can do. I know you probably think I am immoral or corrupt based on the people I spend time with - criminals and politicians. And maybe you are right. Sometimes I still have trouble sorting out everyone’s opinions including my own. Are these your feelings or mine? And does it matter? Why should mine be more valid than yours? Is anyone truly objective? Is that possible? I don't think so. We all have our own motivations. I just try to live...
Submitted to Contest #47
You can feel the summer day heating up and mentally congratulate yourself on having the foresight to get the kids out for a bicycle ride before the heat and UV rays kicked into high gear. The three of you glide into the garage and park your bicycles. You remind them to wash up and drink a glass of water before walking back out of the garage to get the mail. You smile to see the lilies have finally bloomed and remind yourself to water the garden beds if you aren’t hit by one of the stray thunderstorms forecasted for the afternoon. Opening th...
Submitted to Contest #46
She spent tortured hours trying to figure out exactly how to end the story, what words would articulate a propitious pinnacle. How much closure should she provide? She could create an unquestionable happy ending, but who would believe that? And happiness truly valued without its opposite? No, she wanted to make sure her champions clearly conquered their first challenge, but still had an opportunity to grow, that they had an opportunity to grow and continue to pursue their principles. Because she had fallen in love with them and could not ima...
Submitted to Contest #45
The morning light was slanting through the dorm window as a dark-haired young woman sat cross-legged on her bed, sipping her coffee and glancing at a news alert on her phone. Her red-haired roommate bustled into the room, grabbing bottled water from the mini-fridge along with other things she would need for the day. Watching her friend, Vanessa’s thoughts turned to how the differences between them had been apparent from their first interactions. They had met as freshmen when they joined the school’s martial arts club. Both joined as white b...
Submitted to Contest #44
Fire shot out beneath him propelling him to his future, which was something he had worked for for all of his life, but which I was trying to regard as no more than a minor detour on our shared future together. I didn’t want to say goodbye, but it was impossible to compete with the pull of space. Two weeks ago we had our last dinner before he entered quarantine in preparation for the launch. I hadn’t known what to cook or order. Part of me wanted to make the meal special, something we could both cling to during our separation. But I also didn...
Submitted to Contest #43
When she woke up that summer morning, Emma had planned to spend the day at the pool, but that all changed while she was sitting at her kitchen table eating breakfast. She glanced out the door to the patio and noticed a sad looking beagle puppy sitting on her deck. “Mom!” She called, “There’s a puppy outside!” Her mom came out of her home office and looked out the sliding door. “Poor thing doesn’t have a collar. She might be a stray.” “Can we take care of her? Keep her?” Emma watched the tangle of white, black, and brown fur and her hea...
Submitted to Contest #42
It was a still, hot day in early June when I was finally going to meet my niece. I had driven three hours and so would my sister and her family to meet in this park for the opportunity to see their baby for the first time. My niece is almost six months old and I still haven’t met her. She was born in January before the world went insane. At the time there didn’t seem to be a huge rush and then everything shut down. So now here I am almost 6 months later standing in a wide open patch of green in the middle of nowhere waiting to meet her for t...
Submitted to Contest #41
I don’t know whether I should be grateful that I know my purpose in life or whether I should resent my pragmatic existence and creation. You see, scientists made me to protect Earth’s civilizations from an extraterrestrial foe that they provoked. I have not been given a name, I am simply called The Warrior. Defined by my job. I guess that isn’t all that different from many others, but I wish . . . well, what do I wish, that I had love in my life? Who would love me? I am the only one of my kind. The government has refused to allow them to cre...
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