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Joe Smallwood

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Apr, 2023

Stories (93)

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62 Followers

25 Following

93 Stories

2121 karma pts

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What Will Be

Submitted to Contest #200

She knows how to find these little shops where the aroma of coffee bends the mind from larger issues. Soft paper, moist with liquid that perspires through fingers that grasp the latest flavors, my Affogato with premium vanilla ice cream and a shot of freshly brewed espresso, her flat white double espresso, steamed milk with just a hint of vanilla syrup. All would be well, as vendors hawk their wares down cobblestone streets and the unheard gentle murmurs of the delighted customers who nod and fondle their steaming cups.I can let this all swi...

12 likes

Survey Says!

Submitted to Contest #200

Discussion of a war.“Hello? Is this the party to whom I should be speaking?”“It must be for you,” says my mom. On a landline? I’m thinking. Mom is baking chocolate chip cookies and I’m getting ready to go. To get a cookie and still get out the door is the objective. An unexpected phone call isn't going to be helpful.I fumble with the phone while slipping my jacket on, shoes sidling away from my feet, need my hands for those! No speakerphone, ancient contraption this thing, hideous yellow with festooned buttons. At least there was a long cord...

17 likes

Not Knowing

Submitted to Contest #199

It wasn’t like I knew any better. How could I? From the time I first knew anything about how the world really worked, it seemed normal, to walk into a roomful of people my age and have three or four girls staring. They were so careful about it. But it got so, I would surprise them with a look of my own when they least expected it. Then the floor was their friend, or the person they were talking to got so much more interesting.But the stranger they were to me, the stranger I was with myself. It was like a knife that cut both ways. I want...

9 likes

The Amber Alert

Submitted to Contest #198

Of all the school trips I was ever on, this one was the worst. Everything went wrong. It started with not all the permission forms coming back and got steadily worse from there. The school secretary had to phone three parents.Now if it was up to me, I would never bother to call. Leave them at school! Wouldn’t this be the perfect opportunity to teach children and even their parents that not being responsible has consequences? But no, we had to wait, the bus driver fuming while the secretary called three parents, first calling at hom...

14 likes

Houd

Submitted to Contest #198

“Okay, class! Pop quiz.”My grade three and four class were too smart for that!“Yeah right! Uh-huh, wake me up when it is over! Dumb Teacher move, gangway, I’m outta here!” all my students said, some skipping words or saying other things I only heard about later.“But seriously! Everything off your desks. EQAO practice test, today, not tomorrow. Time to show me how smart you are…Jimmy, sit down, please…Carter, where is your pencil case…Stop playing with that…Three Two One!!!!”SILENCE“Thank you. Celia, you, and someone you choose. Start when yo...

13 likes

The Bully Principal

Submitted to Contest #198

It wasn’t like any other day, with snow falling so thick you couldn’t make out the individual snowflakes. A “snow day” for sure, with no buses running. But that didn’t stop our intrepid principal. He had a bone to pick with his staff, us teachers. One by one we were being called to the office. I called down on my phone to the school secretary.“Just wanted to let you know I’m here,” I said in my most helpful voice.“What’s this about?” called out the grade eight teacher from way down the hall.“The heck I know!” I called back. A grade seve...

12 likes

Who Does Everything Right?

Submitted to Contest #198

“If Jesus was born, lived, and died in our time, would a church be built on his birthplace?” Half the class was asleep, the other half texting. It was always Emma.“No, Mr. Emerson, We’d set up a special containment facility, temporarily, then preserve everything, just as it was.” She looked at Oliver, Noah, or any of the boys. A reaction, anything at all was needed. One boy stirred, not the one she hoped for.“Yeah, preserve the cow, the dirty straw, pigs being pigs…” piped up Jonah.Everyone laughed, even Mr. Emerson, though if you looked clo...

13 likes

The Gods We Were

Submitted to Contest #197

“Your car doesn’t talk to you all the time?” asked Noah. “Mine does.” He just had to comment like that while we were in line waiting to use the chattering Canadian Tire self-checkout.Liam sighed. Everything was a production. Noah couldn’t just get something for work, he had to make discoveries and have revelations.“You know Noah!” A lame play on his name, not funny anymore.“You’re coming with me, Liam?” Noah said as he neared his car.“What does it look like?”“Then put up with me for a bit longer. Listen to this!”Hello Noah and Liam. I’ve sen...

19 likes

This Will Be My Life

Submitted to Contest #197

Eight years old and I never knew I had ADHD. Neither did my parents. It hadn’t been invented yet. Skipping. I skipped everywhere, my poor parents yanked by my hand, my life bobbling to a beat I only knew. I never saw other children, faces all blurry. Then I grew up, like a dandelion, gangly and free. Not too much on the ball, still remember that grade 5 pitch, the only time my bat was my friend. Sailing, sailing so high over second base, past mean Kevin and jughead Derek. Around I went, not skipping, too out of breath to make home plate. “G...

18 likes

The Prism

Submitted to Contest #197

References to an imaginary execution.It’s the darndest thing to fall in love. One minute you are yourself and the next you’re somebody else. You can’t stop thinking about this person. It’s constant. No wonder people aren’t ready to commit. Aside from those feelings, who likes being overwhelmed?It’s the feelings we want, granted. The relationship is secondary. Hopefully, we get somewhere with that too eventually. But this is the closest I ever came to understanding what everyone knows. Life is out of our control more than we know.But if you l...

12 likes

St. Michael

You would think we would know better. But what difference would just one warning make? “I told you! You will never listen!” “What is it this time?” I sighed. You know what it is!” Of course, I knew. It was in and out, hardly a thought was needed, and it was done. If nuclear weapons could be made easily, time travel would have an equal. But we aren’t talking about only possibilities here. This is the real deal. “Are you going to listen?” “No.” “All I had to do was think about it. Then it was a fact, finished. End of story.” “So you changed ou...

1 like

Sentinel Island

Submitted to Contest #196

A single act of violence. Imaginary destruction.“Do you want the job or not?”Such a question always had only one answer. Funny how that goes, you think you have choices in life, but how often is that really the case? He’s got me where he wants me.“Of course,” I coughed, clearing my throat. Such dim lighting in this room, I’m thinking. Perfect for diodes and lights, monitors, and readouts. No one else is paying attention, all hunched over their consoles. Hardly right that. I knew what they were thinking.He’s in the hallway, my chief tormentor...

9 likes

Back at Work

Submitted to Contest #196

My parachute My parachute?opened.Sailing! Plummeting! Gathering spot. Splat?Dinner. Done here?Met a dish! ...

13 likes

The Borg Queen

Submitted to Contest #196

In another life, I would live another life. Like a James Bond mirror cascade, one mirror overlaps another out into infinity. Or that Star Trek conundrum, two men fighting each other forever to prevent universes from colliding and canceling each other out. Or… “Hey, dimwit! You’re on the call!” What? I say silently as my Starbucks nearly collides with all the other coffees I pick up every morning when I arrive at the office. Too fast for me that one. I put the tray down and suck on my coffee-stained hand while balancing a clunky yellow phone ...

10 likes

Ionica

Submitted to Contest #195

“It looks just like a picture I saw once. Did you do it?” said Debra, my sister-in-law. Debra was admiring the “Lady with an Ermine," a painting hanging above our piano on our living room wall.“Oh, no!” Ionica exclaimed. “That painting is famous. It was painted by Leonardo da Vinci.” Ionica, my wife, a Romanian portrait artist, was a little flustered at the suggestion that she could do such a painting.“Then what is it?” quizzed Debra, somewhat rudely. “It’s not a photograph…”“It’s master copy,” Ionica interrupted. She put her wine glass down...

13 likes