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John Rutherford

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Mar, 2023

Stories (40)
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297 Followers
642 Following

40 Stories

2770 karma pts

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Y2K

Submitted to Contest #304

It was the witching hour, the time of night when only police and thieves watched out for each other in the shadows of the silent inky darkness. When most innocent souls are asleep, dreaming their dreams, the wishes and desires of their subconscious. There was Joe under the endlessly humming overhead office lighting, which ironically had become his companion to the lonely nighttime vigil. Head bent slaving over the keyboard trying to squeeze the last of his creative juices onto a blank screen page to complete the report.The report needed to b...

6 likes 4 comments 4
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Poisoned Pavlova

Submitted to Contest #303

It was like a silent grotesque scene from the Muppet show. Alas, there were no strings, and the characters were human victims of revenge, not cuddly stuffed soft toys. Lifeless; sitting around the small dining table, the food slowly becoming stale in the sweating hot summer night air. The scene and dining contents were perfect for the nightly invading insects, as all the lifeless figures were prostate, inactive and defenseless against the insects attracted by the dishes of food. But it was the fragrant sweet smell of the pavlova crown stuffe...

17 likes 17 comments 17
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The Crossing

Submitted to Contest #302

He had always been an adventurous energetic soul, with a curiosity which often led to some uncomfortable moments beyond his sensitive expectations and unworldly comprehension. He enjoyed challenging situations, in some kinky way, he liked the uneasy feeling of vulnerability and jeopardy experienced in the new and the unknown.The day he arrived at the crossing in the epicentre of the sweating, heaving and old run-down city named logically; river inside – Hanoi, was another day he agreed with Dorothy’s famous but enlightening observation to To...

23 likes 18 comments 18
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The name for the boy!

Submitted to Contest #301

There was a spider spinning its web in a dusty corner of the ceiling of a hospital waiting room, somewhere, some place in the world one day. Not having the vision of a human being, let’s imagine the spider looks down, his arachnid attention would be drawn most certainly to the shiny bald head of Mr. McCreath, Walter Bannockburn Burns McCreath. A bald head from above looks entirely different, and this one shone like polished alabaster, a reddish peach alabaster. It shone like a beacon and reflected the ceiling’s neon lights; it was easy to se...

31 likes 17 comments 17
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Raising Braess

Submitted to Contest #300

The daily life at Kubbeli Evler continued as the seasons passed since the arrival of Pluto and the seven cats of Kubbeli Evler. Sun was a natural leader of the group, because he had started life as a domesticated pet kitten. Sadly, he was later abandoned by his Ba family, and became like the rest, a typical stray cat fighting for survival. Fortunately, he was adopted and joined the dysfunctional family of Pluto and Luna under the watchful eye of Wicked. The seven cats of Kubbeli Evler. The stray abandoned kitten was taught the rules of the s...

18 likes 9 comments 9
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Brote und Wurst

Submitted to Contest #299

“Hello, am I speaking with Joseph Brummer?”The haughty woman’s voice, spoke with a high-class English accent, only a well-educated foreigner could articulate. Joe came from a working-class background, and the accent alone sent him back years to an unconfident boy. Aware of the limits of his basic upbringing, completely inexperienced and unfamiliar with the background of how this woman could pronounce his language (not hers) with such elocution and perfect pronunciation. Joe embarrassingly thought, he was still blighted, sometimes dumbfounded...

26 likes 17 comments 17
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Ilkbahar - Spring

Submitted to Contest #298

Neptune was proven right about the blind spot, but how long would the oversight, the lack of perception last? The attacks on Pluto and his dysfunctional family had ceased for now. Kubbeli Evler as predicted became a safe haven, and the new home for the nomadic tribe of stray cats. The sightless eyes of the mountain – les yeux de la montagne, had servants to hunt and find, and it was only a matter of time before Pluto and the seven cats of Kubbeli Evler would be discovered. The group arrived during the zenith of summer, as the burning furnace...

9 likes 7 comments 7
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Saat!

Submitted to Contest #297

What concept of time has only been made by humankind, for humankind – Ba; but not for beast? The concept of time: does it truly exist, and who created it? Only Ba could make sense of the abstractions of time – Saat; and try to philosophize its nature. Only Ba would try to control it, as they try to control all things in their world. Even the poets amongst Ba would try to measure its infinite puzzlement with beautiful, sad and execrable, yet endless emotional words and context. Ba will always considered Saat as a foe, an enemy to be feared be...

29 likes 13 comments 13
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Braess

Submitted to Contest #296

Braess was a paradox, a lingering rhetorical question like; was God being ironic in commanding Eve not to eat fruit from the tree of wisdom?Braess the fox cub; born the same night as his mother’s death; Bella Renard. Born alone to fend for himself. Fortunate to be reared and nurtured by an unusual community of seven stray cats, and a dog. A cat community cobbled together by the compassion of Pluto and Luna, with a mission to protect each other, to survive the many threats, and share the perilous dangers facing the vile gang; jaws of death. F...

25 likes 11 comments 11
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Flirty Rabbit

Submitted to Contest #294

30th September 2023Dear Mr. Spada                                                                                      &nb...

34 likes 28 comments 28
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Go!

Submitted to Contest #293

The huge psychological relief of looking out of the aircraft window on the Bangkok airport taxiway and seeing the next landing aircraft with the dark green tail, the familiar logo of a palm tree and crossed swords, was one of those moments in life, when miracles do happen for insignificant people like me. Someone had looked after my family and me. Especially since I had been so foolish. It was an ambitious plan, and not without its obvious risks. The logistical problem can only be summarized as follows. A family spread out in different parts...

44 likes 33 comments 33
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Lycanthrope

Submitted to Contest #291

Ketu was in the fourth house on the astrology chart when Lycaon was born into this world. It normally signaled finality; endings, but this was different. This was an advent of change, a transformation, and a transcendence from evil sources and the beginnings towards a general expansion of evil. It was old evil returning from the ancients. It represented a renunciation, a rejection of the current ambivalent fragile balance, the status quo, and it brought about malefic, harmful and destructive forces. Neptune, the psychopomp cat, the guide for...

28 likes 12 comments 12
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Symphony on the Streets

Submitted to Contest #290

This is a story about stray cats, or stray animals in general. The narrator tries to explain their lives from an eyewitness or philosophical viewpoint. The word Ba has a collective meaning for human beings and their world.************************************************************Venus stretched out her furry legs and paws, with the feeling of absolute freedom and happiness. These are words to describe a state of mind in the Ba world, a comparable feeling Ba might experience. Although Ba goes to great lengths, to find it, teach th...

36 likes 21 comments 21
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Capricorn's End

Submitted to Contest #289

This week’s story follows on from the previous week - Tempête du Cygne Noir. The scene commences in the police station interrogation room. Wicked (Mr. Ramstein) was being questioned by Detectives Melcom and Metzil about the murder of Cygne Noir.************************************************************“If you don’t come clean Mr. Ramstein, your freedom and future will end here tonight!”“Sounds like you are a popular dude around here. Everybody calls you Wicked – right? That’s apt! Right now, with us Wicked, you are the Wicked Witch fo...

23 likes 10 comments 10
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Tempête du Cygne Noir

Submitted to Contest #288

The wind whipped the layers of storm clouds ever nearer the seashore, and the deadly scene on the sandy beach. The flashes of lightning highlighted the clumps of bodies, heaps of flesh and clothes, lying prone, face down in the sand. Dead bodies vulnerable to the sweeping heavy rain that came closer with every second, and with every gust of wind. The sea was growing, the constant tidal waves inflated in size, as the down drafts of wind pushed the waves higher. One could see the wind pressure from above pressing down, squeezing into the water...

37 likes 20 comments 20
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