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John Rutherford

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Mar, 2023

Stories (26)
Comments
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299 Followers
655 Following

26 Stories

2863 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...

20 likes 8 comments 8
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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...

26 likes 19 comments 19
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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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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...

25 likes 17 comments 17
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Flirty Rabbit

Submitted to Contest #294

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

33 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...

43 likes 33 comments 33
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The demise of Camellia Sinensis

Submitted to Contest #287

He was daydreaming, gazing out the window looking down at the old habour area of Colombo. With imagination one could easily visualize in a bygone day, the busy habour in the 19th century full of ocean-going wooden vessels loading and unloading their precious cargo – loading of the heavy wooden tea chests – full of cuttings from the bushy shrub named camellia sinensis. Destined for a teapot and the additional pouring of steaming hot water to make the delicious and refreshing golden nectar - tea. Destined for the white linen tables and fine ch...

24 likes 8 comments 8
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A crate too big, too heavy, too far!

Submitted to Contest #286

It wasn’t a single suitcase containing my family’s worldly possessions that created the epiphanic moment in my life. It was a wooden crate, a homemade crate, made with love and consideration to handle with care, a miniature pedal car. A birthday present. It was symbolic of so many changes at that time in my life, changes in many lives. A time of upheaval, which would never ever return to the previous pattern of life for so many; ever again.The surrounding support, comfort and security of a close family would be sacrificed, for higher ideals ...

31 likes 16 comments 16
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Doctor RED

Submitted to Contest #285

It is getting close to the eve of Y2K, and in the land of the clock-watchers all was not well.Across all the land, the towns, the cities, the whole populace was stirred, in an uneasy feeling which pervades their every waking second. It prolongs into every minute, every waking hour, the uneasy feeling hovers close to their every conscious thought. There is a general feeling of anxiousness that verges on clinical depression. The thought of entering the unknown, for people who are control freaks governed by precision, clock-watchers by nature. ...

30 likes 16 comments 16
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The Conch

Submitted to Contest #284

Grantham, Lincolnshire, UK circa 1843“You’re dirty, you need a bath to wash away that colour. It looks like mud!” My cousin said, jerking away her outstretched arm in disdain. It was her idea, her request to compare our uncovered skin– side by side. Now the realization of the difference in skin colour, horrified and frightened her like being next to a diseased leper. Just the touch of my outstretched arms, my coffee-coloured arm, my dusty tan coloured skin, meant she might receive a tropical disease. Worst. Her alabaster white porcelain skin...

32 likes 16 comments 16
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AI or not AI that is interpretation

Submitted to Contest #280

“Hi Gemini – This is Randy Foakes from The Authors Forum; as the group’s administrator I've had an issue with your posting, and I’m giving you personally another warning due to you posting on the board an AI image. Your post has now been taken down from the group site. The post was titled – Having a Bad Day, and I’m just about to send a screenshot to your inbox. I kindly ask you not to send anymore posts with AI images. The group’s mantra is completely opposed to the use of AI in any creative form. If you continue to post AI images, we ...

44 likes 38 comments 38
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Caught in Time

Submitted to Contest #278

Have you ever had one of those déjà vu moments? It appears to us all at some moment in our lives. Sometimes it is so innocuous, we are caught in a fleeting and surprising moment, you can miss it so easily. There is recognition or pre-recognition of sorts. Now think again, have you ever thought about the worst possible nightmare situation that could ever befall you as a person. Well, ponder this as a possible living nightmare, being trapped in a time loop, a continuous déjà vu moment for breaking the laws of time, and simply because you were ...

32 likes 25 comments 25
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Which way to the harbour?

Submitted to Contest #276

“Which way to the harbour?”The voice originated from below his line of sight, but such a sweet soft melodic voice, a voice which would always uplift his heart to this very day.He looked down, and there was the vision of beauty. She looked harassed. Close up, the instant impression was of her sparkling blue eyes, glistening; two fine glass crystal orbs of delicate blue, flecks of light blue radiated out of a darker blue circular halo edge, piercing, intelligent, confident, full of wonderment, yet so innocent. It shocked him, in that heartfelt...

25 likes 16 comments 16
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The Eidolon

Submitted to Contest #274

The Eidolon peered through the water reeds, which appeared like protective iron spikes preventing the early mists from climbing the banks of the lake, no breeze or gentle wind aided the soft wafts of water vapour to advance to the warmer land, the majestic globe of water hung back, sulking behind the dark mask of the day. The bullrushes increased the impression of a prison boundary, although their brown heads were disintegrating and eroding with age, devoured by the march of time. In the delicate milky half-light of the approaching dawn, the...

22 likes 9 comments 9
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