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John Steckley

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Aug, 2019

Stories (254)

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254 Stories

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Computers Now and Then

Submitted to Contest #236

It was Ralph’s first experience attending a funeral. It was held to honour his grandfather Griff, for whom Ralph had a lot of love and respect. There were a good number of people there. Ralph’s father had whisper suggested to him what he thought the reason for that was. Grandfather Griff was quite rich, and there was going to be a reading of the will immediately after the funeral. Raw greed led to significant attendance of family members, friends and the staff that worked for him in his business.Ralph had planned to ...

7 likes

It Was a Two-Part Competition

Submitted to Contest #235

It was a two-part competition. First of all, it was a mile race on the high school track. There were 16 teenage boys in the competition, representing different schools in the area. This was, of course, well known to the bulk of the audience that had gathered to watch the boys running. They were rooting for the boys that went to their school, named Hilton High School. Current and former students were there to cheer them on. Then there was a second competition, known only to two of the runners, both representing the s...

10 likes

If I Could Only Turn Back Time

Submitted to Contest #234

If I Could Turn Back Time Like in that Cher song from the late 1980s, I find myself thinking and even saying out loud, almost singing “If I could turn back time.” That would seem to be the only way I can change the sad situation I am in now. But, of course, it is impossible. I have lost my well-paying job, and all for what I said that the boss took seriously, but also mistakenly. Some of the people that I work with –actually now I have to think and say ‘that I used to work with’- went to high school with me. During br...

4 likes

So I Have to Move On

Submitted to Contest #233

So I Have to Move On “So I have to move to keep my job.” I spoke these words after the boss had assigned me to a new and at least equal paying job for the company I had worked for during the last five years, but it required a move. The branch of the company where I would be working was in another town. I hadn’t been given a genuine choice in the matter, other than ‘take it or quit’. I thought that my wife might be unhappy with both these options, but I learned later that my boss had talked to her about it for some time on the...

6 likes

He Promised His Grandfather

Submitted to Contest #232

He Promised his Grandfather Eighteen-year old Fred promised his grandfather that he would do this. The promise he made was to keep the fire going all night, from roughly eight o’clock at night to six o’clock in the morning. Now part of his mind was wishing that he had not done so. The sky was totally dark, and he had seen enough scary movies that he worried that his often active imagination might run a little wild on him, with vampires, trolls and the like appearing out of nowhere. And it was a cold winter’s night.&nb...

9 likes

George Buys a New Car, and Then...

Submitted to Contest #231

George Buys A New Car, and Then…January 3, 2030George, a man in his early fifties, was in a car dealership staring totally enchanted by the new car he was just about to purchase. It was the newest incarnation of cars. It was a Ford Computermatic. His then current car was a Ford, but it had reached the end of its driving utility. George first checked out the readily visible unique features of this car. There were video cameras above each headlight, one on the back bumper and an antenna on top of the car, all of which would...

5 likes

It Is Like Being Back in High School Once Again

Submitted to Contest #231

Planning to make a change in my life is like being back in high school once again, which for me is not a very good thing. Those were not especially enjoyable years for me. So much of life in those years made me nervous, boys in gym class laughing at my skinny legs and girls generally, especially when they peeked into the boys’ gym and looked and laughed at my legs. I was glad when I graduated and headed on to university, where I met my eventual wife and got my career started. I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, and I have ...

2 likes

It is Time for Me to Return to my Home Planet

Submitted to Contest #230

It is Time for Me to Return to my Home Planet“This world is getting more and more boring, dreary and predictable every day. I think that it is time for me to return to my home planet before I go completely crazy. It couldn’t be any worse there than what we have here. What do you think guys? Should I return? In case anyone of you wonders, I have my means of transportation stored in the back of my garage.”Steve’s bar mates were silent for a few seconds, and then a couple of them started to laugh. One of them asked...

6 likes

My Long Lost Love

Submitted to Contest #229

My Long Lost Love I am so excited. After thinking about it and talking about it for years with my friends and family, I am finally going back to visit my old home town, the place where I grew up, but never have returned to. What makes such a trip exciting is the thought that perhaps I will get to see and meet with the one that I have long called my first love. I was only twelve when I first met Ellie. She was an inspiration to me, and she was always happy to see me, as I was to see her. As a teenager, I did not get...

7 likes

Feed Your Head

Submitted to Contest #228

Feed Your Head In a dreary, gray, official-looking room was a small group of unsmiling people who were about to change where and how one of their number was going to live. That person was a man named Jim who was in his early mid 70s, and was seated in an uncomfortable chair, while all the others stood. He had a blank stare on his face. The others were those who had made the decision for him. They included a doctor, a counsellor, a nurse, a female psychologist, his wife Alice and a young man, their son, George. They ...

11 likes

A Peace Offering

Submitted to Contest #227

A Peace Offering Before the Voyage It will be a very long trip to another planet. Mars and Venus, and even Jupiter are considered relatively short hops these days. I will be going to Neptune. When people asked me where I am going this time, my long standing joke was “Well, I’m not going anywhere near Uranus. Ha, Ha, Ha.” The method of this flight is to be quite unlike my trips to other planets. It is the 2040s after all. The spacecraft will be travelling faster and farther than any before carrying a human passeng...

9 likes

Get Behind Me Temptation

Submitted to Contest #226

Get Behind Me Temptation “Shut up! Shut up! Would you just shut up for once! You are just driving me crazy!” Unfortunately, I didn’t notice the person coming from the other way on the sidewalk. She gave me quite a long look, first trying to see whether I was hooked up to some kind of device. And shaking her head when she realized that I wasn’t. I think she probably believed that my drive to crazy had finally reached its unavoidable destination. She probably didn’t have to be told that I was yelling at mys...

4 likes

Do Not Touch It!

Submitted to Contest #225

Do Not Touch It! It started off as an ordinary day. That would change. Just around lunch time a man walked into my Antiques Shoppe carrying a long oblong object surrounded by a very large blanket. His first words to me were the usual when someone comes into my shop and not to buy. “Do you pay a good price when you buy an antique?” There was such a seriousness in his asking, that I didn’t respond to him with my usual qualifier “Well, I pay a reasonable price – not anything too high.” Instead, I just said to him, “Yes, I do.&n...

8 likes

The Look From the Mirror

Submitted to Contest #225

The Look from the Mirror Before I go on a date with someone for the first (sometimes even the second or third) time, I check out how I look in the old fashioned full length mirror that my grandparents left to me the year that they both turned 80. They joked with me about the gift, saying that once you turn 80 you really do not want to look closely in the mirror anymore. You don’t reflect well at that age. They loved that old mirror. My grandfather had inherited it from his own grandparents, and he had begun using it when pre...

13 likes

Jet Lag and More

Submitted to Contest #224

Jet Lag and More I couldn’t sleep, not matter how hard I tried to relax on the hotel bed. So I gave in to the inevitable, got up, and got dressed. It had been a long flight across the continent west to east. I think the term for what I was feeling was jet lag. It was more than just that however that kept me from sleeping on this night. My wife and I had just recently separated. My rather drastic response to that was applying for and getting a job far from my small-town hometown and moving to the city where th...

5 likes