John Steckley

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Sep, 2021

Stories (49)

49 Stories

1007 karma pts

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“High Hopes in the Rain” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #288

Sitting in a chair in the living room Dave wonders, “I know that I have to do something drastic or nothing will change in our relationship. But what can that be? I was foolish and selfish. I am aware of that now. How do I undo it?”He walks to the window and looks out, as if the act with give him an answer. As he scans the surroundings, he sees that it is raining. It is what his grandfather would have called a doozy of a storm. Then he gets an idea. He decides to follow it through though it might just be foo...

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“Tea Thrice for Two” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #287

Tea Thrice for Two So now I am a cave-dweller. My grandfather would laugh at my fate. He was the one who introduced me to the term when he was driving me to a hockey game on a Saturday. When we approached a particularly cave-like apartment building, he pointed at it and declared, “There is where the cave-dwellers live.” I was only six years old at the time, so he had to explain what he meant by that comment. It created some rather imaginative images in my mind of people dressed in furs walking around barefoot in a ho...

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“What If Nobody Remembers Me?” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #286

David had just returned to his hometown a month ago. The move came about because of a job promotion he had received in the big company that he had worked for in another town a few hours drive from his hometown. Just as compelling for the job move for him was that he would be returning to the familiarity of home, not just of town, but of the street on which he spent his childhood. He had hoped that at least a few of his old neighbours were still there, but after boldly knocking on doors of the homes of old neighbours, he found ...

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“I Remember When” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #285

Three old men, George, Henry and Frank, are sitting up high in the hockey arena, in what had historically been called the ‘cheap seats,’ watching a NHL game. The first period has just ended. They have decided to get themselves some coffee and biscuits from the machines on the food floor. It is a long way down, but they did not mind as they wanted to talk as well as drink coffee and eat biscuits, no matter how stale they might be. There are chairs on the food floor that they could arrange so that they are facing each other...

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“Okay Kids” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #284

Okay Kids! “Okay kids, I hope that you have all your stuff together for the trip. It is time to get into the car and drive to Lake Francis for a wonderful time in the cottage that we always rent at this time of year.” As soon as he finished saying those words both inside his mind, and outside it with a loud voice, Lloyd sighed. “Who am I kidding? I am going to the lake and to the cottage all by myself for the very first time. My son and daughter are grown up now and both moved far, far away a few months ago to get th...

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“Inspiration in the Park” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #283

The wooded area in the local park was my favourite place to go to when I was but a lad, living a short walk away. I spent many hours on my own there, but I did not for a second feel that I was alone. I felt welcomed there every time. The trees were my best friends, particularly the cluster of cedars. In fact it was a place that gave me confidence in myself. When I was ten years old, I felt the attraction of becoming a writer. No one knew that I had that feeling, certainly not any family members or friends. And ...

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“The Coldest Day Brings a Happy Ending” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #281

Ralph leaves his home to replenish his very diminished supply of coffee. Even though he is wearing his very warmest clothes, he still begins to shivers all over as he leaves his house. There are several reasons for that, only one of which is the very cold temperature he encountered when he stepped out of his house. There is a loneliness that makes the mind run cold alongside the body. “Why does it have to be the coldest day of the year on my birthday. It is like the weather gods know what day it is and they curse me ...

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“The Last on Earth” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #279

Just Before Well it seems that the doom and gloomers were right all along. We were told that large chunks of the remains from the explosion of Mars were headed directly towards us and would eventually strike earth. The exodus began with the billionaires paying for flights to the moon, which had been made habitable a years before.  A few such flights crashed, something I did not mind at all. Then a profitable moon shot business began to transfer the general populace in slow moving but quite functional vehicles. This b...

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“To Tell or Not to Tell” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #278

Sheriff George was not happy about what he was about to do, but he had made a promise. Ralph, the man who had hired him originally, and who was his predecessor as police chief was in the hospital, soon to die, probably only to live for a week or so at best. Ralph had called George on the phone and made him promise to see him there.  And George would not break a promise to the man whom he respected so much.When he got to the hospital, he stalled a while in front of the elevator, before he pushed the fatal button. When he r...

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“From Being Horrible in French to an Expert in Wendat: The long and Winding Road of Becoming a Linguist” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #276

I never did well in French in elementary or high school. I was no doubt a source of amusement to my fellow students when I had to say something in French in front of teacher and students. One year I was forced to take a summer course in the language. The main thing I remember from that class was that there were people even worse in the language than I was, something my classmates and my family would not have thought possible.  Failing French was one reason (along with physics and a few other courses) why I failed grade 11 my f...

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“Following a Black Cat” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #275

Here I am sitting in what once was my grandfather’s chair in the backyard, drinking coffee, eating a doughnut, but being totally alone, not even a  single squirrel in sight. It’s been a long time now that I have been alone. No wife – she died in a car crash five years ago. No son – he moved to Australia ten years ago, and won’t answer my calls. No brother, he is in ‘the home’ for the aged, and never speaks when I visit him. No pets in my life either, our last dog was in the car with my wife in the car crash.&nbs...

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“Waving Goodbye” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #274

As a university professor of psychology, I know that many fears that we have are creatures of a negative imagination that we cannot shake. They are mental creatures you do not like to tell others. It takes a lot of nerve for me to present this story to you as an example of my own irrational fear of being drowned by incoming waves of high tide on a beach that faces the ocean. But I want to let you know that no matter how intelligent you are, you can still be influenced, even ruled by the irrational. The history of my great fea...

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“A Day Ahead of Him” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #273

It was just an ordinary day in the making for George – nothing the least bit new or different would happen. But that was the way he liked it. He would get up early in the morning as he did every day of the working week. He needed to do so in order that he could eat his favourite breakfast, which took the chef a while to prepare just the way he wanted it. But first he would dress up in his best clothes, as he felt he would need to continue making a respectable impression on the people who would be seeing him throughout mos...

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“We Have Something in Common” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #271

Two young men in their late twenties, George and Frank have just been hired by a large company which sells seeds. They both are working in the warehouse engaged in labour that requires a lot of heavy lifting bags of seed on their part. The two of them were already fairly strong, one reason why they were hired. At first they didn’t talk much to each other, they just quietly did their work, speaking only when they needed some help from the other.  That started to change when George made a sarcastic remark about the for...

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“In the Kitchen in the Dark” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #270

It was very late at night, and the two of them were standing motionless in the kitchen. She stood in front of the stove, with her back to it. George was a few steps back, facing his wife Gwendolyn, and the stove behind her. It had long been their favourite place in the house, with so many good times there, and so many memories. They had once talked about having sex in the kitchen.  A couple they knew had told them about their experience doing that on one occasion. But they had just laughed it off as a joke. ...

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Author bio

I am a retired college professor who began writing short stories not long after my retirement.