John Steckley

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Aug, 2019

Stories (77)

77 Stories

1499 karma pts

?

“Dancing in the Snow” by John Steckley

It was 1974 when I first encountered my unusual friend. I was interning at a big hospital that served as a kind of ‘dumping ground, for many odds and sods of people’. Those were the exact words that were said to me by my supervisor. This was his way of telling me who my patients would be, and the low opinion he had of them. He would have pointed to my friend as an example had he even taken any notice of him.  F...

0 comments 0
Read story

“The Whole Truth” by John Steckley

“Do you, Andrew Q. Jones, promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?”“I do so swear. It is important to me.”Andrew Q. Jones is a key witness for the prosecution in a trial concerning a murder that took place late on a Saturday night, in a back alley behind a local bar, where he, the accused, and the victim had all been drinking quite a bit. It was a small town, so all three were well-known to many, and the murder was the talk of the town. It had been a lo...

1 comment 1
Read story

“So what time do you think this is, young man?” by John Steckley

“So what time do you think this is young man?” “I strongly believe that it is one o’clock, old man. That’s what the clock on the wall tells me, although it doesn’t speak out loud.  And I have found it to be pretty reliable in the past, so I will trust it now.” “So you come home late, and your mouth is filled with sarcasm, eh boy.” “No, I left a lot of my sarcasm at the party, old man. I didn’t know t...

3 comments 3
Read story

“For a Change” by John Steckley

Bob and Mandy both would have agreed, had they talked about it, that their relationship needed to change for the better. As they both sat on the couch in her apartment waiting for the new year to arrive, the two of them both vowed to themselves that they would do whatever was necessary to effect such a change. If it stayed the same, both would want to say to the other, “It is not you. It’s me.” Neither wanted t...

0 comments 0
Read story

“In Just Ten Seconds” by John Steckley

Backgrounder Three Friday Nights Sam met Sue at a party. It was on a Friday night. They were both reaching for the same butter tart on the treat table, the last one. Their hands met unintentionally. They both laughed and then divided up the tart into two equal pieces. Thus began a conversation that lasted until the end of the party. They discovered that they had so much in common –...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Whatever Polly Wants” by John Steckley

Whatever Polly Wants Paula Paula puzzled and wondered what to get her younger brother Paul for Christmas. It was 2020, the year of Covid – 19. Paul was home all the time, doing his work on-line as a programmer. He had no social life outside of his workplace, no real friends, and no wife and children. So he was feeling very lonely. He wouldn’t say that, of course, but as his sister sh...

0 comments 0
Read story

“The Little Drummer Boy” by John Steckley

Before the Christmas PartyI don’t usually go to these all-musician gigs. They’re usually boring, people talking about the same old things. How close they once came to fame. How many famous musicians they have met. That kind of thing. And you usually don’t see many drummers at these kinds of gigs, either. There are far too many drummer jokes, and we kind of feel picked on when we are outnumbered. “What do you call a drummer who breaks up with his girlfriend? Homeless.” “...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Inherit the Wind” by John Steckley

I just like to keep to myself, not bothering anyone, no one bothering me. I have been that way ever since an extremely embarrassing incident my last year of high school. I was on the stage in a minor part in a serious play, a drama that owing to this incident became more of a comedy, a farce.   Recently, I have had a pushy lawyer pursuing me on my cell phone, on my landline, on both my e-mail addresses,...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Parading Big Cookies” by John Steckley

For the town’s annual Santa Claus parade there was each year a strange new entry in the parade. For many adults and even some kids it was the highlight of the event. What would it be this year?  No one but the planner and the maker of the entry knew what weird and wonderful piece would grace the parade in any given year. There has been some big mistakes. The nine cats dressed as reindeer (with tied on antlers, ...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Condemning the New Guy” by John Steckley

Condemning the New Guy.I didn’t really know him. No one in our high school class did. He had moved into our small town in August just before school started. It is late November now, and we are still calling him ‘New Guy’. The rest of us had all grown up together, so he probably would be New Guy for quite some time.I was surprised to see him at the Friday night school dance. As far as I knew, he had not been to one before. He would be easy to spot as he is rather tall. When he sat down beside m...

7 comments 7
Read story

“Rites and Rights of Passage” by John Steckley

“Call me when you have a real problem buddy.” Arthur couldn’t think of a good response to that statement from one of his best friends – Fred. So he quickly made up a story of how he was in the middle of creating his latest painting, and he didn’t want the paint to dry before he finished what he was doing. So he had to hang up.  There was no such painting at this time. After they both hung up at...

11 comments 11
Read story

“From Dawn to Dusk” by John Steckley

The sun was rising into the clear blue sky. In the soft sands that crept down into the cool waters of the lake, two people sat next to each other, hand in hand, looking across the water. Their faces appeared happy enough, what you would expect from such a scene. However, inside both of their minds and hearts there was turmoil, distilled by an unasked and unanswered question. Ten years ago, they had sat at the s...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Telling a Secret and Telling a Lie.” by John Steckley

Sam walked over to me with a very serious look on his usually smiling face. He put his hand on my right arm, which is a serious gesture on his part. He is not a touchy, feelie kind of guy, more of the fist-to-fist and high five kind. “We’ve been friends for a long time, right George?” “Of course Sam, we’ve been buddies since grade school. You know that. And from there to high school, an...

1 comment 1
Read story

“The Venusian Marketplace” by John Steckley

It was only Phil’s second trip to Venus. His first such voyage had been during the early days of interplanetary exploration. The ship he had skippered had been the first to land and make contact with the inhabitants of the planet. He figured they found him and his crew just as strange to look at, as he and his crew viewed them. The Venusians were similar to humans in that they had one head, four limbs,...

3 comments 3
Read story

“Not Just Another Competition” by John Steckley

It started out as just another competition between the two of them. They were long time rivals since they were in public school. But Mark began to realize that in this instance it was going to be so much more. Mike had been talking, bragging really, about his ability in a canoe. He used the term ‘master paddler’. Mark could not take much of that, so he was drawn in, questioning out loud whether Mike was really ...

0 comments 0
Read story

Author bio

I am a retired college professor who researches and writes about Indigenous languages and cultures. My specialty is the Wendat/Wyandot language.