John Steckley

“You're Not Who You Think You Are” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #37

You’re Not Who You Think You Are Dun Dun Dun    Dun Dun     Dun Dun “Okay, I hear you, I hear you. Now if you could only tell me where you are, you bloody phone. Why did I ever program you to play ‘Smoke on the Water’? Sure it is my father’s favourite song, and I respect his good taste in music. But I am sick and tired of hearing the ring, only to have somebody I don’t know trying to offer me a deal I don’t need or complete a survey I don’t want to be involved with that l...

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“You see, I'm a magician” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #36

 You see, I’m a magician March 13Dear Diary: You see, I’m a magician. And it can be a tricky business. I write that as if it is news to me. But I want these diary entries to be recorded. I won’t be around this place long, so I want the story told. I’ve already left a note beside this diary that I purchased today. It tells the reader to give the diary and my wand to my nephew Todd. He has talked about maybe becoming a magician. I’m moving on to where people have never heard of me.   ...

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“Dmitro's Diary” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #36

Dimitro’s Diary          December 1, 1905 I can’t sleep. I am so excited. My mother gave me this journal that in English is called a “diary”. She says my life is starting again so I should write about it. I practice English every day. I will write in English. It is my new language.           We are on a ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean. We are leaving our home in Kiev, and travelling to Canada for a new life....

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“A Walk in the Park” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #35

 A Walk in the Park  All winter long I have been looking forward to doing this – taking a walk in the park in the early evening with the sun still illuminating the sky. For me, dark and cold in the evening combine like the two hardened fists of a seasoned boxer.  I need to escape them now. They have punched me too much of late.  Light and warm are so different. They don’t attack me. They seduce me with two soft hands beckoning. I think that I will follow them this evening, go where they direct me. As t...

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“Tunnel Vision” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #34

Tunnel Vision Tom had just bought a house. It was a relatively small brick house built sometime in the early 1960s. It had no particular visual appeal in any of its mundane features, and had only a one car garage. It did possess, however, a roomy backyard surrounded by mid-sized trees at the furthest end. Most of them were maple, a few were white ash. All of them coddled at least one nest in its outstretched branches. Tom felt that he knew them, like familiar figures in a story. Most of the rest of the yard was ...

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“Whether or Not” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #33

Whether or Not  He couldn’t decide whether or not to do it. With his heart he wanted to, but his self-confidence argued the other side quite convincingly. He had known her for a few years, pretty much just as a face and a name. At the Sunday School Picnic, when they both were 13, the two of them had been walking by the river in opposite directions.  Neither wanted to play games with ‘the little kids,’ so both had escaped down the riverbank  They had never really talked to each other before, but they suddenly dec...

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“The Memory Stick” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #32

The Memory Stick It was his favourite memory stick. And it got its information from a chip planted just in the right place in his brain: where senses intersected.  The stick could take him back to a time, only a few months ago, when life felt better for him romantically. When he plugged in the stick he could see family members smiling at each other, and at him. He could hear laughter, and he could smell the sizzling aroma of hamburgers fresh from the barbecue. And the feeling of the wind against his bare arms could g...

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“The Competition” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #32

 Two men, Bob and Bill, were competing for a low-level administrative job at their book distribution company. Their old boss had just retired, and the company was looking to fill the position. The two had basically the same skills, the same seniority, and both were pretty much equally liked by administration and warehouse staff – the latter being what they were. There wasn’t much to choose between the two of them. No one else had applied for the job. The competition could be fierce, if they wanted it to be.  One...

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“Doug and Fred; Betsy and Suzy” by John Steckley

Doug and Fred; Betsy and Suzy Doug and Fred were old friends. That is an understatement. They had known each other since they sat side-by-side together in kindergarten class. And they were both 82. The two of them were widowers. Doug’s wife Suzanne had died in a car crash 10 years earlier. Fred’s wife had succumbed to a highly contagious disease five years before that. The two friends liked nothing better than to talk in the sunroom of the house known to people in the area as Doug’s Pad (as he had seriously reno...

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“A Trip to the Laundromat.” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #31

A Trip to the Laundromat  It was Sunday morning, time for my weekly trip to the laundromat. Usually this was a kind of lonely occasion. I was just another single guy doing his laundry. But this trip was special. Joanna, whom I had only known for about a month, had agreed to move in with me. She lived in an apartment, I owned a house, small, but big enough for two. I had to clean the place up. She had never seen the place ‘in the light’ before. I had spent all of yesterday doing what I could to make it ...

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“Dream Pill” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #30

Dream Pill It seemed like such a crazy idea when I first heard the advertisement on the radio. “Imagine. Your dreams are no longer random. Finally, you can gain control of your dreams. No more nightmares. No more replaying something nasty that happened during the day. You don’t have to be haunted by ghosts of the past, present or future. You can dream what you want. Take our amazing dream pill and you can direct your dream where you want it to go.           ...

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“Go ask Mia” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #30

Why is Mia’s life different now than it was a few days ago? Go ask Mia. I think she’ll know. This is her story as she told it to me, her Opa (grandfather).  Her Omi (grandmother) had read to her Alice in Wonderland, with both her Omi and her Opa acting out the parts of some of the characters in the book. The story plus the acting out of some of the scenes by her grandparents filled her imagination like last week’s Thanksgiving dinner had filled her stomach. It especially meant something to her as she, like Alice, is ...

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“Self Discovery” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #29

Self-Discovery  It was deep into February, but not too cold for her to want to be outside. The strong wind that had been blowing hard enough last night to freeze her face twice over had died down in the morning..  Sixteen year old Mia felt that it would be okay for her to take a walk in the woods. That’s where she did her best thinking. She needed some of that right now, as she was wondering a lot about her future these days.  What did she want to do for a living?  Did she want to become a school principal ...

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“My Shotgun Date” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #28

It’s been over half a century, but I still can remember my worst date. I had met her at a dance at her high school. I saw her, liked what I saw and asked her to dance. She smiled and put out her hand. We danced, we talked (well I did), and she wrote down her phone number and gave it to me. I called her the next day, and we had a date for the next Saturday. It was another dance, with a band playing that I particularly liked. That wasn’t the bad date, but set things up for the horror show that was to fol...

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“A surprise party” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #27

A Surprise Party Kelly’s relationship to her boyfriend James was going fairly well. They went out on a date at least once every week, sometimes twice. There had been no fights, no real arguments. They even agreed on what their favourite Shakespearean play was: the Scottish play – Macbeth. The only difference there was that he didn’t like the Weird Sisters, the witches, said that they sounded unrealistic to him. But she liked them. They reminded her of people she had grown up with.. She had even played the p...

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