John Walsh

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Dec, 2020

Stories (21)

21 Stories

480 karma pts

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“One a Penny, Two a Penny” by John Walsh

Submitted to Contest #239

              â€śHot cross buns have been falling out of the sky for the last four hours.” said Bruce, the head of the news division at Bakersfield’s local television station. “I’m looking for ideas on how we should cover this event.”                â€śActually, their temperature seems to be the same as the surrounding air, about forty degrees,” said Vince the fact checker. “Hardly, what anyone would ca...

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“A Lesson From Tiamat” by John Walsh

Submitted to Contest #185

            Zyphon heard a rustling in the bushes and opened his nostrils, a capybara, not his favorite meal but he had to eat something before daybreak so he could get back to his hoard. Dragons don’t give off a scent that other animals recognise so the giant rodent just continued munching on leaves. Nowadays Zyphon preferred to save his fire. A quick pounce with his claws and teeth would work just as well. While he spent most of his time perfectly still he could move fast when he ...

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“After Computing Power Got Better And Everything Got Worse” by John Walsh

Submitted to Contest #181

AUNTEM: Let’s go for a walk. You can bring Toto.  (Being a subroutine, AUNTEM, cannot actually walk. For convenience, Dorian carries a monitor and speaker system attached to his clothes so that *she* knows what he’s doing and can advise him.) Dorian: Toto doesn’t need a walk.  (Toto was a stray nondescript brown mutt that wandered into Dorian’s living pod and stayed.) AUNTEM: But you do. You haven’t left your pod in days. If you go much longer I’ll have to put you back on your antidepressants. Get up, you know you always enjoy the ...

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“Antientropic Artifact: Plastic Doll's Head, Found Third Millennium B. C. E.” by John Walsh

Submitted to Contest #154

              Neela was getting bored watching the pigs when she looked down and saw lying against a stone, a thing with colors different from any she had ever seen. She hesitated; new things could be dangerous. It seemed harmless. It didn’t move and looked soft and smooth.             Neela bent down and closed her left fist around it. She straightened up and brought it near her face to examine it more closely. I...

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“A Passage From Isaiah” by John Walsh

Submitted to Contest #138

      Igraine was too young to remember when the demons first came to her city. They only came after sunset and left before sunrise. At first they were dismissed as fantasies of the sleepless until they began leaving gifts. Soon folks were staying up to witness the wonders the demons wrought. They could cure afflictions. They would give gifts to those who asked the right way: gold, jewels, valuable things that had never been seen in the city before.         No one knew wha...

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“First Love” by John Walsh

Submitted to Contest #137

           â€śJohn, they're going to put me in a place.”            â€śNo, M, nobody’s going to put you in a place.”            M. had been having trouble at work. We were no longer  going out  but I was still her best work friend, so I was driving her to the psychiatric appointment the employee assistance program was making her keep. When I told her she was not going to a ...

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“ A Memory From Gym Class” by John Walsh

Submitted to Contest #136

           â€śLine up at the free throw line.”            I wasn’t sure where the free throw line was; I didn't pay much attention to what the gym teacher said. It was never interesting. I just got in line behind the other kids who got there first.             I hated gym class. Why shouldn’t I?  I was seven years old, short, spindly, and a klutz. Nothing good was going t...

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“Polar Bear” by John Walsh

Submitted to Contest #135

          Trigger warning: rape           Bruno was beginning to think it was time to leave Quiverton.            Quiverton had been founded a century and half ago in a secluded valley by an eccentric religious sect of extreme pacifists. They did not simply believe in nonviolence and passive resistance to evil. They actively retreated from any conflict whatsoever. As time went on the relig...

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“Conjured Pandemic” by John Walsh

Submitted to Contest #130

           The forbidden spells were always arduous to cast. Send Despair nearly killed Msia Yar’Adua. Now he only needed a few words and his atlas to make anyone in the world feel his pain. He flipped through the pages, pointed, said the words and imagined the sickness, the confusion, the tears.             Merad Prewitt sat on the metal chair, at metal table in windowless room.         ...

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“On The Future Feed” by John Walsh

Submitted to Contest #123

            A head-on collision right here in the Colony.             Eric could tell by her cracked mask that the woman in the Bentley was a Performer. He couldn’t see the driver of the pick-up truck, probably a rube. No one seemed to be seriously hurt but as a Performer and a witness he knew he would be interviewed for the Feed. First he had to get home as quickly as possible. He began to run but not too fast. It would no...

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“A Story From The Eighties” by John Walsh

Submitted to Contest #97

        Janice was startled when she heard the rap on the window. She wasn’t supposed to sleep while working as a watch person at the poultry barn but she may have dozed off. She was sitting in the employee lounge of Sunup Poultry, Inc. Old man Petrie, the owner, threatened to dock the pay of anyone who called the place a “chicken factory” but that was what it was. It supplied the maximum amount of meat and eggs at the cheapest possible cost.           ...

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“One Empress's Granddaughter” by John Walsh

Submitted to Contest #88

    Princess Malala XXIII did not enjoy cleaning up cow flops but Kamadhendu had the same right to freedom as any other animal and was not intelligent enough to be taught to go in out of the way places. She was Malala’s cow-friend so it would be unfair to expect someone else to clean up after her.            After she put the shovelful on the pile, she went to her mom, Princess Malala XXII. She had more serious issues on her mind than cow flops.    &nbs...

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“Where Was Mama?” by John Walsh

Submitted to Contest #84

     Where was Mama? She’d been gone a full week and Opal was getting increasingly anxious. Mama bravely went out into the dangerous world to bring Opal food, clothes, books, music CDs, and paper and crayons so Opal could draw her friendly, formless faces when she got lonely. Every evening Mama would come home and they would fix dinner and then play cards, listen to music, or Mama would read aloud. Mama used to sleep in the other bed when Opal was younger but now she slept “in the house, so you can have some privacy....

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“Jade Skirt” by John Walsh

Submitted to Contest #83

     Ramona sat on a bench in front of the church in Xochimilco, glanced around the plaza and wondered how she let Simon talk her into this trip when she was in her seventh month of pregnancy.         â€śWe won’t be able to take trips like this once the baby is born and it’s the land of your heritage.”       Ramona was a latina but all her grandparents left Mexico long ago and her parents were born and had lived their entire lives in the U. S. It was...

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“What Jake Found In The Basement” by John Walsh

Submitted to Contest #78

   â€śI hear a sound in the basement,” said Claire to her husband Jake. “Go see what it is.”      Jake turned on the basement light and went down the steep, old steps. He saw a small sort of reptile writhing on the floor. It had many legs and continuously changed its shape and colors.        â€śIt’s some kind of lizard.”         â€śLizard! I don’t think I want a lizard in the basement. What kind of lizard?”     &n...

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