Juan Carlo Rodríguez

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Mar, 2020

Stories (5)

5 Stories

96 karma pts

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“The White Stag” by Juan Carlo Rodríguez

Submitted to Contest #77

He saw the white stag across his yard as the first snowflakes drifted down. He sipped his coffee and tried not to cry. He succeeded, but he knew what the white stag was telling him.John Coltrane drifted from the speaker, an almost perfect soundtrack. The man rode the notes off to memory lane, as the stag stared from across the slowly whitening yard. Back to... happier times? Better? Quieter?“Nah”, he said out loud. “Just different”.He took a last swig of the coffee and walked to the study. The old desk still stood, where three typewriters an...

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“Down under” by Juan Carlo Rodríguez

Submitted to Contest #73

Harry stared. The bird stared back. Merry effin' Christmas, Harry. Staring was more or less all Harry could think of doing. Because A, doing anything else would acknowledge that yes, there was a bird sitting in the back of his dining room chair staring back at him. And B, acknowledging that meant having to do something with the bird. And exactly what did you do with it? Harry grew up without pets. His parents were what his grandparents called "damn hippies". Pets were animal prisoners, they said, and they would not oppress another soul. ...

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“For You” by Juan Carlo Rodríguez

Submitted to Contest #47

And there it was. Unprompted, unannounced, maybe unwelcome, but not unexpected. You heard the words, you can actually see them in the air. But you... you’re afraid. You know what has to come next. “Just say it”, you tell yourself. “Just say it. You have to say it”. “Well, if no one objects to this course of action...”, the Counselor said. His words drift off, as if it is obvious this course of action is both needed and, well, obvious. But it’s not. And you know it. The Counselor should know it. But you... you’re just a sentry. A first-ye...

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“A Cold Play” by Juan Carlo Rodríguez

Submitted to Contest #39

-Look at the stars... They’re shining bright for you...-That’s a little on the nose, Strickland.-Sorry. Old habit.I had always thought Herbert was more Slipknot than Coldplay. Go figure. We were lying in what I thought was an old shopping mall parking lot, next to an old van and a pickup that seemed caught in the middle of mating. It was a perfect summer sky, no clouds, no moon. So I could basically reach out and grab a fistful of stars if I had that cosmic power. I had only seen a sky this perfect once, in the mountains of Venezuela. Right ...

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“And The Trees Whispered” by Juan Carlo Rodríguez

Submitted to Contest #37

“Shut up”, I told the trees. “I’m trying not to die”.They just answered back with a whisper. Good enough.I looked around, pushing away despair. I had completely lost my bearings, had so for a while, but I refused to be bones found by some old bloodhound in five years. No, I would get out of this one, I told myself, and I would become a better person. Or something.I had been walking on what could be a trail for what I thought was an hour. I saw the sun going down to my left, just over the treeline, so north was up ahead. I felt a moment of pr...

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Author bio

Venezuelan expatriate, living in the City Beautiful. Grateful to the Mouse, but I'd rather work for the King. Journalist, origami artist, English teacher. Se habla español.