Julie Bissell

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Sep, 2020

Stories (7)

7 Stories

614 karma pts

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“Rose's Wedding” by Julie Bissell

This was supposed to be the happiest day of their lives. And it would have been, if Rose hadn’t told me to organise it all. Two things there – first, that she told me, as in, no please or would you mind. Secondly, organise it all. All. She could have hired a professional wedding planner, but I was free and I was always available. She loved saving money. She even got me to make the wedding cake, and that was my chance to...

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“Not That Kind of Ghost” by Julie Bissell

What I really wanted to do was to tell my mother that she’d been wrong about me. I was early for my own funeral. I spent the night before in the crematorium, trying and failing to knock the silk flowers out of their pots, and I was waiting beside the priest the next day to greet the congregation as they arrived. To each one he said; ‘Thank you for coming. Family in the front two pews, please.’ I said things like; ‘Pretend to cry, you old fraud – I know you’re only here for the food’ and ‘Black makes you look old, you know that?’ ...

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“Forget Me Not” by Julie Bissell

Geoff loves his job. Not the parts where he has to calculate costings and profit margins or negotiate with customers. The part where he has to manage me. He’s good at the noises – the teeth sucking and tongue clicking when I ask for time off are masterful, though the answer “Yes” tends to be silent. He loves making me wait, persuade, beg. I put up with him for Lynne’s sake. ‘It’s very inconvenient,’ Geoff says, ...

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“Peacock” by Julie Bissell

The twenty-fifth anniversary reunion of Mayland High School would be attended by everyone from the class of ’94 who wasn’t either dead or in jail. Laura said so, and Laura was the queen; the shrieking peacock of Colchester High Street and the dictator behind the reunion mafia. I’d skipped going to the third and fourth reunions, having nothing much to talk about and no interest in my previous classmates - in Year Five, one of Laura’s ladies in waiting was sent to the library to hand over my invitation personally with a pointed question as ...

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“Water” by Julie Bissell

‘Look!’ The water was just visible in the bottles, the glass so scratched that Jean had to squint to see the inch of liquid at the bottom of each. Three of them, lined up at the front of the table with a man standing next to them. ‘We can’t afford it,’ Jean said, tugging Perry’s hand. He leaned out towards the table, waving his free hand through the stream of rainbow light cast through the bottles by the...

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“No Escape” by Julie Bissell

As soon as they turned into the cul-de-sac, Leone felt cold. ‘Pull over, please,’ she said, more sharply than she intended. ‘Sorry?’ Tom turned the radio down. ‘Please!’ she said. ‘Pull over, just for a moment. I want to… can we…’ She couldn’t finish her sentences. Air wheezed in through a tight throat. ‘Hold on, we’re nearly there,’ Tom reassured her, parking outside Number 8. Leone co...

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“In the Dark” by Julie Bissell

His grandfather had lived out his childhood in a house overlooking a busy railway line. Greg lost count of the number of times he’d heard the story about the night a fire closed the line further out of town.‘Woke up suddenly,’ Grandpa said. ‘Nine forty-three precisely. The silence woke me – should have been the Birmingham night train coming through. I couldn’t sleep after that, sat up watching the empty lines and knowing there was something wrong.’Greg had been fascinated to hear the story as a child, moving on to boredom in...

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Contest #58
In the Dark – read story