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Julie Ward

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Aug, 2020

Stories (18)
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333 Followers
17 Following

18 Stories

1689 karma pts

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Josie & Jack

Submitted to Contest #96

The street lights were still on at precisely four o’clock when Josephine Beaulieu opened the shiny chrome doors of her diner with a whoosh, switched on one row of schoolhouse lights, then another, and placed a clean glass carafe on the coffee maker. High heels clicking, she moved to the kitchen, flipped a row of switches on the fryers, setting their red lights aglow, then disappeared into the refrigerator. She returned to the lunch counter balancing three golden pies. She settled them gently inside their glass case as the coff...

23 likes 15 comments 15
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Hidden Gems

Submitted to Contest #85

--Elise--“Welcome to Bacon in the Pan, the podcast about women changing the world." My best friend’s familiar voice pours into my small flat like California sunshine. "Today’s guest is someone I’ve known a very long time.”Outside, the sky is gray and dark with rain. Beeping scooters whiz by to the ubiquitous cadence of police sirens in the distance. I love my apartment, with it's soaring windows and light wooden floors, and I'm lucky to have it. 98 Boulevard Malesherbes is owned by a businesswoman on a long-term assi...

36 likes 35 comments 35
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Just A Kid

Submitted to Contest #84

If I leave this room, I’m dead. At the beginning, when people were getting sick and the restaurants were closing and the schools shut down and people were fighting each other for toilet paper, I didn’t care. I didn’t care because it wasn’t real. I just kept going about my business because there was business to do. See, when everything goes to shit, people want their weed. Then they want other shit; coke, pills, heroin, meth. Desperate times and all that. I’m here for them.Mom would follow me around the room, waving a...

24 likes 21 comments 21
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Hello...I'm Breck

Submitted to Contest #82

The day everything changed for Alex Maxwell-Smith was just like any other. The sun rose, just the same as always. The birds sang from the treetops and the sky was painted in the soft greys, golds and pinks of dawn. Alex was up early to capture it, as she often did, for her followers. She squeaked open the front door and noticed a slim white box with forest green lettering sitting on her doormat. “Hmm,” she said out loud, nudging the box with her toe.The roses in the courtyard were blooming in a riot of color and Alex stretched...

24 likes 20 comments 20
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Words Wrapped In A Song

Submitted to Contest #80

Wren was lying on her bed reading when she heard her mother scream. Barkley, who was tucked in the crook of her legs, popped his head up, ears alert. He uncurled himself, hopped to the floor and clicked down the hall. Wren followed him, her heart beating fast. The house still smelled like dinner, warm and comforting. Water was running in the kitchen.    In the den, the TV set was on. The soft, familiar murmur of the evening news filled the room with urgent words. Wren’s mother stood stock still, her hands over her mouth, ...

27 likes 12 comments 12
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Sans Serif

Submitted to Contest #78

I’m sitting at a table outside a café called Les Biscuits on a pleasant little surprise of a street situated between busy freeway interchanges taking important people to downtown high rises and back. Cars whoosh by like water rushing over boulders in a distant river. The sound always makes me think of words filling a blank page, paragraphs, chapters; pause, close the book, start again tomorrow. Sometimes, I think of myself as a tiny speck of India ink on that page, here in this city full of exclamation marks.A cool breeze ruffles the le...

32 likes 14 comments 14
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Thank You for Calling

Submitted to Contest #75

Amrita steps off the metro at the Nehru Place station. Her mother has warned her that the city is dangerous late at night, so she takes every precaution. Bahija is already there, standing next to the stairs. They walk to work together every day, there’s safety in numbers. Outside the station, they hurry past tall buildings and shops crowned with glowing neon. Moving more quickly now, they pass the shiny new shopping center where Amrita spent the first rupees she’d ever earned on piri piri fries at McDonald’s. A tall hotel...

27 likes 24 comments 24
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A Princess

Submitted to Contest #74

Laura stood on one end of the park, a tiny speck in a sea of people. She kicked the lock on her stroller and held tightly to her daughter's hand. Brightly colored banners fluttered in the breeze. Tables manned by an army of moms offered carnival games, cotton candy and a tantalizing array of prizes. The annual school fair was the biggest fundraiser of the year and Cameron had begged to go all morning. “Please mom, please!" He’d pulled out all the four-year old stops. “All my friends will be there. Spider Man too! And princesses for...

38 likes 24 comments 24
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Hark, the Harold

Submitted to Contest #73

Dear Friends and Family,I’m a little late with the annual Holiday letter, but I think we can all agree that this has been a very interesting year, and that nothing has gone as planned. When the virus that-shall-not-be named grounded us for life, we did what any other family would do. We laid around in our PJs and ate bread. As it turns out, Jim is a pretty good baker. I think he missed his calling, although my waistline likes him better as an accountant.Jim is still with Skillerod, Actins and Croy, and I’m your neighborhood broker;...

33 likes 16 comments 16
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Currents

Winner of Contest #72 🏆

Lillie stood on the weathered deck of the house she had loved for twenty years and imagined herself falling; tumbling over earth-toned rooftops, through lush pines and down to the rocky coastline below. She imagined the currents pulling her away from land, winds and water pushing her across the globe along ancient, unseen pathways, into the abyss.Lillie wrapped her hands around her mug, the warmth inside already fading. Memories floated by, one by one, images shifting and swaying like anemones under ever-moving water in the tide po...

381 likes 220 comments 220
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Cedar #3

Submitted to Contest #70

Every summer for as long as I could remember, I went to Camp Wukchumini with my hometown church. My family wasn’t terribly religious, but we went to Beachside First Baptist Church every Sunday. My mother was a big believer in the “serving” part of serving the Lord. We sorted cans at the food drive, served heaping plates to the poor at Thanksgiving and gave our old toys away at Christmas, whether we wanted to or not. “Giving is the best reward,” my mother would say as she packed them into brown cardboard boxes.The way I saw it,...

13 likes 4 comments 4
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Concession Stand Girl

Submitted to Contest #69

Kyle met Judith on a cold night at the end of the worst year of his life. He’d gone to see a film at The Academy, the art-house theater downtown. It was the kind of faded movie palace that used to anchor every main street in every small town, a throwback to the days when people lined up to see their favorite stars on the silver screen. It had long been abandoned for the neon-lit multiplex outside of town, which was why Kyle preferred it. He came here at least once a week to escape for two hours, pause the nonstop monologue in his head. Bette...

17 likes 18 comments 18
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Secrets & Games

Submitted to Contest #64

The Glass House sat on the highest crest of the highest hill in Bel-Air, its sleek band of windows reflecting the colors of the setting sun. Terrah Banfield stood on the vast veranda, a tiny figure in a white Dolce and Gabbana blazer, framed by glorious pinks and oranges. The freeway snaked between the green slopes, a glimmering river of red and white. Thousands of souls down there, going about their business in a city built on stories.Terrah snapped twice. “Come along, Bozeman,” She purred, her accent indistinguishable, refined.&n...

26 likes 24 comments 24
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Coffee for Leroy

Submitted to Contest #63

The Hillside Roasters Coffee House was bursting with fall festivity, despite the fact that September in Los Angeles is more like a dirty version of July. Hazy, sepia-brown and relentlessly hot. Outside, drooping trees provided spots of shade for old women wheeling overstuffed shopping baskets and street vendors pushing their ringing carts. Inside, orange and gold leaves fluttered in chalk down one side of the menu board. A long line snaked past packed bookshelves, newly adorned with tiny pumpkins and colorful Dia de los Muerto...

14 likes 3 comments 3
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The Best Lie He Ever Told

Submitted to Contest #62

The first time Michael Ramirez set eyes on Mary-Claire McDonnell, he was on his way to an interview at Hat World in the mall. It was a blazing hot Thursday in the middle of June. The bus ride had been short but sweltering and the mall air conditioning felt like magic, cooling the sweat under his brand new oxford shirt.Michael wove his way past storefronts full of neon tank tops and Flashdance sweatshirts, Duran Duran mixing with Muzac, mixing with the theme from “Ghostbusters," mixing with the smell of baking pretzels. He rounded a corn...

22 likes 20 comments 20
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