Kathryn El-Assal

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Apr, 2020

Stories (6)

6 Stories

188 karma pts

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“Marrakesh Express” by Kathryn El-Assal

It’s been a dream of yours for years. Now you’ve arrived on the ferry from Spain. You check your bag at the train station and spend a few hours strolling around Tangier before heading back to la gare. With dirhams you’ve obtained from an ATM, you approach the guichet to purchase a ticket for a single cabin. Your train leaves around nine o’clock in the evening and you’ll arrive in Marrakesh sometime after eight in the morning.You were meant to be traveling with a friend, but bad news from New ...

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“Fledglings” by Kathryn El-Assal

Rush hour traffic was a pain. She was looking forward to a glass of Pompelini for some grapefruity refreshment. She pulled into the driveway and noticed the purple allium blooming near the front stoop. Leeks, garlic, onions, shallots, she was fond of them all, but this flowery relative was special.As Kate started unloading a file from the trunk of her Mazda, she recalled how friends had laughed about why she’d chosen this particular hatchback model. She’d told them it was because she liked the logo: the middle...

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“Arrival Gate” by Kathryn El-Assal

Two people meet, come together, form a relationship; two gametes meet, come together, form a zygote; multiply that times two and you have fraternal twins
 like my brother Stephen and I.As babies, Stephen took after our father with dark blond hair and grey-green eyes, while I resembled our mother with darker coloring. The summer before kindergarten our parents divorced, and Stephen moved out east with our dad. Mom and I remained in California where she was teaching at UC Santa Barbara. I was too young to rememb...

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“Finger Food” by Kathryn El-Assal

 The moray darted out of a crevice with its menacing stalactite teeth. Its serpentine body undulated along the colorful reef, threatening but not approaching.Growing up in the Midwest, marine life was something Jack had dreamed about. He’d appreciated Minnesota’s lakes, rivers and streams, but desired something more dramatic. His friend Mark liked the ocean, too. They’d been buddies since middle school, competing on the same swim team. Together, they’d moved to Florida after university. He had a marine b...

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“Sisters and Irish Twins” by Kathryn El-Assal

What are the chances of two sets of Irish twins on the same block? Actually, not so surprising when it’s the 1950s and both sets of parents are Catholic. Yes, Aria and I both had sisters born within twelve months of our own births. My sister, Jennifer, entered the family on my actual birthday, while Aria and Zora had birthdays a week apart. I don’t think I heard the expression Irish twins till college, but if I did, I probably thought it referred to actual twins, and didn’t have a derogatory connotation.

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“Connections in a Time of Coronavirus” by Kathryn El-Assal

                  Nicole found some of her mother’s old photos in a manila envelope. Growing up, she‘d leafed through leather-bound albums that captured her family’s history, but she’d never seen these photos before: pictures of her mom when she was young and working for a photo studio. In some, she was wearing costumes, like a hula skirt, and in others, ‘40s style clothing from shirtwaists to jodhpurs for riding. Others showed her ...

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