Kathy Landes

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2021

Stories (21)

21 Stories

444 karma pts

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“Have you ever heard the expression 4 eyed?” by Kathy Landes

Submitted to Contest #105

   When you are first conceived and grow in the womb your eyes develop like a creature of the water. At birth you are introduced to the brightness of light. When you become an adult, if you choose to you can expand your mind and attunement to your surroundings by changing your mental outlook. One way of doing this by meditation or putting yourself into a trance. What you need to understand is that if you get heavily invested in this you might have some really interesting experience. In fact, some people would swear they were o...

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“If you come you’ll have to decide if your Introvert or Extrovert” by Kathy Landes

Submitted to Contest #104

    The phone rings. It sounded really loud because I had been on the computer and no one was home so the ringing jarred me out of the quiet. Caller Id showed a friend so I answered. “Are you coming tonight?” “Am I coming were?” I replied. “To the town meeting at the community center.” Oh, is that tonight? I forgot” Well you should come it’s kind of expected of you.” “Well, if you see me there then you’ll have your answer.” We chatted a little more and then I hung up and turned the phone off.    Merriam Web...

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“Gone Fishing” by Kathy Landes

Submitted to Contest #103

   February 23 2010. The sign if that date in astrology is Pisces the fish. In the Chinese Zodiac it is the year of the Tiger. It’s about 9 am in the morning and I get a phone call from my brother who lives in Oregon. My mother had left the city that I lived in a few years ago to go be out there in a lovely retirement village that was much less costly than the ones in NY. I knew something was wrong by the tone in his voice. He explained that the night before my mother had fallen and broken her hip and had to have emergency sur...

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“Once upon a time is not now” by Kathy Landes

Submitted to Contest #102

“Grandma, were where you born?” “Why in Southern France child.” “Did you grow up there?” “Just for a year and then we moved to Holland” “Well, when did you come to America grandma?” “About 1961. Why all the questions?” “We have to do a paper on our family history for school”       Thankful the questions ended but my mind began to reflect on my early childhood. My first clear memories are walking along the streets of Paris France. My two brothers and I had been sent to buy bread from a nearby bakery. Oldest brot...

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“Say again” by Kathy Landes

Submitted to Contest #101

    I had been placed in the position of Ward aid at the county mental institution. The facility actually took care of 2 counties, a geriatric population, and juvenile population so it was a rather large psychiatric campus. This was my work relief job that I had to maintain in order to receive any of my social services benefits such as food coupons, rent voucher, utility voucher and clothing allowance.     You see at the age of 18 I had been caught stealing food and had to go to court. I was assigned a...

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“What on earth is Seder?” by Kathy Landes

Submitted to Contest #100

  It was the holiday season and I had been helping care for my elderly mother. I arrived at her home to set up the Christmas decorations and she out of the blue ask’s: Young lady would you like to accompany me to a seder feast at the Episcopalian church tonight.?” I turned and looked at her to make sure she was not overly medicated. She actually looked quit smart in a Sunday church outfit she had on, which I hadn’t even notices when I first enters. “Seder,” I replied. “You mean like when we were both younger and use to hear gr...

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“The greater light that rises and sets” by Kathy Landes

Submitted to Contest #99

   We had anchored the boat near the entrance to the Atlantic Ocean via Long Island sound. That is what one does when one is taking the boat from the harbor in Westchester to it winter home in the docks in Connecticut. Sometime, overnight on the sail boat could be entertaining. Especially if it was the final voyage of the season.  I had slept rather well with the water rocking me to sleep and the soft lapping of the small waves against the boat’s hull. I knew it was almost time for sunrise because of the gentle change in ...

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“Remember the lessons of the wife of Lot” by Kathy Landes

Submitted to Contest #98

   There is a story in the first book of the King James Bible. A book called Genesis. The part of the story that I am referring to is found in the 19th chapter.” The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.  But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt....

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“Windows can crack and break” by Kathy Landes

Submitted to Contest #97

   Sometimes were your riding in the passenger seat, up front next to the driver and it’s a long road trip you can fall into a trance like state. Your eyes get tired of watching the traffic so you start looking at the scenery. After the first hour you’ve run out of small talk and the radio needs to be adjusted as you go from one radio stations airwaves to another while going a steady 55 miles an hour. You rest you head against the headrest and try and get into the most comfortable position you can. The road, the car and the fr...

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“They never really knew me” by Kathy Landes

Submitted to Contest #96

   I had to do it! I had to get away. I was a single mom living in a city were everyone swore they knew everything there was to know about me. I made arrangement with a lawyer and a friend to watch my child for a term on no longer than one year. Then I headed to my old church’s yearly revival. If I stayed, I knew I would become homicidal. I also knew the church  would have one of their outreach programs so I went and looked at the sign-up board to see who was going were and noticed to young people from France were heading...

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“To be or not to be” by Kathy Landes

Submitted to Contest #95

   The human race is composed of two species, the male and the female. They are physical and mental different and have different choices to make throughout their lives. Ones of the biggest choices a female face is the decision to become a parent. It is the female that carries the baby and births it. In some cases, it is by choice, in some case they believe it is their duty, and in some case, once they have become impregnated, the law demands they carry the child to full term and birth it.    The male can do very...

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“Because I said so.” by Kathy Landes

Submitted to Contest #94

    There was once a simple question known as why? When it becomes as annoying as heck explaining, the simplest answer to it became “Because.” Because is identified and a conjunction. In Astronomy a conjunction is the position of any two bodies that appear to meet, such as two celestial bodies on the celestial sphere. So, when there is a continuous barrage of why then one must try and remain calm. One must turn their internal se...

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“Not the party I expected” by Kathy Landes

Submitted to Contest #93

  It started like any high school weekend party. There was a keg or two, the jocks, a couple of nerds and of course some of us long haired hippies. The parents of the girl who was giving the party were away for the night and we all knew we couldn’t get too crazy. About half way through the festivities a fight broke out about some boy girl drama but it got calmed down pretty fast. It was not the type of neighbor hood that we wanted the cops to show up at. People started leaving shortly thereafter. A couple of people stayed to help c...

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“From Dark to Light” by Kathy Landes

Submitted to Contest #92

To this day I have received no logical explanation for what happen once upon a time, decades ago. It was night time and I had gone for an evening swim off the coast of Miami Beach Island. I had felt something brush my leg and not wanting to take any chances head for shore as fast as I could. I sat that reflecting on what it could have been as I stared out at the night sky. Then my whole world disappeared into blackness. I didn’t black out; I was fully conscious. I felt something akin to a bullet shot through my brain but I knew that wasn’t h...

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“The world of books” by Kathy Landes

Submitted to Contest #91

   I had left school in fifth grade because ma and pa need me to help on the farm. We had over 1000 acres and had a pretty large size dairy herd. I didn’t mind though because I was never much of a learner. When I was about 21, I began to realize that I needed to work on my reading and math skills because both of these were now something I needed with what my various jobs were for the farm. There was an adult educational at out local high school that had night time classes for people like me. So, I enrolled.    ...

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Author bio

I was born in France in 1956 to American parents. I moved to the US permanently when I was 5 and settled in Westchester County NY. Graduate high school early at the age of 17 and moved upstate to Tomkins county. I am a mother, grandmother and soon to be a great grandmother