Kay Smith

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jun, 2023

Stories (11)

11 Stories

309 karma pts

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“Put It On My Tab!” by Kay Smith

Submitted to Contest #276

I met him when I was twenty.I dropped out of high school ran and away from home at sixteen.I got married at seventeen. By nineteen, I had two young daughters.I was a collection of banal statistics.My husband, Jim, had hair that hung straight down his back, parted in the middle; the color, two drastically different tones. You could catch him walking hurriedly across campus clad in vertically striped bell bottoms, an old t-shirt, and no shoes. He wore square, green-tinted, ironic little gl...

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“An Inconvenient Grief” by Kay Smith

Submitted to Contest #259

December 24, 2003She draws me to her small chest, her sinewy arms closing around me, wrapping us in faux seclusion. I’m drowning in the scent of her cloying perfume. “Would it kill you to be a little more social? People are going to think you are rude!” She says with a smile that could shatter teeth. She takes another sip from her flute of water. For her, “water” consists of one part water, and three parts gin.Oh no, I might appear rude!? As if that would be the most horrific thing ever!&nbsp...

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“The Race” by Kay Smith

Submitted to Contest #256

I sling my spikes over my right shoulder and shuffle to the starting line for the 200-yard dash. Not even thirty minutes before this, Coach had asked me to run the event. It was not one I'd ever run and was seriously anxious about it.Suuure, Mia has 'horrible cramps.' It was more like she had the Irish Flu. My best friend, Andi, tagged along with me, giving me words of encouragement and that strangely obligatory quick smack on the ass as we got to where the other girls were. My running mates were already stretching. The sky was growing darke...

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“Metamorphosis” by Kay Smith

Submitted to Contest #255

{TRIGGER WARNING: emotional, physical, abuse, serious illness, mental health}Across the hallway, at the Nurse’s Station, I hear the frenzied murmuring of voices. Something really must have stirred the hive to get them buzzing like that. Over the barely moving air, snatches of conversation; like little scraps of paper wafted across the sanitized hallway.“I’m not gonna be the one…”“….The Dragon Lady…”“…it’s not our fault the Rehab Unit doesn’t have their shit together …”“…I’m working today of all days! No fucking way; they don’t pay me enough…...

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“Finding Holly” by Kay Smith

Submitted to Contest #244

It was late evening. We had just finished dinner and as I had cooked, my husband was on clean-up duty. I was in my bedroom, reading. My oldest daughter, Holly, had just vacated the foot of the bed and was en route to grab a shower before bedtime. Though she had her own bathroom inside, she had recently become very adamant regarding privacy. We had a separate room outside off of the carport. I thought it was weird that she wanted to shower out in what was essentially our second laundry room. Granted, it was a private, spacious room complete w...

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“The Recruiter” by Kay Smith

Submitted to Contest #214

I grab the watering hose and give a low, whispered shout to my daughter to turnthe faucet on full blast. I hear water, burbling, and gurgling, wending its waytoward me, emitting the random expulsion of trapped air, and after a flex ofthe hose, water begins to spray from the attached nozzle. I take care tospray the grass around the fire pit area. I had already carefully poured dirtand sand onto the embers of that night’s campfire. I turn the nozzle on thehose to the “rain shower” setting and soak the area around the old fire pituntil my ...

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“Warming Up: A Christmas Story” by Kay Smith

Submitted to Contest #211

TAP, smack, smack! TAP, smack, smack! TAP, smack, smack! I make my way from the bottom of the wide staircase to the living room. The room is dark except for the soft, orange hue from the dying embers in the fireplace. Taking my time, I carefully navigate across the thick, multi-color, braided rug on the floor. At the fireplace, I lean my cane against the hearth and grab the two of the remaining logs, and feed them, one after the other to the fireplace. I stoop to grab some old newspaper that I crumple up and tuck here and there between ...

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“R.T., Where's Home?” by Kay Smith

Submitted to Contest #210

"Mom?" I hiss.Its pitch black; this house that belongs to her friend, where we are apparently staying for awhile. Carefully, I thread my way between stacks of unpacked, various-sized boxes, haphazardly spread in looming towers throughout the completely alien bedroom I am sharing with my little brother. Miraculously, I make it to the doorway. It opens onto a short, squat hallway. I blindly reach to my right and feel a deep void that I remember being a bathroom as I scurry forward. Not wanting to wake her friend, I grope my way forward, i...

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“Voluntary Hostage” by Kay Smith

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #209

**Warning: Possible Triggers! Explicit Language, Mental Health, and Some Violence** “I HOPE WHEN YOU GET HOME, YOU GET DRUNK AS FUCK AND YOU BLOW YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF WITH A SHOTGUN, FUCKING BITCH!” The voice; screaming , spittle flying, from the backseat through plumes of thick cigarette smoke belongs to my fourteen year old son. I am eighty-four days sober and am about to drive without a valid license to take him, for all practical purposes, to a ‘mental institution’ roughly seventy miles away. Smoke continues to roll toward the fro...

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“The Bonds that Bind” by Kay Smith

Submitted to Contest #202

**** TRIGGER WARNING ****(Substance Abuse, Mental Health, Suicidal Ideation)*******I sit across the patio table from her. I watch her down beer and chain-smoke. She is bright pink toenails and make-up, smiling serenely out at something only she can see from behind immense sunglasses. She is as laid back and buzzed as a teenager on the cusp of their first real spring break. I sip some sugar-free, peach-infused iced tea concoction my mother made, just for me! I have just made it to the six month mark in abstaining from alcohol and pills. I sig...

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“Hoe In The Garden” by Kay Smith

Submitted to Contest #202

Imagine a meteorite hurtling blindly through space toward planet Earth, unintentionally about to wreak havoc upon it. Earth sits spinning serenely on its axis as the meteorite continues along its path, each oblivious to any discord one meeting the other might bring about. This scenario is not far removed from how events unraveled following my mother falling in love with and marrying a man who would have a lasting and deep impact on my life. At the time of my mother’s marriage t...

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Author bio

Forty-five-year-old mother of three adult children (the youngest in prison for 15 years), grandmother of two, and happily married to my best friend. (Married for 13 years, together for 19.5 years) Bibliophile. I am a perpetual student, employed over the years in several fields, devoted to my family, lover of literature and theatre, and an autodidact, A cliched tortured artist who has survived too much for one lifetime, widowed at 25, a near-fatal stroke in November of 2021. My biggest dream is to write something worth reading before I croak! My Grandchildren are my gorgeous, nutty, little muses! I love reading books featuring strong women. I am developing a deep love for historical fiction. Favorite Book So Far: The Frozen River/Ariel Lawhon

Shortlisted 1 story ⭐️

Contest #209

Voluntary Hostage – read story