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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2021
That boy gives me no rest. But he will not wear me down. I will seek him, I will find him and I will kill him.Dare I say he is worse than those uncircumcised men! Those uncircumcised men, who are like a plague that won’t die, like a nightmare that won’t end. They just keep coming back. Honestly, no sooner we send them galivanting back across the desert to Gath, no sooner they come right back for more. Either they’re gluttons for punishment, deluded or they need to fire their advisors.They underestimate ...
The house at the end of Beverley is enthroned with pink blossom trees. From the outside alone, a pale bricked driveway swept clean, I can tell this household likes to keep everything in order. Spring shivers through the branches as I bring my own ride, an ergonomic budget-friendly hatchback, to a stop. I wonder, gazing through the window if the party’ll be hosted outside.Spring is my favourite season, but sadly, it’s incredibly temperamental. I have vivid memories of enduring outdoor functions whereby all four seasons fo...
The headteacher doesn't look up from his desk. He has a MacBook on his left, and a cup painted with watercolour cats on his right. He stabs at the keyboard, one key at a time, staring intently into the screen behind a pair of bug-eyed spectacles. He slurps the tepid tea and stabs, slurps and stabs, then curses quietly when the computer lets out its own explicit at his data entry misstep.His visitor watches him from the opposite end of the room, hidden in the shade of a banana leaf plant, her brown eyes taking him in, in ...
“A man’s pursuit for wealth and fame is his greatest downfall”What a statement! I hear you exclaim. Please know, dear reader, I’m not intentionally trying to rustle feathers. I’m not trying to make a name for myself and become known for my thinking like the great Aristotle. No, I’m a simple man making a, quite frankly, obvious observation.Although I am now old and suffering from “disease in my legs” (the physician insists it is gout), spending my latter years prostrated on my bed, I ha...
The car is covered in plastic but the driver doesn’t address my masklessness. He reapplies his own, cordially, and through the rear-view mirror, asks me with smiling eyes where I want to go.I try to recall the address but the familiar sights of the oak-lined avenues and feeling of stiffness after a four-hour journey generate an automated answer.“Home,” I say.“Ah,” his brightness is muted by his facemask. He glances at my luggage contaminating his plastic sheets with dried mud and probably the COVID virus; must be nice...
TW: GriefWe lie, wide awake, spooning in bed and listen with frustrated envy to our younger neighbours putting their mattress to work on the other side of the wall. It’s not lost on me how ironic it is that their lovemaking intrudes on our own. The sounds are so distracting that I feel physically exhausted just listening and suddenly the wild night we’d both planned doesn’t feel so appealing anymore.“I’m sorry,” I sigh hugging Santi’s arms wrapped around my soft middle, “I just…can’t. Not with that <...
As Amina’s eyes zip down to the next row of paperbacks and finally locate the correct section, she ironically fails to notice the squatting man browsing through the lower shelf. The man barely loses balance, but his grumbling unsettles Amina. She snatches the recommended book and backs out of the narrow aisle, profusely apologising. Feeling flustered, she presses the novel against her chest and slides into the view of the front desk’s library assistant. She has fortunately bagged the last copy.Why is my heart beating so fast?!<...
The queue provides the perfect excuse for Malika to return to her Toyota, take the forty-minute ride back to her maisonette and keep her reputation in check. She thinks about sliding out from between two pairs of loved up couples and returning to her life of modesty and mundaneness. But if she does that, she’s proving him right, isn’t she?If she backs out now, she’s letting him win. And she’s not going to let him win.Not today, not this time.I’m staying; she resolves, shutting down her introverted mind. Pus...
The family of three (minus Caleb’s wife, who had booked a solo all-day retreat last minute without telling her husband) rattled through the turnstile after the holiday club rep Carmita as she signalled the direction of the activity pool and facilities.“Be quick,” she warned, in accented English, and tapped on her Casio as Caleb steered his family towards the changing room, “the swimming has already started.”The family changing room was completely empty, much to Caleb’s relief. With a huge sigh, he allowed the luggage he’d ma...
I jerk awake from my stupor and feel it coming on fast.There’s this bizarre transition from total peace and dormitory to vivid awakening. An awakening so sudden and vicious enough to gatecrash a pleasant dream, slap consciousness back into the body and set off all the internal system’s alarm bells that something is very very wrong.As I come to, swaddled like Baby Jesus in layers of tartan blankets, sandwiched toastily between two other dosing relatives, I feel it tear through my innards and explode acro...
My name is Zeva. And I am reminded of it every day.*At the superstore, the cashier scans through my allowance and double-takes the chocolate that I put in a special request for. She bounces it up and down to feel its weight. It’s a 500g bar, barely weighing anything. It’s nothing compared to the others’ shopping, but it’s everything to me. My heart almost stops when she pushes my chocolate aside without scanning it and totals the rest of my bill.“That’ll be 42,” she says with a straigh...
“We have plenty of time”Without a word, she revolved in place with hands on hips, elbows jutted and lips puckered. As her eyes glared down at our bodies adorned with lingerie and filigree, I imagined her brain firing up all over again. The blasé comment was a fatal mistake, offered up by the trust fund teenager, in a moment far from optimistic. If the teenager had taken a second to read the room, she would have understood that the fire - her cousin - was already smoking and didn’t need any more poking. The careless comment was anot...
15-Hello.Woah. It’s dark here.Here…wait. Where is here? I’m not sure.Okay. Think. Think for a second. Get your bearings.Hmmm. What was I just doing before that wave of consciousness?Ah, I don’t know. At least, I can’t remember.Maybe I have been here before? Maybe not? Maybe I do know this eerie darkness.19-So.I don’t remember anything. Or exac...
Hue Nielson kept a tally chart on his desk wall.Every Monday, he arrived at his station somewhere between ten thirty and eleven, in his creased untucked suit and blonde bed hair with enough noise to overshadow his fellow salesmen in mid pitch. His priorities were off. The huddle on Monday was never his first priority, as it should have been for every sales representative at Gregory & Gordon. No, Hue Nielson’s first priority was to take a black marker, straighten the chart on the wall, and add a line to his tally. To ...
The drain had been blocked for two hours, but after the third she’d managed to clear it.She fell back, stood up over the basin and waited.It had congealed but finally it caught suction, slurping away.The cleaning fluid she’d used tempted her sinuses, but her eyes were already starting to dry.When she was sure it was all gone, she stripped and stood under a warm stream.In the shower, the residue was scrubbed off of her body. It clung to the creases in her hands and the beds of her nails, but it came away....
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