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Laurel Hanson

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Nov, 2022

Stories (18)

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218 Followers

39 Following

18 Stories

2055 karma pts

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Over All the Living and the Dead

Submitted to Contest #227

As often as she’d wished him dead, when Jim finally did break his neck, it came as a shock. Carrolynn stared down at the crooked body sprawled in the snow, the roof rake just beyond the reach of his outflung hand. She’d always figured she’d be jubilant if he ever managed to kill himself, but instead her thoughts were as frozen as the weather. Numb, I feel numb, she thought, blinking down at the inert form of the man who had been her husband.She had so often dreamed of him drunkenly tumbling down the narrow stairs in their aging farmhous...

19 likes

After the Fall

Shortlisted for Contest #221 ⭐️

Smokey shapes hover over me in dark smudges I cannot erase. I try to push my way past the tangled grey, but icy claws grip my arms. The air, too hot, feels clotted. Between the pulsing shrieks that always accompany these dreams, an unfamiliar voice weaves its question over and over. “Remember?” I want to scream but fear locks my throat.When I open my eyes, it is to the green relief of my back garden and the woods beyond. I must have fallen asleep in my rocker on the porch. It’s bathed in afternoon sun, warm and soothing, which is why it’s my...

34 likes

Pagmamano

Submitted to Contest #195

He wakes up in the heat. The moist air poaches him in his own skin. Water dripping off the canopy in a steady rhythm is punctuated by the distant cries of jungle birds. He feels spiders making their way under his fatigues but can’t move to brush them off. He must stay absolutely still or risk giving away their position.The dripping turns into a strange high-pitched beeping. Pain radiating up his legs is like battalions of fire ants swarming their way to his thighs. The darkness is swallowing him.He opened his eyes to hard white light and an ...

40 likes

Beragrub and the Beast

Shortlisted for Contest #193 ⭐️

Caution: story contains a little bit of inappropriate languageBy the third day, Adam was pretty much covered in thick, lustrous fur. You cannot ask for better results than that. And how did he thank me? Completely ghosted me. Not just me, everyone. No online presence at all. You would think he would be showing off the glossy pelt my elixir made possible, but no. Some people are never satisfied.Admittedly, I was not supposed to get involved. That is the first rule of our interstellar conglomerate. You call it the prime directive I believe: Do...

42 likes

Once Upon All Times

Shortlisted for Contest #189 ⭐️

The grandmother had finally rounded up the children and marshaled them through their bedtime routine like a military operation: brushing teeth, scrubbing hands and faces, changing into pjs, locating stuffed animals that had gotten lost in the excitement of the day. But going to sleep itself, that was another matter for three small children in beds that were not their own. A summer with their grandparents was going to take some getting used to. The children squirmed anxiously beneath their blankets. A request for a nightlight came from the ...

57 likes

Near and Far

Shortlisted for Contest #188 ⭐️

A bagful of popcorn kernels, three ripe tomatoes, three wire coat hangers, and six marbles. That’s all it’s going to take for me to be able to see without glasses. I am super nearsighted and have to wear these really thick glasses that I hate. I’ve been wearing them since I was eight and thought the bright pink frames were awesome. But now I’m eleven and they are not even remotely awesome. My folks can’t afford new frames, or better yet, contacts, so I have to take this chance.I know it is completely ridiculous, but right now, I don’t c...

46 likes

Our Just Deserves?

Submitted to Contest #186

“I want it!” My mom won’t let me get any candy because she says I’ll get hyper in the movie, but I won’t. I’ll eat my gummy bears and M&Ms one-by-one, so I don’t get sick. I will too be good, I said. Other kids are filling little sacks from the big glass tubes of candy. It makes a happy sound falling in the trays. The other kids have piles of color in their hands and are laughing. I bet they didn’t have to promise to be good. Mom said maybe after the movie. If I’m good. But she’s lying. I know that maybe means never. I wan...

26 likes

Bottled Up

Submitted to Contest #185

First, everyone was needling me to figure out what the jars were for, and now I’m being written up because of them. I sit in the HR office with the HR lady, the charge nurse, and my boss, Mrs. Stevens, who’s the head of custodial services. Everything is done by committee at the retirement community where I work in the assisted living wing, so it’s going to take a committee to decide to fire me. Mrs. Stevens has a face like a billboard, advertising disapproval. She is not about to have the reputation of her cleaning staff sullied by the l...

35 likes

When We Fly

Submitted to Contest #184

Note: This account is (mostly) true. Names have been changed per FERPA regulations.“Houston, we have a problem,” I announce unnecessarily.“More like a lot of problems,” Gabe offers. True that.Let me back up. Second period is kind of a shitshow from the start.I had almost completed the mini decathlon event our district requires teachers to accomplish during the six-minute break between classes. It is a ten-step challenge of mental and physical endurance involving equipment hookup, remote Classroom set-up, lesson coordination, media uploads, d...

27 likes

Of Harpers and Heroes

Winner of Contest #183 🏆

A smattering of applause dappled the last notes of his song. He let it die out in the darkening tavern before rising, joints stiff from the long performance.“Play the one about the Hero of Faron,” a voice slurred from a dim recess.“Aye, that’s a good ‘un,” Harrow acknowledged agreeably, hoping to collect his dinner without a confrontation with yet another inebriated villager. Slinging his guitar over his shoulder, he called out, “mayhap tomorrow night.”The drunk set up a complaint cut short by the innkeep harrumphing her way between them lik...

158 likes

143 comments 143

Sunset in Burma

Submitted to Contest #182

Note: I have retained the historically correct place names, though they have since changed.I promised myself I would tell this story when I came to America in 1974. And I tried. But then I found out that most people didn’t know Burma was a country in the first place. I couldn’t tell a story about what was happening in a country that didn’t even exist in their mental geography. That’s something people can’t hear.To be fair, I didn’t hear what I was being told either, even though I was there. Not until a letter travelled halfway round the...

36 likes

The Turning of the Wheel

Submitted to Contest #180

Dance stood there, mouth hanging open. He stared at the grey-faced old man who had delivered the verdict, attempting to form words out of the maelstrom of confusion, hurt, and disbelief in his head.“But, I am…” he faltered, not sure how to proceed. If he was to claim he had been the best in the trials, he would sound arrogant on the one hand while insulting to the other applicants on the other. Even though it was true.The maester finished for him. “The best in your level.”“Yes!” Dance’s breath gusted out in relief at not having to say i...

25 likes

Boundaries

Submitted to Contest #179

-Contains some foul language-See, this is what I told the cop. That asshole neighbor of mine has been a pain in my butt for years. Always accusing me of being on his precious property, claiming I left my old washing machine on his side of the line, blah, blah, boo hoo. He’s a farmer for Cripes sake! There’s acres of field out there, but I get anywhere near his boundary, he’s coming at me like a bat out a hell.Which is what happened Friday last, and I told that to the cop, like I’m telling you now. See, I had a bit of free time on my han...

24 likes

Colonel Mustard in the Kitchen Without a Hearing Aid

Winner of Contest #177 🏆

Note: brief reference to ableist languageRachel stood at the kitchen sink watching the snow fall softly over the back yard, muffling the world in its white overcoat. She wanted to wrap her mind up the same snug way, but in the living room, her husband was watching some show where commentators loudly traded barbs and lobbed insults at each other. The noise was incessant. Oh! The noise, noise, noise, noise! she thought, visualizing herself poised on a snowy crag, ear cocked to the Whos down in Whoville below, except these were clamor...

153 likes

136 comments 136

A Thing of Value

Shortlisted for Contest #175 ⭐️

“You should not be doing that.”I looked down at the frail bird of a woman leaning on her cane in front of me. Her eyes were the kind of faded blue you can only get by leaving denim out in the sun too long. They nested in a mass of wrinkles, a face like a dried apple doll. Still, there was a sharpness in her glare that drilled into me from a good foot and a half below my chin. I’d hit 6’ this summer, so this lady was short, but she also looked like she wasn’t going to take any lip from anyone.I had been warned to be polite to Mrs. Grunwa...

40 likes