Laurel Hanson

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Nov, 2022

Stories (11)

11 Stories

692 karma pts

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“Sunset in Burma” by Laurel Hanson

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.&nbs...

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“Gone Away” by Laurel Hanson

I don’t know how I got here. That’s typical for me, at least for the last four years. It’s like a black wall went up in my brain, after which everything is smudged, jumbled, or simply missing. I’d wake up in alleys behind dumpsters with no idea how I got there. Sometimes in strangers’ beds or squalid mattresses in abandoned buildings. All pretty par for the course. But somehow, out of the fugue of my addiction, I must have finally made a good decision and gotten myself to my family’s summer cabin on the island.I’m s...

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“The Turning of the Wheel” by Laurel Hanson

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!” D...

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“Boundaries” by Laurel Hanson

-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 ...

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“Colonel Mustard in the Kitchen Without a Hearing Aid” by Laurel Hanson

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 bel...

106 comments 106 WINNER 🏆
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“Smoke and Mirrors” by Laurel Hanson

Sheltered in the shadows of the forest, we peered past the agro spears and blue fronds of stillbing to watch the magicians. They stood out in the badlands in front of a large object that made me think of the plated armor of the battlebeetles. They wore clothing from head to toe and face masks of some material, clear as air, but shiny. Sometimes, the Villagers found sharp pieces of that same air-that-is-hard substance in the dirt around the Council Ring. The tall one moved awkwardly over the rocky ground, a...

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“A Thing of Value” by Laurel Hanson

“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 ...

23 comments 23 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Correction” by Laurel Hanson

Correction“Are you sure you want this item?”Christine stared at the question blinking on the white screen. She’d never had this particular page pop up before, and come to think of it, she wasn’t at all sure she wanted to buy her son a pair of pizza socks. Sure, they were funny, but were they comfortable? Upon further reflection, it struck her that footwear decorated with cheese and pepperoni wasn’t that clever after all.“Thank-you, Amazon.” She clicked on the blin...

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“Under the Indian Sun” by Laurel Hanson

Lisa waited in the shade of the veranda, squinting down at the Untouchable village smothered in the hot gold of the Indian sun. The small huts of dung and mud formed a lonely outpost in the arid land, a scattering of impoverished cockeyed blocks. The metal signs and corrugated tin patchworked into the roofs threw splinters of light into her eyes. She turned away.  The American missionary school her parents had sent her to was up in the mountains where the air was cool and moist, the forest thick and green, scen...

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“After Midnight (you can let it all hang out)” by Laurel Hanson

She doesn’t seem all that happy to hear that I am her fairy godmother. She seems, in fact, downright – what’s the word you’d use? – skeptical. That’s it. Highly skeptical.She’s standing in her doorway, looking over my shoulder at my trim little landing craft, pointing her chin at it like it’s a discarded mining shuttle. I glance back at the running lights flickering over its surface in ultra-violet waves. The last time I had been assigned to this system, I’d had an older model landing pod with orange lights detectable to...

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“Frames of Reference” by Laurel Hanson

Her daughter had given her the Fitbit to encourage her to walk more. Judy thought it was really more like one of those doohickies prisoners wear when the state doesn’t trust them out in public. She’d worn it to make her daughter happy, but there was really no point. After she did her morning chores, walked to the 7-11 for the newspaper, watered her plants, visited with Myrtle three doors down, and locked up for...

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Author bio

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Winning 1 story 🏆

Contest #177
Colonel Mustard in the Kitchen Without a Hearing Aid – read story

Shortlisted 1 story ⭐️

Contest #175
A Thing of Value – read story