Laurel Hanson

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Nov, 2022

Stories (20)

20 Stories

1887 karma pts

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“Multitasking” by Laurel Hanson

It’s so tempting not to take the call. I've just sat down to enjoy a rare moment of solitude. The twins are watching cartoons in the basement. The scent of freshly perked coffee beckons. Sunlight is pouring in through the back door. If this was a Disney movie, birds would be singing on my shoulder. I am easing my entire being into this puddle of serenity when the ominous “duh da…duh da…” of the Jaws soundtrack pulses from my phone. Kathy. She has issues. She will need to explain her issues. In depth. ...

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“Pagmamano” by Laurel Hanson

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....

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“Beragrub and the Beast” by Laurel Hanson

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 conglomerat...

61 comments 61 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“The New Girl” by Laurel Hanson

The new girl was saying cheerfully, “Speak now. ‘Tis your cue." ‘She has got to be kidding,’ said the voice inside my head. “Umm,” said my actual voice, demonstrating my extraordinary ability to throw a wet blanket over any conversation. In my defense, I should mention that I am the lucky victim of a scholarship for an elite education to this boarding school. My parents said it was an opportunity for me to “improve” myself, and it probably was. What we didn’t know when I st...

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“Once Upon All Times” by Laurel Hanson

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 tak...

39 comments 39 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Near and Far” by Laurel Hanson

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...

75 comments 75 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Our Just Deserves?” by Laurel Hanson

“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 ...

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“Bottled Up” by Laurel Hanson

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.

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“When We Fly” by Laurel Hanson

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 involv...

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“Of Harpers and Heroes” by Laurel Hanson

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 ...

143 comments 143 WINNER 🏆
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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...

129 comments 129 WINNER 🏆
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Author bio

Laurel Hanson has not written a bio yet!

Winning 2 stories 🏆

Contest #183
Of Harpers and Heroes – read story
Contest #177
Colonel Mustard in the Kitchen Without a Hearing Aid – read story

Shortlisted 4 stories ⭐️

Contest #193
Beragrub and the Beast – read story
Contest #189
Once Upon All Times – read story
Contest #188
Near and Far – read story
Contest #175
A Thing of Value – read story