Lauren Pagano

“Hello Goodbye” by Lauren Pagano

The end began with a cry. "It's a girl," the doctor happily announced as he gently finished pulling the baby out the rest of the way, and reached to the instrument table beside him to grab what looked like a pair of very large scissors. Almost immediately following the doctor's announcement, the baby began to wail. Upon hearing her first cry, Sarah dropped her head back down onto the pillow behind her with a sigh of both intense relief and unrelenting sorrow, wishing she too could wail as the baby did. The baby continued to cry as the d...

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“The Empty Space After Sacrifice” by Lauren Pagano

Submitted to Contest #81

The moment Jeremy rounded the corner and began to exit the terminal, Anna's eyes immediately found him.Despite the fact that he was swarmed in a sea of fellow servicemen and women, Anna found it impossible to miss him. If the last seven years as an army wife had taught Anna anything, it was how to spot out her husband in a sea of camouflage. It felt like a sixth sense at this point. A survival tactic if you will.Find your husband in the crowd. If you can see him you know he's really here. If he's really here, that means he's okay. If he's re...

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“No Baker Left Behind” by Lauren Pagano

Submitted to Contest #71

Claudia was a woman of uncertainty. Small to monstrous moments were full of questions, ifs, and maybes. There was simply no getting around it. Claudia was uncertain if she would make next month's rent. Uncertain whether she'd made the right decision in breaking it off with James last Christmas. Uncertain whether she'd ever see the world beyond the small town of Pembroke. Quite frankly she was uncertain as to whether her dreams were even within reach anymore. Uncertainty might as well have been Claudia's middle name. But despite all this...

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“Welcome to Meliora Academy (Part One)” by Lauren Pagano

Submitted to Contest #64

Trust nobody. With that oh so verbose advice in mind, the agents thrust a new passport, student ID, and fifty dollars cash into Amelia's shaky hands and without another word pivoted and left, the click of the door behind them echoing throughout the empty dorm room. Alone and unsure of what to do with herself, Amelia looked down at the student ID she held in her shaking hands. There on the card was her bright smiling face looking back at her. The photo taken just three months ago, suddenly seemed like lifetimes ago. Amelia looked away, t...

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“Three Hours at the Orchard” by Lauren Pagano

Submitted to Contest #63

"Picking our food off of trees? What are we amish now?...No. No, I don't think we're supposed to do this. I don't like this" David huffed gesturing around the orchard.Sarah yanked a dark red apple off of a branch and with a huff turned back towards David. "My God. This isn't torture, it's supposed to be fun David. Remember what that's like?" she said with an eye roll."Fun? FUN?" David retorted, "There is nothing fun about manual labor.""Manual labor?! David, it's apple picking." Sarah said while turning back around and picking another apple ...

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“Number Fourteen ” by Lauren Pagano

Submitted to Contest #51

Growing up Jonah wasn't one to believe in fate, destiny, or any of that inevitability nonsense. He was a man who believed you were a product of not only circumstance, but also of choice. Actually, most importantly of choice. And as far as Jonah was concerned, he'd always tried his hardest to make the best choices possible. Truly he had.He had given all his paper route money to his parents to get dinner on the table as a young boy.He used his salary from his job at the bookstore to buy the family their first television set after his mother ex...

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“Fourth Time Is a Charm?” by Lauren Pagano

Submitted to Contest #50

The first time had been the easiest. Sarah took in the moment in absolute shock- stunned into abject horror as she took in the scene before her.There he sat perched on one knee in all his gangly awkward high school glory, looking up at her with an apprehension only a senior in high school could have while faced with the daunting prospect of proposing. Yes, proposing proposing. The situation looked as absurd as it sounded. Sarah couldn’t understand how this moment arose. Seconds ago Damon had held her Calc 1 textbook in his hands going o...

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“On the Other Side of the Door” by Lauren Pagano

Submitted to Contest #49

Lily knew she should've been used to waiting rooms at this point. She was fairly certain she'd seen the inside of every single waiting room in Springfield at this point.Big.Small.Themed.Empty.Clinical. Packed.Dreary.Name an office with a waiting room and Lily had probably been there and done that.So, it was with a gloomy resignation over time, that Lily had found herself becoming one with the routine that was the waiting room.She knew the routine like the back of her hand. From the waiting room she had sat in for a half hour last week which ...

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“A POSITIVELY Spooky Evening ” by Lauren Pagano

Submitted to Contest #13

It had been a little over two years since Sarah and Robert had begun trying. At this point Sarah considered herself an expert in compartmentalizing the sorrow she felt every time another negative test found its way from her hands and into the seemingly bottomless trash of all her maternal dreams. The insensitive chattering from friends and family that had once rattled her to the core was now simply an incessant buzzing she shoved to the back of her mind to the best of her abilities."Oh when are you two ever gonna have children?" all the aunt...

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