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Len Rely

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jun, 2023

Stories (34)

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14 Followers

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34 Stories

630 karma pts

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Nereid's Tale

Len Rely

Submitted to Contest #231

A small, red sun rose over a snow-covered planet of the Nereid system, the lights of a semicircular hangar carved into the side of a mountain overlooking a narrow green belt that followed the equator. Hundreds of unclothed, pale-skinned humanoids with artificial bodies toiled at their stations; a community that acted as one mind with no concept of citizenship, laws, disobedience, individual expression. Unconformity leads to selfishness and unpredictability and therefore ex...

6 likes

The Eternal Soldier

Len Rely

Submitted to Contest #230

In a temporary mess hall in Mille, France on September 1st 1944, it seemed that every table belonged to a different nation. General William “Dark Horse” Ramsay (who was then a Brigadier) was seated in the back, and would remark in his autobiography this date and location. Also present was a young Vasco Remy with his fellow guerrillas, future international trainer in irregular warfare whose memoirs from Spain are now a bestseller; but at the time Gen. Ramsay honestly did not know who these men were. Generals did not often see hand-to-ha...

6 likes

Bert and Ernie Go Skydiving: a Tribute to Salman Rushdie

Len Rely

Submitted to Contest #230

Bert and Ernie Go Skydiving: a Tribute to Salman Rushdie The only “weather” in the stratosphere is that the temperature is always below freezing (because there is nothing solid to capture the Sun’s rays), and the wind is always moving even on a calm day. So the only question of seasons is whether ice particles will melt and slow down as they descend, like a damaged single-engine plane labeled “Corporation for Public Broadcasting” that has disgorged its two passengers, dropping like a pair of atomic puns over the English Channel. The ...

7 likes

Skinwalker

Len Rely

Submitted to Contest #229

Gather around me if you wish to hear my tale, for I am a shaman king from the old country. My world is not yours, my words are not the ones spoken today. I am a wanderer of the path that separates men from beasts, and on certain nights preys upon other men. I do not do this because I dislike them or because I have no control over my actions, those are the motives of a criminal. I do it because I am a relic from a time when human predation was both normal and understood. &nb...

22 likes

The Man in the Stocks

Len Rely

Submitted to Contest #228

Just twenty-five years after the infamous Pied Piper deceived the good people of Hameln, something equally sinister occurred in the history of our town. Now to understand what happened I want you all to picture the town square as you see it now, the center of all commerce and misunderstanding, and imagine the following stores and houses along the milkman’s route which stood from left to right as I point to them… The saying that arguing between God and science is “like a butcher arguing with a baker that his bread is not meat” originate...

7 likes

The Earworm

Len Rely

Submitted to Contest #223

“My angriness from sixth grade will scar my memory for life and I will be ashamed of my sixth grade year forever.” -The Night Stalker THE EARWORM Benjamin could never discover what it was exactly that made him cease to be an ordinary student. He knew that he was one once, as he and his classmates emerged from the long dark time of uncertainty that preceded his revelations. There wasn’t a single precocious learner am...

8 likes

Darkness Has No Name

Len Rely

Submitted to Contest #221

Far out on the sea of Yblisi there are two islands connected by a river. That’s right, a freshwater river that comes from an enormous spring on the first island flows across the ocean’s surface a short distance becoming an inflowing stream on the second island. This is because the change in elevation is greater than the curvature of the sea itself; the first settlers released the spring from the high mountains and constructed a dam that keeps the tide out but allows the freshwater to leave. Millions of fish and seabirds are attracted t...

6 likes

The Troll People

Len Rely

Submitted to Contest #219

A forty-year-old man with a blonde mustache and a farmer’s shirt took a seat in the psychology office after shaking the psychologist’s hand across the desk. Also present was a man who claimed to be a sasquatch researcher, although he didn’t show any credentials.“May we begin?” the psychologist turned on a recording device. “You were saying that during your regression therapy you came across something very startling from your past that you had forgotten. Can you tell me what that is?”“Yes, in 1973 when I was ten years old I starte...

6 likes

Hell Hath None

Len Rely

Submitted to Contest #218

“Do you think an evil person can be so bad they’re already damned before it’s time for them to die?” a time-honored prostitute broke the silence at the end of the bar whose overhead lights were burned out. “I don’t s’pose I understand.” the barman stood there polishing a glass. “Do you mean you’re predestinated to go to Hell? Why would you think that?” He wonde...

5 likes

Gigi and the Detective

Len Rely

Submitted to Contest #217

The wealthy bachelor Simon Belvoir had arrived at the country house during the night. This far north it was only fifty-five degrees in August, and the place was so new there wasn’t a single amenity that had ever been used. New and cold. When he came out of his stateroom in the morning he was wearing a wool vest with four gold buttons over his dress shirt. Passing by the room next to his in the uppe...

3 likes

The Siren

Len Rely

Submitted to Contest #216

“She’s just sixteen years old, leave her alone they said…”THE SIRENMr. Harris’ English class assembled at the bell. There was a thin paperback placed on each desk with a sailing ship on its cover. Mr. Harris sat straight-backed wearing a tartan vest out of charity to whoever had given it to him. Among teachers he was one of the most respected by students, in fact he had just diffused a fistfight in the last period by dr...

11 likes

The Blitz

Len Rely

Submitted to Contest #215

Let me tell you what it means to be fashionable. Everybody who is anybody is doing something fun and exciting at this precise second, and whatever you are doing is not nearly as hip, provocative or sexy. They're out there living the high life, getting greased, lighting up, making with each other. People who know what to say at exactly the right moment, not any pearls of wisdom, just whatever flips the previous statement on its ear to keep the enjoyment moving. It might be a joke about t...

7 likes

Black Christmas

Len Rely

Submitted to Contest #211

The day Brianne encountered the strange, handsome man would have been as boring as Christmas in July. Griffith Bros. had forced the storefronts across the street out of business, and then bought up all their merchandise for a fraction of its value, so now there was a rush of people bigger than Black Friday buying up everything on the shelves. Come to think of it, there were more black trench coats and black scarves and black hats than anything else and it wasn’t even December, doing the Griffiths the favor of clearing the space for them as p...

5 likes

The Outsiders

Len Rely

Submitted to Contest #210

Dear Future Explorers,What you have discovered is a time capsule from the mid-21st Century, which I know will be strange to you as the concept of time has changed in my own lifetime and this custom is long out of use. But elementary students are still required to learn manual writing and they still bury things to learn the importance of digging up the past. So I, Dr. Lewis Degrassi have been asked by Mrs. Marshall’s fifth grade class to include this journal which the students themselves will never read. I predict that by your time there will...

6 likes

The Hob

Len Rely

Submitted to Contest #210

This story was passed down by my father. At the time a great deal of Scottish folklore and heroism was not common knowledge to the outside world, for example when my great-grandmother saw uniformed men being enlisted for war in our town she thought they were “reivers”, land pirates. In 1940 when Da was a very young lad he came into the house one day to see a short little hob of a man, just three feet tall with a long white beard, sitting on the edge of the supper table conversing with his father. And to his astonishment this little man...

8 likes