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Mai Bo

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jan, 2025

Stories (6)

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Library

5 Followers

1 Following

6 Stories

102 karma pts

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The Tracks

Mai Bo

All I’ve ever seen is the tracks. One foot after another, stepping over steel rails and rocky beds, evenly placed wood planks like ribs embedded into the earth. The tracks we all followed sat between two vast stretches of fields—there was no green or brush. Only yellowed and dried weeds. Sometimes we’d pass a tree or two, growing distantly in the plains. On the nights we rested, I dreamed of those trees. Feeling bark under my hands and leaves in my hair—tripping on the roots and splinters lodged in my fingertips. The scent of the sap and the...

0 likes

The Taxi Driver and His Passenger

Mai Bo

Submitted to Contest #293

The toll of my previous eleven-hour shifts five days in a row, with not much money to show for it, meant I let myself take a deserved nap in my parked taxi. After working odd jobs for give-or-take fifteen years, I became sick of staying in one place. Retail, construction, offices, whatever it was. I was fed up. Driving a taxi, even though I’ve got to clean up some drunks puke some nights, get yelled at by entitled white women, and I’m stuck in New York traffic 80% of the gig, I’m always movin...

9 likes

The Oil Stain

Mai Bo

Submitted to Contest #292

The commission was an honor—an elegant, regal gesture from Her Majesty, the Queen herself! To set upon a canvas and capture her clean, shimmering, opulent essence—-oh how I trembled as I bowed, accepting the task in front of the royal court. I worked—I pained! It’s near impossible even to describe the pure exhaustion I had bearing the weight of my vow to craft such a masterpiece worthy of the throne—-it nearly cursed me. I mixed the finest pigments derived from ochre and umber for her porcelain skin. Azurite—the...

10 likes

The Dust On Our Photo Albums

Mai Bo

Submitted to Contest #290

When you have to pick a picture of someone for their funeral, one that’s printed on the invitations and displayed at the front for all to see—it should represent their brightness. Their ability to light up a dark room with just their smile—embodying their happy character. But Olivia wasn’t that person. She was quiet and cold, a bit awkward, and almost timid. If you didn’t see her in the room it felt as if she wasn’t there at all. She hated social gatherings and even more, she hated having her picture taken. On the lowest shelf in our li...

6 likes

Forty-Five Minutes

Mai Bo

Submitted to Contest #289

The muffled boom of the music reverated through the thick tiled walls of the bathroom as I pushed her against them. I wrap my hands around her, one to roam around her body and another to keep me from toppling over. I kiss her, and she kisses me. There are no words needed. I can smell the alcohol on her breath—or is that me? She runs a hand down my leg, her fingers catch on a run in my stockings and suddenly I’m flooded with the reminder of my appearance and I pull away from her. “Fuck. I need to get ready.” “Wha...

14 likes

Old Fruit Stains

Mai Bo

Submitted to Contest #288

Alma, with everything she ever owned shuffling and bouncing in the back of her truck, chewed on the already sore part of her lip. Going 90 on the back road straight towards Texas where her ma and pa were waiting for her, probably sitting on the porch overlooking their family plot. Her daddy always had the idea they would fix their ranch up real nice but due to the limp in his left leg, he couldn’t tend to the land. Alma couldn’t have cared less about the land full of grass tall enough to tickle your elbows, or the old farm equipment so ruste...

9 likes