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Mary Bendickson

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2023

Stories (132)
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414 Followers
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132 Stories

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Working Girl

Submitted to Contest #302

Working GirlThe newly arrived settlers had been making sacrifices to accommodate requests made by the Southern Kansas Stage Line. They were considering accepting the offer of opening a rest station for the company and had generously served some of the passing stagecoaches even though they had no accommodations built yet on the land they recently claimed. Only the wagons the pioneers arrived in provided food and lodging so far. Mr. Pike, the company's agent visiting the homestead, thought maybe he should stay until the next stage came on the ...

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Plans Change

Submitted to Contest #301

Plans Change The diligent guard circled the enclosure making sure everything was secure. He could go off duty at peace. He arrived at his home and silently padded across the green lawn to the back door and let himself in. Entering the bedroom he readied himself to crawl into the comfortable bed and cozied up to the sleeping beauty already there. She instinctively encircled him with her arm and cuddled closer. All was right in his world.Dawn broke rosy and warm over the picturesque hill country of Texas. The sleeping beauty languidly stretche...

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Sunshine Beams

Submitted to Contest #300

The Marcy wagon train headed west to California from Independence, Missouri right on schedule. During the five days it took to reach Topeka, Kansas, Ford Marcy, the trail master would often visit the newly joined Potter three-wagon party mostly talking to the seventeen-year-old person in charge, Kendra. He became enchanted with her. She always looked forward to his drop-in visits no matter how brief they might be.Tragedy had struck Kendra's family and she had given up on her Pappy's dream of going to California. Trying to help her choose a n...

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Birds of a Feather

Submitted to Contest #299

Two long time neighbors met over the backyard fence. “So how's things down at the mill?”“Oh, you know how we millers are. We keep grinding them down and spitting them out. What about at the winery? Any good news there?”“Heard some good ones through the grapevine just yesterday.”“I can't wait to hear but I'll let you tell all of us at once when we get together over at the park. We plan on meeting between the telephone poles. We'll have a bird's eye view of the lay of the land and won't get our wires crossed.”“Sure, everyone can listen closely...

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Anna and Anakin

Submitted to Contest #299

Anakin paced back and forth along the wide veranda with his thumbs hooked in his suspenders. The early evening air smelled sweet from the magnolia blooms dropping from the trees. A peach pie cooling on a nearby window sill promised sweet desserts. The sun hung lazily close to the western horizon painting the humid sky purple and pink. But all this escaped his mind.He swept his straw hat off his head and ruffled his dark hair to disperse the band around his bowl cut. Tucking his hat under his arm, he dug in a pocket producing the little black...

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Invasion

Submitted to Contest #299

Invasion I see aliens. Or at least one little green man with an alien type head sporting slanted black eyes. He's carrying a six-foot four-inch tall young man in blue jeans and a yellow shirt on his shoulders. As if that's not crazy enough I also see a nine-foot tall pink great white shark standing on his tail fin giving me that old evil eye. It gets worse. A cocky rooster and an American eagle complete with an Uncle Sam top hat in red, white and blue are strutting about shaking their tail feathers challenging each other to bring it on. Bot...

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Twin Talk

Submitted to Contest #299

Twin Talk “Shush. Hey, did you hear that?”“Huh? What? You waking me up again? Isn't it enough you always have an elbow in my ear? How am I supposed to hear anything? That sound is always there. Shush, shush, shush. It lures me to sleep.”“This time it's more than that. Now listen real hard.”“Thump. Thumpity thump. Thump. Thumpity thump. That one is constant, too. Now leave me alone. And there is no room to change position. Stay where you are. Ow! You're always kicking me in the worse places.”“This is the only place we have ever been. Not my f...

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To the Rescue

Submitted to Contest #299

Sir Riley Fenwick paced back and forth wringing his hands. “Hurry up, Ole Chap! We'll never find her again if you take all day getting your shirt back on.”“Don't despair, Mate. In this crowd she can't be moving very fast. Help me tie this confounded cravat. The least this boxing venue could have done is provide a mirror back here if they expect a gentleman to strip to his bare chest to participate in a match. How is one ever supposed to go out in public again half undressed?”“Don't need to get fancy, Carlton. We're not headed to a ballroom. ...

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Do Over

Submitted to Contest #298

Do OverPrivate First Class U.S. Engineer Corps Frederick O'Reilly stepped down the steps of the train onto familiar ground. Eighteen long months from the time he left. Basic training and special engineer training followed by a heart rendering tour of duty behind front lines shuffling the wounded and the dying from wrenched trenches to overcrowded tent hospitals left him a changed man. The war to end all wars was finally brought to an armistice on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. American troops in Europe were sent...

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1918

Submitted to Contest #297

TW: Contains death1918Bitter, blustery, brutal. The billowy snow never let up all of January and February. Drifts up to the eaves. Wiggly white tunnels burrowed to the outhouses, the hog pens, the chicken coups. Homemade snowshoes were woven to navigate to the neighbors milking barn once the mule couldn't pull the sled through the winter wonderland. The record setting cold cut through the sheepskin coats and crusted the breath on whiskers, eyebrows and hair. Toes tingled in spite of woolen stockings layered in leather boots. Fingers faltered...

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Timothy's Birthday: Good Through the Rain

Author's note: This story is a remake of 'Timothy's Birthday' written for Reedsy in response to a prompt about cherry tree blossoms in March, 2023, about a month after I started writing at Reedsy. I entered it into another contest and it was picked up for publishing in an anthology 'Finding the Good Through the Rain' by Indignor House. Maybe a few copies are still available at Amazon. I deleted it from my profile when it was published there.I am stepping away from Frederick and the O'Reilly saga this week because I am heartbroken. Timothy pa...

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Magic of a Friend

Submitted to Contest #295

Magic of a FriendIt was another dark and stormy night. Seemed like all the nights since Frederick arrived on the Western Front had been dark and stormy. Dark because it was late January, 1918 and daylight hours were short, and stormy because clouds of smoke lingered after explosions of munitions erupted continuously along the trenches etched between the opposing sides. Then there were inevitable snow storms or drenching rain deluges added to make warfare even more miserable.Private First Class Frederick O'Reilly U.S. Army Engineer Corps quic...

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Black Feather

Black FeatherDaniel O'Reilly finished pounding on the piece of iron in the tongs and stuck it back into the fire to reheat. Then he pounded on it some more shaping it into the form necessary. When done he plunged it into water in a basin to quickly cool then hung it on a peg. He rolled his shoulders to loosen the muscles then wiped his brow with his long-sleeve shirt grateful for the heat of the fire on this cold January day. Working the forge had its advantages in the winter. It was wise to get supplies ahead of demand this time of year so ...

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The Face of the Isle

(Note: Title generated by Reedsy's Title Generator)The Face of the IsleThe time to ship out finally arrived. That's all anybody had talked about forever. All these brave soldiers just itching to go to war to prove themselves brave and invincible. Fred O'Reilly had to admit that's the way he had felt ever since he left the fields of South Dakota. All through basic training in South Carolina and over the last two months at Fort Devens training with the engineer corps he wanted to be on his way overseas to face the foes. Now, finally it was com...

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Love Letters

Love Letters “MAIL CALL,” Sergeant called out loud and clear. Private First Class O'Reilly and all the other soldiers at Fort Devens crowded around hoping their name would be called out as a lucky recipient.“O'Reilly.” “Sir, Yes, Sir!”Fred O'Reilly clutched the newly arrived letter to his heart when he saw who it was from, elbowed his way clear of the hungry mob and hurried to his quarters for a quiet moment to devour it immediately. Besides letters from his family he had been receiving short letters from the lovely Adeline McCormick, daught...

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