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Mary Bendickson

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2023

Stories (139)
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139 Stories

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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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Off to War

Off To War Frederick O'Reilly jumped from one forge into another. He willingly joined the US Army believing he would be sent to the front lines where he could prove himself as a fighting force. It didn't hurt that he would be making thirty dollars a month as a soldier. Or, if he could raise up in the ranks by merit, he could possibly make more. It was an amount of money he never came close to earning working at the forge back on the South Dakota ranch. The young doughboy's grand plan was to live on as little as possible while on duty, hold s...

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Patrick and the Blue-Blooded Red-Heads

Patrick and Blue Blooded Red-Heads Patrick surveyed his kingdom from his kitchen table and concluded life was indeed good. As he finished his breakfast of fried eggs, thick sliced bacon, homemade bread with jam and fresh milk he watched his four red-headed O'Reilly sons hurriedly snarfing down their own meals as if it may be their last for a long time to come. His only daughter, Maggie, a budding beauty at age six with soft red-gold hair, already finished her portion and returned once again to churning butter. His lovely faithful wife, Leona...

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Fred Forges On

Fred Forges On Private Frederick O'Reilly stared at the familiar painting in the book. He was surprised to see the very same picture that was hanging on the wall of his parlor back in his far away South Dakota home here in front of him. What was it doing in a book full of world maps? Unlike other guys in this South Carolina camp who were out partying, he was spending a rare day off in the library researching the lands he thought he might be sent to when his soldier training was completed. Some of the maps showed empires and the royalty of th...

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Leona

LeonaAuthor's note: Most people in paragraph marked with * did exist. My purely fictional characters stretched the truth very liberally and thin around them. Leona fretted about her son. Leona O'Reilly, wife of Irishman, Patrick O'Reilly, mother of four red-headed sons ages seven to fifteen and one little girl with red-gold long curls, sat at the family kitchen table with the brief letter her eldest son, Fred, had written from the far away camp where at age eighteen he was learning to be a soldier. Although he tried to keep it cheerful for...

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Unknown Enemies

Unknown Enemies Frederick woke up in an unfamiliar room wondering how he got there. He was in a bunk bed. He had slept in bunk beds most of his eighteen years but he was on the top bed. Usually he slept on the bottom with his younger brother, er, half-brother, Danny, above him. Soon he realized he was surrounded by rows of bunk beds all occupied by rumpled looking lads exactly like him. Somewhere a memory lingered. A sweet unexpected kiss. If he closed his eyes he could taste it again when he touched his lips. No time for that now. Maybe ne...

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Farewell Kiss

Submitted to Contest #290

Farewell Kiss Pretty Adeline McCormick, daughter of the ranch owner Frederick O'Reilly worked for, was nice enough to offer him a ride to the train station some thirty miles from home in Hand County, South Dakota. The thoroughly modern sporty car was small but Frederick's mom, Leona, and little sister, Maggie, granted a rare holiday from their never ending duties keeping house for Patrick O'Reilly's red-headed mob of boys, squeezed in to see Fred off to military training so far away they couldn't comprehend where he would be. Then after boot...

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Life Sentence

Life SentenceFred slung another horse shoe into the bin and straightened to work the kinks out of his back. He wasn't yet eighteen years old and felt like an old man. The grueling labor at the forge had molded his naturally athletic body into herculean shape but it was taking it's toll on his joints and his psyche. How many horse shoes were needed in this 1917 modern age of horseless carriages? Sure, he fashioned many types of farming implements at his anvil but he felt like he was wasting his mental acuity and his heritage at a task any mus...

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Telltale Sign

Submitted to Contest #289

Telltale Sign Maggie sat in the dusty yard admiring her new doll. Her first doll ever. The birthday girl at four-years-old never knew little girls and dolls went together like boys and climbing trees. As the only girl among five boys in her family she had only played however those boys played. Sticks as swords or twigs raking the dust prepping the soil for 'planting season'. This doll was delicately dressed in a pink silky dress with lots of lace up to her neck beneath her porcelain face with its flushed cheeks and rose-bud mouth showing tin...

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