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Mary Bendickson

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2023

Stories (147)
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147 Stories

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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...

39 likes 36 comments 36
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Right Cup of Tea

Submitted to Contest #287

Right Cup of Tea Armed with pamphlets and instructions on caring for recovering stroke patient, Uncle Simon, Claire climbs into the front passenger seat of Lefty's big pick-up for the trip out to his Wimberley, Texas ranch. Try as she might want to admire her new surroundings as the gentle hills start rolling by, her head starts lolling to the side. Soon she is as sound asleep as Patches curled in the cat carrier next to her. The back-pack containing her laptop and all her worldly possessions is at her feet. The rancher driving can't help bu...

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Life in a Suitcase

Submitted to Contest #286

Life in a Suitcase“You're here to help, you say?” Lefty Long grins his widest Texan smile at the disheveled traveler, Claire Calhoun. “Looks like you need a little help yourself, first.”Claire's unruly curly hair falls in front of her face as she looks down at her rumpled traveling hoodie, black smudged tight faded jeans adorned with unraveling fashion rips spaced strategically down her shapely bike-toned legs and sensible running shoes. The unmistakable charred smell assaults her nostrils once again reminding her how much she craves a nice ...

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Making a List

Submitted to Contest #285

Making a List3-2-1!At first it seemed like nothing, nothing at all happened. Was this only hype, a cruel hoax played on the world?Then a loud rumbling started in the distance and rolled over our heads in a whoosh of violent wind. A cacophony of sounds exploded above. Even Grandma who lived through the last war wasn't sure what it could be. All our electronic devices winked out at the same moment. We donned our gas masks to be extra cautious. We waited. Finally, we sighed a collective sigh of relief when we were sure we had survived at least ...

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Help Needed

Submitted to Contest #284

Help Needed Claire leaned her aching head back on the bus headrest and tried to close her eyes. She was ten hours in to what was promised a 20 hour trip so figured she finally had time to relax enough to get some real sleep, if that was ever possible again. She had just stretched her legs in Tucson and let her cat, Patches, out of her carrier to use the makeshift litter tray and drink some water. The cat had already settled back into an afternoon nap. Still feeling grittiness in her eyes, Claire rubbed them with the kerchief hanging around h...

29 likes 39 comments 39
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Spin-Cycle

Submitted to Contest #283

Ridin’ around in my automobile. Tryin’ not to fall asleep at the wheel. Round and round and round I go. Where I’ll land nobody knows.Caught in a spin cycle. Spinning my wheels. Never any end in sight. Think I’m getting ahead then some guy on a steel horse passes me by. Heck, the rate I’m going even the guy pushing the wheelbarrow is catching up to me. Endless, I’m tellin’ ya. Hopeless. I put in my paces, smile at the faceless faces hiding under haute hats all so I can chase that elusive money bag, pick up my salary and get on the move again....

30 likes 28 comments 28
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Two-Cute Koolridges

Submitted to Contest #282

“I'm sorry, Honey.”“Chrissy, what do you have to be sorry for?”“The Christmas gifts I got for you. I'm still confined to minimum activity until my Cesarean scar heals more so I could only shop online. The Carhartt vest is too tight on you. Even though I love to cuddle with you I didn't realize how big your chest really is. And then I ordered that lame meat and cracker assortment. How original is that?”“If I recall, you recently presented me with the greatest gifts any woman can give a man. Two bundles of joy. Bouncing twin boys! My world is ...

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Second Fair Chance

Submitted to Contest #282

Second Fair Chance “Lord Farnsworth, thank you so much for inviting me to dinner. I want to apologize for anything I did to create tension between us and let you know how grateful I am to have this second chance to make a better impression.”“Well, Sir Fenwick, be assured if I didn't cherish my daughter, Charity, so much you would never get another opportunity to make appeasement. She begged me to reconsider my dismissal of your attentions toward her. She is very taken with you so you must not be all that horrible. Maybe a little misguided wh...

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