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Mary Bendickson

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2023

Stories (134)
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134 Stories

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Pitfall

Submitted to Contest #227

PitfallThe abominable snowman stomped in the front door of the cozy resort cabin, rolled the bundle of firewood off his arms and dusted the flakes from his shoulders before removing his wet layers to hang next to the fireplace. Then he unlaced and toed off his insulated boots to exchange for floppy slippers, grabbed a log and fed it to the blaze before sinking into the deep, button-tufted arm chair next to the hearth.“Here ya go, Bro.” I handed my best friend the steaming cup of hot chocolate with the marshmallows beginning to melt down into...

18 likes 16 comments 16
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Led Into Temptation

Submitted to Contest #226

Led Into Temptation Aaron waited. Waited and waited. Still no sign of his younger brother. How much longer should he wait? Aaron worried. Worried and worried. How much longer would he have to worry? It was driving him to distraction. Maybe that's what he needed... a distraction. That crazy kid brother. Well, not so much a kid anymore. But even when he was younger he always had his head in the clouds. Like he was following some divine intuition. Boy, the things that kid had talked him into helping him out with, especially recently. It all c...

21 likes 20 comments 20
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What Says The Mirror

Submitted to Contest #225

What Says The Mirror“Don't judge me. Yeah, I am talking to you, Doppelganger. I only can repeat what I see. You come to me every day. Morning and night. Looking. Searching. Asking questions. Always with the questions. What do you expect from me?“You want me to force you to confront your own truths? Well, the truth is--How should I know? Look at you! That's all I can help you with. I am the same. Yesterday, today and probably will be tomorrow.“I hang around here all the time, whether you are around or not, and stare at that stupid wall over t...

27 likes 32 comments 32
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Hang It On The Moon

Submitted to Contest #224

Hang It On The Moon There was once a little girl born under a waning crescent moon. Her father, an amateur artist, presented her mother with a custom hand-painted art work of the infant sound asleep cuddled on the arch. The picture hung over her bed all of her childhood years. She carried it to her college dorm room and to her first home when she started adulting on her own with the first job of her career as a space scientist. While others romanticized about the full moon she felt an unwavering attachment to that slender hook of a moon. Per...

30 likes 34 comments 34
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The Battle Rages On

The Battle Rages On Up until Sept of this year in the US there have been 389 school shootings since Columbine in 1999 according to the Washington Post data. I have been on a kick over the last few weeks of writing about my home town. This historical account is in Wikipedia: “On May 16, 2018, a 19-year-old student, entered Dixon High School and fired shots during graduation practice.[13] He was pursued by School Resource Officer Mark Dallas, of the Dixon Police Department. After firing shots at the officer, the shooter was wounded by Dall...

14 likes 15 comments 15
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Hometown Boy

Submitted to Contest #222

Hometown Boy The year was 1920. Nine-year-old, Dutch, moaned to his four-year-older brother, Moon, “This is all there is?” “Yeah, ain't it grand? Everything they promised. Well, nothing like the run-down row houses of Chicago. Maybe you don't remember them but they were crammed in pretty tight with no room to play ball at all. Had to walk down two or three streets and cross busy traffic lanes just to get to green open space at a park. Never knew what kind of riff-raft might jump out at ya. Ma wouldn't let us go alone and Dad, well, he was ...

24 likes 28 comments 28
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Run, Forest, Run

Submitted to Contest #221

Run, Forest, RunI blink. Once, twice, three times. I squeeze my eyes tightly shut, hold for a moment or two before opening and rubbing them with clenched fists. But to no use. It is still before me. Have I been asleep? Am I dreaming? No, I am sure I have not been. Had to fight the urge to sleep but I have stayed awake.I turn on my flashlight to dispel the pitch blackness. Nothing there. I flick the light off again because the last thing I want is to lose all the battery charge. There it, or he or she, is again. Large as life. Clear as--- wel...

31 likes 42 comments 42
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Cinnamon Cookie Cure All

Submitted to Contest #220

Cinnamon Cookie Cure All I remember Granny, my mom's mom, being about as round as she was tall. She was a fireball of energy carrying a big stick. Usually a yard stick she wasn't afraid to use on your backside if you didn't stick to the straight and narrow. She mostly aimed it at my younger brother, 'the Little Scheister'. He especially would get in trouble for hiding her yard stick. Granny lived with us on and off throughout my childhood. Most of the time she lived in our house where ever that was, in Texas when I was very young, or later...

44 likes 37 comments 37
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When Falls The Night

Submitted to Contest #219

When Falls the the Night It was a dark and foggy night. Well, the night had started normal enough. The early fall day had pleasant temperatures but as the day turned into night the temperatures fell rapidly so as the earth cooled mist started rising and fog rolled in. The thick, soupy kind of fog. When it falls it makes the world silent and so white it is dark. Starting in the low areas and gradually filling in everywhere cutting visibility to almost nil. The nine pm drive to the energy plant turned sketchy with all the twists, turns and h...

22 likes 17 comments 17
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The Gift

Submitted to Contest #218

The Gift I wish to impart to you, my friend, a gift. Hopefully, you will be able to put it to use now and throughout your lifetime. It should be renewable and sustainable. You may even pass it on to another if you choose. I only ask you use it wisely and cautiously. It can be very powerful. I do not intend to be so mysterious. I will tell you what the gift is and what it isn't. It isn't a panacea for all life's woes. But it can be a tool to help cope with whatever struggles and strife life lays at your doorstep and to reach self-improvement...

33 likes 33 comments 33
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Where the Wild Things Aren't

Submitted to Contest #217

Where the Wild Things Aren'tI approached the door with trepidation. I had been here numerous times before. I had every right to be here. I held the key in my hand. Thankfully, the lock slid open flawlessly. But when I tried the door it stuck—again. As it had every other time whenever I arrived. Even with a glove on for a more secure grip, the door wouldn't budge to give up the treasures within.From previous visits I knew what awaited inside was like a museum. A tangible testimony to the lifetime talents and holdings of the formidable Dragon ...

44 likes 42 comments 42
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Walking to California

Submitted to Contest #216

Kendra finished her search in her deceased grandfather's quarters. She went to relieve 'Lena leading the oxen pulling the wagon. “I'll want to look a little deeper through some of Pappy's things but I found enough for tonight with the wagon master. I'm gonna let you start on the bread and anything else you plan for supper. Hope it's okay I leave that up to you.” “Dat be no trouble 't all. Yu uns havin' such a day. Whys ya so worry 'bouts wha' dis man says?” 'Lena wanted to know. “Our future depends on if he'll let us stay with this train. Gu...

35 likes 30 comments 30
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Modern Day Monsters

Submitted to Contest #215

Modern Day Monsters How to build a modern day monster inspired by Mary Shelley: Believe misused power could destroy society. Believe in the Gods, here is a chain of them: Zeus: God of Sky, Weather and Fate. Call on him if questioning destiny. Aphrodite: Goddess of Love, Passion and Beauty. She will find love for the loveless. Poseidon: God of River, Seas and Earthquakes. Beware the Elements. Artemis: Goddess of Wild Animals, Disease and Children. Call on her for animal attacks, disease attacks and child attacks. Demeter: Goddess of Agricultu...

27 likes 38 comments 38
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All In A Name

Submitted to Contest #214

All in a NameAnakin 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...

22 likes 23 comments 23
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The Kneaded Touch

Submitted to Contest #213

The Kneaded TouchI was thirty-nine years old when I found what I want to be when I grow up.Whereas most well-adjusted children seem to have an instinct of what they aspire to, I had no idea. In my youth the only vocations for women seemed to center around teaching, nursing or secretarial careers. None of those appealed to me particularly. Of course, there was motherhood, but that was a foregone conclusion and you had to have something else that called out to you to start out with, go to college for, or end up with after the kids were grown a...

25 likes 33 comments 33
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