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Mary Bendickson

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2023

Stories (124)
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403 Followers
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124 Stories

9390 karma pts

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Into the Nineties

Submitted to Contest #202

Into the NinetiesMarie and Gertie grew up within miles of each other but never knew one another until they were in their teens.Marie was what someone may call 'white trash'. Her family was the poorest of the poor when everybody in their neck of the woods was poor. They had little to no money for common necessities because her father was a drunk. He drank up any income he managed to take in.He was not an ordinary falling-down-drunken-sop but a mean drunk. Marie and her older brother, Henry, would hide in the woods behind their house until he ...

39 likes 55 comments 55
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BS&T

Submitted to Contest #201

“You know you are beautiful when you smile,” Max assured his wife as he draped his arm over her shoulder to pull her toward him in a side hug and kissed the top of her salt and peppered head arrayed with a wide, stretchy headband. He waved to the departing helicopter.“So I am not so beautiful now as I scowl at this mess?” Miriam knitted her brows together as she gazed out over acres and acres of trash-strewn devastation now simmering under the once shy summer sun. Gone were the lush green pastures, now only muddy manure pits remained dotted ...

29 likes 31 comments 31
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A Little Birdie Told Me...

Submitted to Contest #200

A Little Birdie Told Me...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, ev...

37 likes 31 comments 31
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For-Get-Me-Not

Submitted to Contest #199

For-Get-Me-Not 'Memories, Like the corners of my mind Misty water-colored memories Of the way we were...' No radio but the song kept recycling in her mind. 'Of the way we were...' She clenched back the tears. Couldn't cry now. Would never be able to see the road. The glare of the setting sun was already blinding her as it fried every June bug, cicada and firefly splatting itself on the muddy windshield of her pint-sized pick-up. If she turned on the wipers what chance enough washer-fluid was in the tank to make a difference? No, with h...

35 likes 45 comments 45
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The Alternate

Submitted to Contest #198

The AlternateI didn't make it... No, surely I made it... Didn't I??Other girls in front of me were either squealing in delight or turning away with crest-fallen hopes. Four of my other sophomore squad mates were holding on to each others arms bouncing up and down full of giddiness. Of course they had made it.Then one of the Patties met my eyes and had to look away. What had she seen on the single sheet posted outside the gymnasium that I hadn't been able to see yet for the cluster of swarming candidates surrounding the little typewritten squ...

30 likes 41 comments 41
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Justice Screams

Submitted to Contest #197

Justice ScreamsChapter Five from my unpublished manuscript “A Brilliantly Scathing Life”. Part One of the book features chapters alternating between characters adjusting to life with the wagon train and time before joining the wagon train. Leroy was thrown from a horse and killed in the first Chapter (see Trampled Dreams and Trampled Dreams Part 2 in my profile).This chapter is some of Leroy's backstory. Shortly after Pappy passed away unexpectedly, Leroy decided the remaining Potter party members would be fine on their own. Their wagons wer...

26 likes 27 comments 27
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Bubbles On the Horizon

Submitted to Contest #196

Bubbles on the HorizonThe wagon master, Mr. Marcy, traveled with his new scout trying to catch up with their lumbering wagon train snaking across the grassy Nebraska prairie.As they approached the line of canvas covered wagons looked like bubbles silhouetted on the horizon. Each wagon was like a little bubble world all of their own floating in a sea of the unknown tethered together with others for survival.The Indian scout wasn't one for talking so the leader's thoughts wandered back to the spirited charmer he had to leave behind. They neede...

25 likes 38 comments 38
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Trampled Dreams Part 2

Submitted to Contest #195

Trampled Dreams Part 2 (Second half of first chapter in my unpublished novel “A Brilliantly Scathing Life”) As he rode away from Kendra Potter's wagon party the trail leader mulled over who masterminded that outfit. Surely, not that greenhorn who got himself thrown from his horse this morning. He wondered why anyone who had obviously put so much forethought into travel accommodations had overlooked common sense things like foot and head wear. And why did her widow garb already look so tattered? He was pretty sure the shawl had been cut from...

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Trampled Dreams

Submitted to Contest #194

(Excerpt from Chapter One of my unpublished novel 'A Brilliantly Scathing Life'. The plot thickens...)Head hung downward, Kendra stared unseeingly as the dry earth passed beneath the massive hooves of the oxen team pulling her heavy Conestoga wagon. Then the freshly turned earth came into view just under her high bench seat. Already it had been flattened by the wagons streaming ahead of her and was fading to blend with the surrounding clay. The wagon master had insisted that was the way it had to be to keep wild animals from ravaging the rem...

49 likes 76 comments 76
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Best Basset

Submitted to Contest #193

Moral: Be careful what you wish for, you may get it. “I wish I didn't have a basset hound.” “Hello, Sis. So nice of you to call. What's that about your basset hound?” “I wish I didn't have one. He is nothing but a barf-bag!” “A barf-bag? Are you talking about that adorable little floppy-eared puppy you paid a king's ransom for at a pet shop a few years back because your lonely youngest daughter looked at you with equally sad puppy-dog eyes begging you to let her take him home?” “The one and only. She was left home alone so much when her brot...

32 likes 40 comments 40
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Monotony

Submitted to Contest #192

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 that construction 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 th...

31 likes 32 comments 32
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Working On It

Submitted to Contest #190

Working on It(Meant to offend no one, or, at least, all equally:)Narrator: Once upon a time...Director: Hold up there! I believe I have heard that line before. Who first said that? We can't just plagiarize someone's work.Narrator: It is a common start to many stories. So well used the statute of limitations has certainly expired. It enjoys common-use status by now. No danger of being sued.Director: Well, I still don't like it. Above all else we must be original. Who wrote this line of crap, anyway?Narrator: Says here the play came from B.S.W...

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No More Bullies Re-Imagined

True storyNo More Bullies Re-imagined(I must continue to tell this tale or not be liked by you-who-know-what-I-mean)It was so terribly cold. Snow was falling. It was almost dark. It was the fourth of January. It was our little girl's fourth birthday. It was the day of her death.###Long time before: Seemed like a good idea at the time. Certainly no harm in it. We were only dating and looking for something different to do. Carter's friend had told him about a dog show coming into the city. Dog show? Who would be interested in watching prissy d...

17 likes 21 comments 21
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It's a Gamble by 'She-Who-Shamelessly-Shucks-Chips'

Submitted to Contest #189

It's a Gamble by 'She-Who-Shamelessly-Shucks-Chips'It was so terribly cold. Snow was falling, and it was almost dark. Typical January in the American mid-west. But I felt left out in the freezing, biting cold. And my future certainly looked dark, indelibly black, to tell the truth. I had boldly issued an ultimatum. A poorly thought out ultimatum, obviously. The hand had been dealt. I took a gamble and lost. Lost big time. Lost not only for myself but for my young family. Oh, yes, I knew gambler's grief. How had it boiled down to this bluster...

23 likes 16 comments 16
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Holes In My Story

Submitted to Contest #188

Holes in My Story “So what's the catch?” “The catch is I can't get the clasp to catch. This is bad!” “Nah, that's good.” “Why is that good?” “I really didn't want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane anyway. Makes no sense.” “Okay, that's good then.” “Nope, that's bad.” “Why is that bad.” “I'll never get my bucket list completed.” “Oh, that is bad.” “Nah, that's good.” “How is it good?” “There is a hole in my bucket any way. All my dreams and aspirations are slipping away.” “Well, can't you fix it.” “No, I left the flex-seal in my car.” ...

24 likes 43 comments 43
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