Mary Corbin

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Aug, 2020

Stories (20)

20 Stories

390 karma pts

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“Violin Lessons” by Mary Corbin

Submitted to Contest #102

Lena was raised on violin lessons and minimal parental supervision. We called her Diva because we never learned her name until the day she was moving out. For three years, she lived above us and we never had any contact with her, other than to hear her perfectly executing an etude on her violin in superb fashion. Or singing along in angelic soprano to an opera recording. Sometimes, it would feel as though the heavens above had opened up to invite us upward in the purest transcendence. May we introduce? Today, we are Alex, though some da...

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“Time Lines” by Mary Corbin

Submitted to Contest #96

Evalee: Ten days. That was how long Jimmy said it would take us to drive from New York to San Francisco. Comfortably. I don’t want to drive more than five hours a day if I don’t have to, he’d said to me as we finalized our plan. I usually go along with whatever he says. It’s just easier that way. And what did I care how many days it would take us to get there? I’d been counting down days for the past two years, seventy-three days and eleven hours. Now? We were driving towards a new life— one I knew could be the break I needed. From him,...

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“Chasing Feinman” by Mary Corbin

Submitted to Contest #81

I've been chasing Feinman since I was twenty-one. By that I mean beyond the man himself, the ideal of true love and all its promise. I met Jakob Lee Feinman in 1979 when I was just nineteen and waiting tables at a neighborhood bar, The International. Two years older than me, Jake was in his last year of college at Washington University in St. Louis when our paths crossed. It was all quite by chance and it saved my life. And, it sort of ruined it, too. Ruined me. For anyone else who came along after Feinman, that is. Paulina, our barten...

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“Where the Air is Clear” by Mary Corbin

Submitted to Contest #79

Pulling back the living room curtain revealed the surreal scene outside: a bright orange orb floating in a dark, gray sky. The air out there is horrible, she thought to herself, feeling trapped another day inside. Lori Michaels had often contemplated moving but they had lived there so many years it was hard to pull away. But now, with the fire season growing longer and wider every year, she knew it was time for the wind to shift. Thank goodness we’re leaving tomorrow for the holidays, she thought, an annual event at Bryan’s sister’s home,...

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“Arts & Letters” by Mary Corbin

Submitted to Contest #78

Finding that handwritten note from my mother was like a resurrection. My brother Frank and I were in the bedroom of her house the day after she died, sorting through all the stuff. I pulled open the top drawer to the dresser she’d had since we were kids, the one she’d moved across the country just once. I found a book tucked in between some scarves, one of the mystery novels we’d passed back and forth between us. I pulled it out and looked at the cover and smiled. I cracked it open and a slip of paper fell out and landed on my foot. Setti...

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“The Palm Reader” by Mary Corbin

Submitted to Contest #76

I didn’t know how hard it would be. Truth-telling to strangers and friends alike can be tricky but when you see the kind of stuff I just saw? Well, that’s just more than I can handle. I started this thing as a fun parlor trick, something I read about in a book. A way to impress people. Or stand out in the crowd.To get people to like me by telling them what they want to hear. It takes real talent to find out stuff, to see it but to think about all the things you should say but never do. I do it for them, really, it’s not about me.But I just d...

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“Time Lines” by Mary Corbin

Submitted to Contest #74

Time Lines Evalee: Ten days. That was how long Jimmy said it would take us to drive from New York to San Francisco. Comfortably. I don’t want to drive more than five hours a day if I don’t have to, he’d said to me as we finalized our plan. I usually go along with whatever he says. It’s just easier that way. And what did I care how many days it would take us to get there? I’d been counting down days for the past two years, seventy-three days and eleven hours. Now? We were driving towards a new life, one I knew could be the break I n...

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“Where the Air is Clear” by Mary Corbin

Submitted to Contest #69

Pulling back the living room curtain revealed the surreal scene outside: a bright orange orb floating in a dark, gray sky. The air out there is horrible, she thought to herself, feeling trapped another day inside. Lori Michaels had often contemplated moving but they had lived there so many years it was hard to pull away. But now, with the fire season growing longer and wider every year, she knew it was time for the wind to shift. Thank goodness we’re leaving tomorrow for the holidays, she thought, an annual event at Bryan’s sister’s home,...

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“Thousands of Days” by Mary Corbin

Submitted to Contest #68

This was supposed to be the happiest day of their lives. So far. I mean, we have a lot of those, right? Birthdays when we’re kids. Wedding Day. A first-born child. This. This was the best day yet. At least. Until it wasn’t. It didn’t start out that great for my niece Julia. She woke up that morning to an email from her boss telling her he had to let her go. A reorganization was underway, last-hired-first-fired kind of thing, you know. They loved her work but it was just the method they had decided was most fair. It was a Friday morning and...

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“Defying Gravity” by Mary Corbin

Submitted to Contest #68

It was a long travel day. Waking up at dawn, catching the subway to the airport, only to learn about the two-hour delay. They settled in at the gate, Adam with a newspaper and Naomi scrolling her mobile. When it was finally boarding time, they were suddenly aware of each other again, double checking for tickets, shuffling into place on the plane. Adam remained optimistic, ready to share his truth in the proper setting. Climbing into their rental car finally, Adam made easy banter to ease the tension, reminding her about the soaking pools, ...

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“Future Perfect” by Mary Corbin

Submitted to Contest #62

A storm was coming, building from afar but for certain on its way. If you told that to anyone other than Ahsa Mirai they would laugh, given the stagnant and balmy conditions at present. But Ahsa wasn’t in her present, well, not in the way most people are. Hard as she tried she could not remain there for too long as her tendency to slip into her visions of the immediate or distant future would overcome her at any given moment. It’s an odd affliction, you see. Ahsa collected her things from the clothesline hanging across her backyard, gat...

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“Boomerang” by Mary Corbin

Submitted to Contest #61

It was an age that begged for adventure and change. Frances and Doran Booth were sitting at their favorite pizza place in the Sunset, enjoying their last pie before hitting the road. It was bittersweet, the site of their first date, and it seemed a fitting place for their last meal. Max, their friend for decades, was here with them as a final send-off, plowing through an IPA and holding court on the virtues of their town.  “Oh, I predict you two will go on your little walkabout and come right back here to live,” Max said with a toothy...

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“Desert” by Mary Corbin

Submitted to Contest #59

The coyote ran across the path in front of Shana not two feet ahead of her. She stopped to watch it disappear into the arroyo before continuing her walk down the dirt path. A feeling was awakened in her again, something she felt often on her solitary morning walks while her girlfriend, Raven, slept back at the casita. Hot coffee would be brewing when Shana returned. They had their routines, their predictability. This is what becomes evident in a long relationship.  Pulling her mask up onto her face as she noticed an elderly man approa...

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“Impermanent Nature” by Mary Corbin

Submitted to Contest #58

How many times have I heard that one? Callie mulled over the phrase her yoga teacher used in class: “Everything is impermanent.”“The past is behind us. The future is ahead of us. Today is a gift. That’s why it’s called ‘the present,’” she said, then smiled to see if her students got the little pun. Beth, her teacher, lithe and gorgeous, wise and happy-go-lucky, seemed to have it all figured out, while Callie just kept grinding away at things and hoping for something to give. She felt powerless to carve out her own path in life, letting thing...

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“Best Self Forward” by Mary Corbin

Submitted to Contest #57

Best Self Forward by Mary Corbin Carlina could not believe this was actually happening. She had watched the movies and read the books about people being able to time travel but she didn’t really think it was true. As an executive at a public relations firm in Chicago, the lead singer of a popular club band and a part-time palm reader, she certainly ran in the kind of circles for such an experience if it was even possible. And, now, she believed it was. Having explored her inner world in so many ways over her 38 years of living - sca...

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Author bio

I am a freelance writer, art columnist and artist. Can’t get enough vivid colors, well-told stories and walks in the woods.