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Melford Maderazo

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Nov, 2020

Stories (9)

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1 Following

9 Stories

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The Real Illness

Melford Maderazo

Submitted to Contest #231

He lay inside the pink mosquito net on a rickety bed near the window, pale and thin. He would turn over to the window to welcome the new day. He would do it slowly afraid that the legs of the bed might give in. He did it every morning when the sun came out on the horizon. At night before sleeping, he would face away from the window. It had a benefit to him because when he coughed and needed to spit phlegm, he would just reach the tin can under his bed. It was better than to spit through the window and somebody would spot him. But the coughin...

14 likes

Uncle Jeff's Bedroom

Melford Maderazo

Uncle Jeff’s bedroom was orderly. He put the blankets, pillows, bed sheets, curtains, clothes, and business suits in the right place. Uncle Jeff was orderly too; he rose from the bed, took a pee, brushed his teeth and gargled for three minutes to eliminate bad breath, had a shower, put on a pressed business suit, walked downstairs to sip a cup of black coffee prepared by Vivien, cat-walked across the passageway between Bermuda grass, go outside the gate, and left the house for his office job. He always prepared for everything except one thin...

0 likes

Confession of a Monster

Melford Maderazo

That night, I was standing beneath the locust tree, looking up at the thick clouds covering the full moon. I’d waited for the moon to show up and shine down at me. The clouds swam right in a moment, slowly, slowly, disclosing the brightness of the moon. I drew in the cool night air around me, deeply. I smelled the fragrance of the decaying leaves, the rotting bodies of animals, of humans, in this so much a remote place. The moonlight bathed me. I felt the pleasure of exaltation. The strength and power I’d been waiting for a month encroached ...

0 likes

Blood is Thicker when Summer Falls

Melford Maderazo

The night before summer ended, we were appalled because a murder took place in town. The killer escaped, but we thought he was just roaming around and looking for another victim. The police didn’t arrive at the crime scene until the brother of the victim took him to the town hospital, a facility with limited medical supplies and equipment. The victim didn’t make it. We thronged outside the hospital. Through the stained window glass, we stared at the corpse lying on a stretcher, blood with little sweat streaming out from the right chest and s...

0 likes

Infectious Smile

Melford Maderazo

The green light was on. The people crossed the street, brushing shoulders and taking glances. On one side of the street, a traffic enforcer looked at the traffic light digital timer as it ran from sixty. And then he looked at the pedestrians. The digital timer flicked zero. The red light was on. The motorists suddenly beeped in deafening succession. The traffic enforcer’s eyes fell out. He gritted his newly brushed teeth. He raised up a whistle to his shaking lips and blew the air that came from his throat. In the middle of the street, a man...

0 likes

The Regret

Melford Maderazo

Had I kissed you, we should’ve been together. The regret hasn’t gone away. I see myself sitting beside you in the student council office. You’ve been waiting for me there for a little while. I’m nervous to ask you, but my mouth opens as if something forces it to. “Can I kiss you?” You smile, oh trying to cover that beautiful smile. I feel you would like it too. I move closer to you, but I fear what must happen. There’s a gentle knock on the door. It’s Joe, the school utility man. His bald head peeks through the threshold. He tells us to leav...

0 likes

Commit a Crime, We'll Always Know

Melford Maderazo

Submitted to Contest #105

The hologram screen displays complex interconnections of thin green lines. The lines represent the lively streets of Lypee City, the only city in the world that has the lowest crime rate in five months. A yellow dot emerges on one horizontal line bordering the city. It continuously blinks in rhythm to an alarm sounding through the operator’s earphones. The operator touches the blinking yellow dot on the hologram screen. The blinking and alarm suddenly stops. She pinches the yellow dot to magnify the location. She pinches again and now sees a...

20 likes

White Palms, Pure Love

Melford Maderazo

Submitted to Contest #105

Uncle Gerry has white palms like the color of cotton. But his complexion is not pallid. Kids like me have white palms too. I mean, all of us have white palms until adolescence or until we get a crush on some pretty girls. By then our palms would become orange like the tangerine sky of twilight. My parents’ palms have been green like a virgin forest since my birth. They had been white before they got acquainted, turned orange in the first few months of father’s courtship with mother, and then turned red when they got engaged and eventually ti...

11 likes

Stay With Me Forever

Melford Maderazo

Submitted to Contest #105

I was dreaming of going back to the time I had committed my greatest mistake, to change and correct it. I left the only love of my life because of reasons like misunderstanding and incompatibility. We were always in strife and believed that we were not meant for each other. But, since then, I have realized that I made a mistake leaving her and living my life without her by my side. Since then, I have been thinking about going back to that time so that things would not be like this so that she would have not left me so that she would have not...

16 likes