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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Oct, 2020
I see him â my father. I see him through badly drawn smiling faces and matchstick people on a canvas of condensation. I watch him poke and prod his lips until he hits the target with what he thinks is his second last cigarette. I watch him follow the young couple up the steps and through the doors of the Pilot's Diner. I watch him idle by the same door, only now it's closed, scratching his brain, wondering what to do next. Finally, I raise my hand and reluctantly summon...
Lucas flips his jack-oâ-lantern candy bucket and empties it onto the kitchen table when his Mom, Nancy, spots something. She stops what sheâs doing, leans over the table, and asks, âLucus, whatâs this?â Lucus spreads the candy as evenly as possible and considers a Butterfinger over some Sour Patch Kids. He hears: âLucus, Iâm talking to you,â and shrugs his shoulders. âIt looks like a note,â Nancy adds.âBig deal,â Lucus replies. ...
Londonâ 1952, although the fog appears to be at its worst, I have more pressing matters to attend to. For one, my diamond is still missing. Worse still, my colleagues and I are accusing one another of murder. It began eleven months ago on a bitterly cold morning in January. I was waiting to board a train in Fort William, a town in the western Scottish Highlands on the shores of Loch Linnhe. My destination was Mallaig, a small fishing port and gateway to the Isle of Skye. There I was to meet a man known as ...
In front of a non-descript store-front on a busy Manhattan street, Helen Gil saw something that caught her eye. âLet us make you H â APP â Y,â it read. So obscure was this suggestion that Helen leaned in and immediately wondered if the person who wrote it actually wanted anyone to see it considering how theyâd situated the silver writing on the right-hand corner of a rather large glass pane. Helen had only stopped after a burly man inadvertently struck her while she was sipping from her...
I heard a rumor. A rumor that the soldiers are using leather straps, a tree stump, and a mallet to break wrists. âItâs to stop us from talking,â Ingeborg whispers. âCanât you hear the screams?âI answer no, say, âMy bunk is on the West Wing; therefore, any scream would lose its momentum before it reaches my window.â Ingeborg speaks with her eyes; therefore, I donât doubt her when she says she can still hear screams long after theyâve stopped. âLong after the sun has set,â s...
'What's he doing here?'The look on Ruth Jenkins' face suggested she thought she had more time.'Red, please. Now is not the time,' she said.'What, you can't speak now, is that it?' Red asked, pointing, not at his wife but the figure in the corner.'Merry Christmas, Dad. I â''I knew it was you,' Red interrupted. 'The minute I saw them, I knew it was you.''Saw what, Red? What did you see?' Ruth asked.'Shoe prints! Dirty shoe prints on my hall floor and the blades of grass&nbs...
Quintin Short sat comfortably by the window, watching as another layer of snow blanketed his backyard. On his lap was a book.âHow can you read at a time like this?â âChristiana, when did you get here?âQuintinâs reaction, although one of surprise, was slightly subdued.âNever mind that,â she said. âI want to know how you can read at a time like this?âQuinten reached for his bookmark â an outdated coupon â that had fallen between his legs and slipped it between two pa...
At nine-pm on a cold Wednesday night in Odessa, the small Alaskan city thirteen miles North of the city of Fairbanks, Liz Sanford bid her last customer of the night a merry Christmas and advised him on the treacherous last step to avoid spending the holidays in the hospital. While Matt Lojewski â Odessaâs resident Santa Claus â climbed into his Subaru Outback, Liz killed the front lights and cast a shadow on the Skyline Dinerâs chrome exterior. A moment later, she wa...
Shawn wasnât sure why his stepdad put the duct tape there before they left home early yesterday morning, but it was now flapping in the wind.âYou okay back there? You havenât said much since the turnââMia stopped talking when she felt something butt against her ribs, and she looked down to see a bottle of water.âThat is... if â you donât mind?ââWhatâs that supposed to mean, Deacon?â Mia asked.âLook, will you just empty the bottle so I can clean t...
Outside, the snow was three feet deep.While inside, under cover of The Shamrock, Griffin was adjusting his trapper hat for what Kit Stevens reckoned was the tenth time.âNice hat, Griff. Where did you get it?â he asked.âMollie â birthday present.âï»żKit considered this and asked, âIs that so? Happy belated birthday, I guess. Iâm not good with dates, you know, and I often wonder why?ââPerhaps if you came up for air every once and a while, you might save a brain cell or two.âGriffi...
On a mission to create a small loyal fanbase. Email: michaelj.conroyauthor@gmail.com *Shortlisted* Contest #80 'I Heard A Rumor.'
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