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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Aug, 2019
Submitted to Contest #308
The Last Bronte I felt such anticipation as the bus drove to Haworth, my dream destination for decades, ever since I read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. How could sisters, sheltered and disconnected from much of society, create books of such passion and darkness? As we pulled up to the Bronte Parsonage Museum, I glimpsed the Brontes’ beloved moors. I didn’t know my companions on this excursion. It was a side trip on my tour. I couldn’t miss this chance to see where the Brontes created their masterpieces and lived out their lives. Adjacent...
Submitted to Contest #297
I had only seen the empty house online. We would rent for three months. The owner, Arthur Daniel, said he could provide some furniture, but we would need to bring a bed. He said he'd be happy to buy the bed after our stay.The vacation was a last-ditch effort for us to get pregnant without medical intervention, although our doctor said, "You need to calm down."My husband, Bill, and I, Sally, met when we were both 40. We married at 41. Neither of us had children and were unsure if pregnancy was possible. I knew the stats; on average, a woman m...
Submitted to Contest #290
Finding FrannieThe little grey tabby cat showed up on June 26, 2023, on what would have been my mother’s 99th birthday. My husband named the kitty Frannie and started feeding her. Although feral, Frannie finally allowed petting at feeding time. She was just one of the neighborhood cats that would come by for food. I would always laugh and say, "Cats happen."Our indoor cat family included our 15-year-old Molly Ann and our 8-year-old Checkmate. Molly and her sister, Sophie, were adopted as babies shortly after we built our house. (Sophie died ...
Submitted to Contest #250
Cape May, NJ William Bern had been introduced to Stacy Mills by his friend, Steve. By chance, they ended up at Brooklyn's Ragtime Bar one Friday night. Steve saw his old co-worker Stacy on the dance floor with her girlfriends. By the end of the night, she and William were slow dancing. At first, Steve warned William away from her. She had lost her husband to cancer the previous year, 2011. It was too soon, Steve said, but William and Stacy hit it off. That was a month ago. Now, they were vacationing on Lake Lily at Cape May, New ...
Submitted to Contest #206
The Hidden "Why won't you marry me?" "I'm 17, Peter. There are things I want to do before I get married." "Other girls marry at your age, Karin. Don't you love me?" An old argument. It seemed to come up every few weeks nowadays. Maybe Warsaw, Poland in 1941 made the young feel they had to hurry with life. Karin's brother, Alex, and his friends already had been declared "ethnic Germans" and drafted to fight with the Nazis. Peter, at 23, was considered a cripple; a childhood injury left him with a limp. He wouldn't be a soldier, b...
Submitted to Contest #184
“Houston, we have a problem.” William smiled at Stacy as he watched her splash around while directing her float over to the dock. It was good to see her smile, even in response to his lame comment. He handed her a plastic cup of wine. "Did you know that Captain Kidd pillaged these very waters in the late 17th century?" William asked, as he watched her lounge. She wore a big floppy hat and sunscreen on her nose. She nodded back and smiled. "Well, you look like a pirate. Birds of a feather . . ." William Bern had met Stacy Mills a...
Submitted to Contest #110
"We have plenty of time." It had become our mantra. My husband, Bill, and I, Sally, met when we were both 40; we married at 41. Neither of us had children and were unsure if we could achieve pregnancy at our age. I knew the stats; on average, a woman my age had only 3 percent of viable eggs remaining. In any case, we wanted children and hoped it would just happen. In vitro could be difficult and expensive. My doctor said we needed to relax and discard the ovulation kits. Babies happen when you don’t try so hard. I was a sociology professo...
Submitted to Contest #102
"Why won't you marry me?" "I'm 17, Peter. There are things I want to do before I get married." "Other girls marry at your age, Karin. Don't you love me?" I was an old argument. It seemed to come up every few weeks nowadays. Maybe Warsaw, Poland in 1941 made the young feel they had to hurry with life. Karin's brother, Alex, and his friends already had been declared "ethnic Germans" and drafted to fight with the Nazis. Peter, at 23, was considered a cripple; a childhood injury left him with a limp. He wouldn't be a soldier, but they coul...
Submitted to Contest #80
The Darkest Year At first, it wasn't something you would notice. In the United States, people became sick here and there with something called a "three-day flu." That was the first wave. Life in 1918 was perilous. A high percentage of women still died in childbirth or from the after-effects of childbirth. Many children died before their fifth birthday of one disease or another--tuberculosis or pneumonia. The average life expectancy in the U.S. was around 50. If you made it to young adulthood, it was a time to celebrate. Your good years...
Submitted to Contest #64
The Last Bronte The bus took me to Haworth, my dream destination for decades, ever since I read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. How could sisters, sheltered and disconnected from much of society, create books of such passion and darkness? As we pulled up to the Bronte Parsonage Museum, I glimpsed the Brontes’ beloved moors. I didn’t know my companions on this excursion. It was a side trip on my tour. I couldn’t miss this chance to see where the Brontes created their masterpieces and lived out their lives. Adjacent to the parsonag...
Submitted to Contest #18
Bennet Mason Jr. was born in 1902, at the turn of a century barreling towards industrialization. The small local merchant was soon passé. Goods could now be made at factories and shipped by railroad. Who needed a horse and buggy when Henry Ford’s model T could ferry you from place to place? Bennet was born in a mansion on 5th Avenue in New York City. Nannies and butlers saw to his every need. His parents, though often absent as they flitted from party to party, fawned over him. Bennet’s father made his fort...
Submitted to Contest #9
It seemed to Kay that her family had always treaded deep water.Her mother, Marlie, was 23 when she met and married her first husband. Life was wonderful; they had two kids in five years. At the age of 32; however, Marlie was widowed. Her young husband, a salesman, died in a car wreck all alone on a road one day. His death, in many ways, set up what was to come in all the decades that followed.Kay’s own father appeared shortly thereafter. He had fought in two wars and had almost died in Korea. His charm masked th...
Submitted to Contest #4
The CardinalBy Nora SheppardKay sat watching the Destination board at Union Station. She rarely traveled by train, so she was excited to do so on this trip. She had visited her son, Ben, in Washington, D.C. and was taking a side trip to visit her Aunt Nettie in Newark. Nettie was the only older relative left in the family, following the death of Kay's mother the prior winter. It had been years since Kay visited Nettie; she didn't make it to the area often. She spent most of her time in Atlanta with her husband, Sean;...
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