Patricia Merewether

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Sep, 2022

Stories (47)

47 Stories

1143 karma pts

?

“You Can't Make This Stuff Up” by Patricia Merewether

Not many people can say they led their own Thanksgiving Day parade. The lead vehicle was a sheriff's squad car, I rode the back of said car wearing my grandfather's big yellow rain slicker over my underpants. That's all. I Learned later that a State police car, an EMT bus, a fire truck, three pickups, and a tractor followed. Now, this is on a very desolate road with miles and miles of flat farmland, post-harvest so all t...

6 comments 6
Read story

“The Thank You Tin” by Patricia Merewether

Every summer of my childhood my parents drove six hundred miles from Michigan to Pennsylvania and dropped me off at my fraternal Grandmother's home for a two-week visit. However, the visit of my eleventh year was so very different from all the rest and filled me with awe, and confusion with a pinch of fear thrown in. The first day at Grans was pretty much as expected. We made sugar cookies and us...

5 comments 5
Read story

“Sisters” by Patricia Merewether

1889 June 12 Dear Millicent, I was so relieved to read your letter about the Johnstown flood in Pennsylvania. My goodness, to think you and your husband and your dear babies were out of harm's way! I do worry about you all living in such a large, untamed land. Situations here are becoming more and more difficult. We are down to only six staff! Maggie (our cook), her daughte...

8 comments 8
Read story

“Stich and the Man In Black” by Patricia Merewether

Stitch: If you are reading this, I have gone Home. I appreciate your assistance and patience, as my early entries show my naivete and unpreparedness for your world. I leave this journal and hope it will inspire your writing. Thank you, my friend. "Mibs" PREP: A med-tech applied patches to my skin to keep my body motionless and remove memories of the experience, which they learned was most ...

4 comments 4
Read story

“Barbie's Secret World” by Patricia Merewether

Mrs. Baker took care of Barbie five days a week while her parents worked. She talked on the phone to her sister, Helen every day and Barbie listened. “She's such a strange little girl, Helen. She sits cross-legged in my flower garden and just stares, but seems to listen to something. I watched her as I washed dishes and the child began talking to thin air! She never talks to any of us, not a peep to ...

8 comments 8
Read story

“The Blanket” by Patricia Merewether

I wanted to arrive at my friend Carol's cottage in the wilds of northern Michigan before dark. I'm not an outdoor or woodsy person and feared driving there, mostly because of the suicidal deer. She'd invited me several times, and I made excuses, so this time, I said yes. However, road construction detours and lane closures cost me an extra hour, and I drove the last twenty miles in the dark. In the dark in rural Michigan means total blackness, no street lights, Fast Food signs, or Gas Stations. I had a cell phone, but who wou...

3 comments 3
Read story

“Taken 2 Moonlight Ritual” by Patricia Merewether

All three of us sat in a horse cart covered with a blanket draped across a pole, barely leaving enough room to sit upright. During our journey back to their mountain, we whispered if we talked at all. The driver stomped on the cart floor and yelled in a language we didn’t understand but learned meant: Stop! Quiet! The fair one is Bridget, and the dark one is Sala. I’m Anya. Each of our villages is far apa...

4 comments 4
Read story

“Remember Us” by Patricia Merewether

At first, I thought it was a mirage. After walking for two nights of freezing cold and two days hiding in any shade, a boulder, a large cactus, my tarp to escape the searing sun, hallucinations may have joined in this taste of hell. My trip started on May 24, 1990. like most, a three-hour drive from one small town to another, recording information about America's dwindling small towns in the Southwest. I...

3 comments 3
Read story

“A Chance Encounter” by Patricia Merewether

I looked out of my third-floor walk-up apartment and groaned. Another four inches of snow atop the original covering of ice. I was really tired of clearing snow and scraping ice from my car. This was the third day in a row. I was also a bit fearful of doing another impromptu break dance routine on patches of black ice. My boyfriend had dumped me, and my rent went up another twenty dollars a month, and I...

9 comments 9
Read story

“We Don't Use That Word Anymore” by Patricia Merewether

Day 1I arrived by ambulance. Actually, it's Night 1. I don't remember if I was rolled or walked in, or why. Well, maybe why.I had my own room, complete with a bathroom with ashower stall that didn't work, no curtain, no curtain rod, and no shower head, so I'm guessing, no way to hang myself.Someone put me to bed, and I drifted off to sleep. Then, bright lights and loud chatter, and raucous laughter woke me. Sorry to the good third-shift workers, but I believe the worst hospital ...

20 comments 20
Read story

“Ziggy's Mystery Plant” by Patricia Merewether

My sister called, asking, “Can you help me identify a mystery plant?” This was an unusual question because she'd never shown an interest in plants.“Sure, Jen!” I was a bit full of myself having recently graduated from the Master Gardener course and thought either I or my friend Shirley would know. "Can you bring me a leaf or take a photo?"“Not really. I see it from my office window since they moved us up to the third floor. The people who live near there have a billion kids, and with all the ...

3 comments 3
Read story

“Taken” by Patricia Merewether

"Fill your mind before you empty your mouth." ― Habeeb Akande Anna sucked in sweet fresh air through a small opening at the bottom of her prison's door. She listened to crickets and peeper frogs, wishing she was back in her cottage with her parents and little brother. This tiny, dark, stone cell only revealed a slice of daylight when someone brought her meal and changed her water buc...

12 comments 12
Read story

“Travelers” by Patricia Merewether

“What if God was one of us?Just a slob like one of usJust a stranger on the busTrying to make His way home.”Alanis MorissetteTravelersI looked out of my third-floor walk-up apartment and groaned. Another four inches of snow atop the original covering of ice. I was really tired of clearing snow and scraping ice from my car, this was the third day in a row. I was also a bit fearful of doing another impromptu break dance routine on patches of black ice. My boyfriend had dumped m...

6 comments 6
Read story

“Another Brick In The Wall” by Patricia Merewether

Katy looked around her ugly gray cubical, and the walls started to grow taller, then they turned to brick. She closed her eyes; the twelve-hour work days, caring for her dying father, and being dumped by her fiance made her edgy and tired, or like a machine. Four people worked with her in the advertising department of a city newspaper, and companies paying for the operation by buying ad space dwindled more daily. Her sta...

2 comments 2
Read story

“The Shaman” by Patricia Merewether

I never believed in sage burning, gem mooning, or shamans until I met Leah. She was always happy and cheerful, and it wasn't an act. She was wise beyond her thirty-something years and became my best friend. We worked in the medical lab of a major hospital in Ohio. I enjoyed my work, but it brought me little joy. I verified testing results, such as blood counts, checking pee for illegal substances, etc. You wouldn...

7 comments 7
Read story

Author bio

Feel free to contact me at: patsarts@comcast.net