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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jan, 2024
Submitted to Contest #274
Dear Uncle Colin, I am sitting here in a branch of my favourite coffee shop with three hours to fill in before the interview so I thought I would drop you a quick letter. It is funny to think that you are the only person that I send letters to nowadays. With all my other friends and relatives I usually communicate by email or what’s app but I know that for obvious reasons you prefer letters. Letters are more special, aren’t they? When you sit down to put your thoughts on paper it means that you care about the person you are writing to and yo...
Submitted to Contest #273
Monday 28 October “Hello Mr.Raven,” I said. He squawked back, looking round trying to find something to eat for his breakfast. Those ravens always notice me. It is my custom to go for my daily walk before 9am when things start to get busier round here. I saw one of the ravens sitting on a bench by the chapel and I said hello. Everyone else ignores me. The ravens don’t. I have lived here for a long time now. I don’t think I could live anywhere else in London. There is a great view of Tower Bridge. It is very handy for St Paul’s and for lots ...
Submitted to Contest #271
My grandfather has been missing for three weeks. We reported it to the authorities but they have shown no interest. The police didn’t seem to care at all. Unofficially they told us that they did not bother with anyone who had gone missing who was over 75 and my grandfather was now 82. They advised us to put messages on Facebook almost as if we were looking for a missing dog.Our society now seems to think that anybody of that age has outlived their useful purpose and is costing the state money rather than contributing to the wealth of the nat...
Submitted to Contest #253
Thursday 2pmHi Margaret, just a quick e-mail to let you know we have arrived safely. Centreparcs is much posher than I expected. Not like Butlins at all. Dread to think how much it is costing. But I’m so glad they persuaded me to come. Offered to babysit the boys this evening so Clare and Simon can go for dinner at one of the restaurants. Will be so lovely to spend some quality time with the boys. Looking forward to reading them bedtime stories. This is just the relaxing break that I needed after such a busy time. I wish we could stay here f...
Submitted to Contest #250
“He’s drinking far too much.” When I heard Maggie say this I was in the kitchen making myself a cheese and tomato sandwich. “For the last year he’s been drinking way too much,” said Maggie. I wasn’t sure who they were talking about. I could only hear part of the conversation and I didn’t want them to know I had been eavesdropping. I carried on eavesdropping and tried to hear what they were saying. “We need to talk to him about it. We are his oldest friends. Who else is going to do it?” I couldn’t hear the others. But who were they talking ab...
Submitted to Contest #248
“Happy 7th birthday, darling.” Mum and dad sang happy birthday. I joined in. There was a big cake in the middle of the table with 7 candles on it. I had to blow out the candles, which I managed at the second attempt. Then they handed over my present. It didn’t look like a football. It looked like a book. I ripped off the paper and it was a book. “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame. At the time I was a bit disappointed but I grew to love the book. I had been enjoying the TV series so my parents thought that I would enjoy reading the ...
Submitted to Contest #247
The lounge in the nursing room was silent apart from a young man listening to his elderly grandfather. “So this piece, the bishop, moves in a diagonal line and this one…the…the?” “…the rook, grandad.” “The rook moves in a straight line?” “That’s right. And the knight moves in a sort of “L” shape, moving two squares in a line and then one square at a right angle. All the pieces are different.” “Oh no no no. I don’t think I can start a new hobby at my time of life. What’s it called again?” “Chess.” “Chess. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that...
Submitted to Contest #246
“Moby Dick?” suggested Mortimer Hopley. “Romeo and Juliet?” shouted Lady Hopley. “Hound of the Baskervilles?” said Mortimer Hopley. “Murder on the Links?” interjected Lady Hopley. “The Book of Isaiah?” guessed the Reverend Pocklington-Pugh. This energetic game of charades had been going on for almost an hour. Lord Hopley stood in the middle of the library with his hands round his throat staggering around the room with an expression of pain on his face. His performance was getting more and more passionate. The guesses continued. “Mysterious A...
Submitted to Contest #245
It was the 29th of June 1927. Deep in the Devon countryside the Harcourt family were making the most of a pleasant sunny afternoon in the beautiful gardens of their ancestral home, Harcourt Manor. Suddenly everything went dark.“What’s happening?”“What is this? I can’t see anything.”“It must be the solar eclipse!”“No, that’s not due to happen for another hour.”“I don’t understand what is going on. They said on the wireless that the solar eclipse wasn’t due to happen till 4pm.”“But it is only just after 3. Those scientist chappies must have ma...
Submitted to Contest #244
I looked again at the selfie. Her name was Jessica Robinson, 28, attractive, happily married and a regular member of my congregation. She never missed a Sunday. She was smiling as if she did not have a care in the world. And yet within a few hours she was dead. Poisoned in the pews. I should introduce myself. I am the Reverend Marylebone Pocklington-Pugh. For the last three years I have been rector of the beautiful church of St Cyprian’s in the tiny rural village of Pootley Crapington. Although it says vicar on my driving licence in fact I s...
I couldn’t remember taking this particular photo but I must have done. I suppose it was about 50 years old. This all came about when I was clearing out a cardboard box of old school stuff under my bed. I had been meaning to do this for ages but had kept putting it off. The dusty old box was full of school reports, exercise books, programmes from school plays and a few photos.The photo was black and white. I suppose you could say that it was a sort of selfie. Nowadays we have mobile phones and you can easily take a proper selfie but then you ...
She was hoping that the photo would go viral.She had never taken a selfie as brilliant as the one she had just posted on Instagram. It was the first time that she was completely and totally happy with an image that showed off her long golden tresses in all their full golden beauty. Now all she had to do was sit back and wait for the reaction. Maybe one day somebody would see one of her selfies and help her to escape from the dull boring life that she was stuck in.Before posting the image she had taken time to edit the photo on her phone and ...
Submitted to Contest #243
There was a rumour going round that somebody needed a donkey for a very important job. I found that really quite hard to believe. Why would anybody use a donkey for an important job? Donkeys are never ever used for important jobs. Donkeys are stupid creatures. They are only used for the most boring jobs because they are so stupid. I should know – I am a donkey.One of the advantages of being a donkey is that we have big ears so we hear a lot of rumours. People think that we are a bit slow on the uptake but we hear everything so we always know...
Submitted to Contest #242
Following the miraculous events described in my previous story Midnight in the Gallery (which you can read on my Reedsy page under the prompt about somebody being locked in a museum overnight) I continued to volunteer at the gallery. To be completely honest, it was quite dull but dullness was something that I wanted at that stage in my life. I didn’t want too much excitement. I wanted a level of stability that wasn’t too stressful or difficult. I wanted calm and security.We approached the one year anniversary of the weird events of that magi...
It was the second time that I volunteered at the gallery that I managed to get myself locked in overnight. This was a night that I was never to forget. I am ashamed to admit that I fell asleep sitting in one of the cubicles in the Men’s public toilets. It was an exhausting day. The whole time was spent walking round, answering questions from the customers and directing them to the café and the toilets. By the time the gallery closed to the public at 6.30pm I was exhausted and decided to have a quick nap in the end cubicle of the toilets down...
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