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Paul Spreadbury

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jan, 2025

Stories (14)
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14 Followers
11 Following

14 Stories

245 karma pts

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Autopsy of a Coincidence

Submitted to Contest #295

The instruction or ‘prompt’ I was given to write this was.    Write a story about a coincidence that ‘seems’ too good to be true.The thing about this coincidence, it doesn’t just rise to the level of seeming to be too good to be true, it’s a whopper! And still feels that way fifty-years later. It was actually a series of coincidences that occurred over a two-week period. By fate, happenstance or pure coincidence each event led to the next and eventually to the ultimate coincidence which changed my life for the better, for...

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The Feminine Side

Submitted to Contest #294

The first and last word Eleanor ever uttered in public was ‘mama’. When the waitress at the diner heard it, she dropped her order pad and gawked. Eleanor's parents quickly gathered her up and rushed from the restaurant. From that day forward they knew their daughter could never speak another word in front others. She would have to pass herself off as mute. It was tough. In high school she was teased and subjected to occasional insensitive remarks but, at least, she had friends and some semblance of normalcy. Had she chose...

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A Most Promising Man

Submitted to Contest #294

   “Step right up, step right up! No need to push! No need to shove!”Bryan “Carney” Barker III stood at a podium on a makeshift stage as thousands wearing red caps filed in for another in a series of rambunctious political rallies meant to inspire hope for the future and to sell t-shirts.    “Take it easy. Don’t crowd. There’s plenty of room for everyone.”Carney was the most trusted advisor for the most distrusted man in the world, the former President of the United States who was campaigning to b...

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Reflections

Submitted to Contest #293

When Janice was a child she loved chasing crabs on the rocky side of the small island town of Nahant. Catching one wasn’t the point. The fun was in the chase. After a half an hour or so of that, she’d sit on a rock and stare across the bay at the skyline of Boston.  When she was younger it was mostly dominated by older brick and stone structures such as Faneuil Hall, the Old State House, Bunker Hill Monument and the steeple of the Old North Church where Paul Revere waited for the lamps to signal, ‘one if by land, two if by sea’ so ...

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A Flick of the Switch

Submitted to Contest #292

The Creator had been away on a brief two millennium inspection of other worlds He’d created. When He returned to see what was happening on the sweetest little pebble He’d ever made, He wasn’t happy. He called Christopher, the Patron Saint of Lost Causes and one of His most trusted advisors for an explanation but mostly, all He wanted to do was vent.    “Okay Chris, what happened this time?”    “Where do I start? Everything just went to hell in a hand basket.”    “We’ve tried ea...

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The True Blue

Submitted to Contest #292

Scott and Donna’s relationship began as a digital thing. They met online. As with most dating app couplings the initial attraction was physical. Donna presented herself as neither exotic or sensual or suggestive in her poses yet, she was very pretty. Scott looked fit, neat and handsome in a simple, honest way. His wavy brown hair was trimmed in a common cut, her large hazel eyes didn’t appear to be hiding any deep, dark, mysterious secrets. They were what romance novelists might deem, most likely to ignore. After a couple of months...

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Oh, What a Tangled Web

Submitted to Contest #291

At forty-six Melody thought she was a tad young to be entering the change-of-life but how else could she explain why she hadn’t had a period for seven weeks? As much as she dreaded the thought, it was a far more acceptable explanation than the diagnosis her doctor and best friend Dr. Sharon Cohn had just given her.    “It can’t be! I haven’t been with a man in months!”    “Sorry Melody but there’s absolutely no doubt, you’re pregnant.”    “No!”    “I re...

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The 'L' Word

Submitted to Contest #290

Grover had just gotten out of rehab and was trying to get a fresh start. Pay as a dishwasher at the local club wasn’t much and when a member told him of a furnished room offered by an eccentric old lady for just $800 a month, all utilities included, he jumped at the chance. “You have your own bathroom and I expect you to keep it clean.”“Yes Mrs. Stamp, I will.” Miriam Stamp, owner of the handsome was clearly a wealthy woman she still kept the welcome mat at the front door, the one she handmade when she was thirty. It ready, Welcome...

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Memories of My Father

Submitted to Contest #289

Emma grew up believing her father Russell Maddox was as good a man as any and better than most. He enlisted in the Marines out of high school, earned a Purple Heart and Bronze Star in Vietnam, returned to marry her mother Denise, bought a refrigerated semi tractor trailer and earned a good living hauling frozen foods from state to state. ~ “Goggles secure, ear and nose plugs inserted,” the lab tech reported as he strapped the subject securely to the gurney. “BP 110 over 8...

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The Self Fish

Submitted to Contest #288

I wander the seas in search of interesting stories to add to my Collection of Tales with Scales. My name's Paul and I’m a Pencilfish. Us Pencilfish learn to write before we know how to swim. When I recently learned of a request for a story that takes place in a place where weather never changes, I figured all my stories fit that description. Weather, as you landlubbers know it, never changes down here.Every season’s just the same, from one day to the next.It never snows, it never rains, yet everything’s all wet.No autumn leaves for wind...

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The First Tea Time

Submitted to Contest #287

It had been ten years since Erg and his wife Pym had been banished by the tribe. Using assumed names and once disguising themselves as troglodytes, they tried to blend in with others. But, in every case their true identity was discovered, and they were expelled.  On this late and chilly afternoon, the once hugely popular and praised couple hunched over an open fire surrounded by the abandoned stone pillars where, a decade earlier, their lives changed forever and for the worse. Despite all that had happened, they still shared the feeling...

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The Inside Out Love Life of Sherman Banks

Submitted to Contest #286

Without going into boring details of the rumor fueled imagined plague that wiped out tens of millions of imaged people, let’s cut to the chase. So many people believed in the rumor and in the trumped-up photos showing persons with flesh eaten from their bones the nation turned into two groups of people; Insiders and Outsiders. Insiders stayed indoors, Outsiders dared to go out. Food, cloths, medical, legal and spiritual advice, any possible need an Insider may have was satisfied by delivery or through apps, including the need for female comp...

8 likes 1 comment 1
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Living by the Thumb

Submitted to Contest #286

It was 1972. I enlisted in the Marines after graduating high school and was now at home. I had no formal training in any trade nor any clue as to what to do with the rest of my life. So I decided on a whim to hitchhike across the country. I crammed my gunny sack and headed for the highway with less than $3.00 in my pocket. It was the best decision I ever made in my life. The early 70’s were times of adventure, revolution and experimentation in America. Of the three the one that most inspired me was, adventure.&n...

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The Teenage Telemarketer

Submitted to Contest #285

This story is a true. I’ve used creative license in the dialog and narrative and all of the names (with the exception of my own) are fictitious. There may be terms and subjects some might find offensive because, well, they are. It was 1967. I was a high school sophomore, summer break was coming up.  I’d be getting my driver’s license soon and wanted to earn a few bucks to get a car.  I answered an ad placed by a large, local cemetery or, as they called it, a ‘memorial park.’ They wanted someone to call prospective f...

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