Raymond Bouchard

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Sep, 2019

Stories (8)

8 Stories

191 karma pts

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“To Fill the Chasm that Rumbles” by Raymond Bouchard

Submitted to Contest #86

“I know this a lot to take in.”Somewhere, waves crashed against a shore, pulling back to reveal the pale flesh of the beach before engulfing it again. The moon, here, is a pervert, the beach pulls her bodice up.“She was calm going out, peaceful. It was like she was asleep.”Their fight, all this teasing, is both loud and soothing. Concentrate just enough and maybe your mind will pull up that phantom cacophony. Maybe, you too could hear that conch’s echo, maybe the conch should stop listening in to their fights, maybe the conch should’ve been ...

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“temple-hushed karmatic apathy” by Raymond Bouchard

Submitted to Contest #83

Faro wasn't from around here and it showed. It showed in the cigarette tucked behind his ear and the double socks he wore and the way he ate digestives, all borrowed and kept habits from her. Maybe the kicker was how the townspeople still kept the slightest distance, as if there was a forcefield surrounding everything which did not belong.Faro doubted they knew what a forcefield was.He'd come here with a smiling girl who was all legs and sunshine hair and who'd eventually learned how to put those legs to use and walk out. He didn't take it p...

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“Escaping the 49” by Raymond Bouchard

Submitted to Contest #81

Kyle was crazy in the way that he thought Judith was crazy. He had a terrible habit of always assuming he was intelligent even after he left the chickens to die in the storm. Judith once tried to get it through to him that his Ph.D. in recycling dirt only meant that he had a Ph.D. in recycling dirt. But he wasn't open to common sense, and still thought he was wise beyond his age.Judith didn't have a Ph.D., which was a faulty strategy on her part, maybe that'd make Kyle more receptive to her philosophies. "I don't think going out with yo...

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“Greasy Fingertips” by Raymond Bouchard

Submitted to Contest #56

When her father came home with his supposedly long-lost half-brother, Cedra was hard-pressed to tell him to put it back where he found it.She, a young woman of twelve who, by virtue of nefarious child neglect, had absorbed enough content from the World Wide Web to consider herself learned in these matters, distrusted the man immediately. She narrowed her eyes at his hesitant, hello-there-little-one wave and conjectured that her father was probably being duped by a conman. She stood in the doorway, trying to signal her father to step out...

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“Passing the Gauntlet” by Raymond Bouchard

Submitted to Contest #56

Nada leaned back on one of the extravagant cushions decorating the couch, more European than her father would’ve liked but one her mother insisted on, waiting. Her lower back ached from the bolt upright posture she assumed as she curled her lip at her guests' tardiness. Although according to her mother, she waited thirty-six years and could stand to wait a century more for her suitor to show. According to her mother, this was her last chance. That didn’t mean she was going to ease up now.She ran over what she knew of the man, which was ...

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“Sepia Silence” by Raymond Bouchard

Submitted to Contest #53

The first thing River Sea unpacked was his suit.  Throughout the train ride, the very small, faraway spot in his brain that was usually dedicated to whatever Wren was saying at the time started acting up, Imagine that expensive, dashing three-piece creasing with wrinkles because the big, bad porter haphazardly threw it in the trunk. Just imagine.  Which River thought was ridiculous considering he wanted to set out two weeks before her to avoid this kind of satanic whispering. It wasn’t anything knee-jumping, less than an itch...

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“Respect the Gong Sound Effects” by Raymond Bouchard

Submitted to Contest #50

Peri crouched with her head between her knees like a crazy person, like it wasn't Seth who was actually going to deliver the presentation on the Indus Valley civilization and she only swiping through the slides."You're crazy," Seth stated matter-of-factly.Peri unleashed a prolonged and guttural whine as she was wont to do, and blabbered, "You're going to screw up, screw up badly. Oh, it was my fault, I shouldn't have encouraged you, oh God, oh Lord-"Seth interrupted, lips pressed tightly together, "Right. Because you're the only one out of u...

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“Juno's Sine Qua Non” by Raymond Bouchard

Submitted to Contest #48

While Miriam personally considered Murphy a sad little Irish creature, she could agree with the fact that the universe has an unhealthy compulsion to make things go pear-shaped. Still, she thinks, face shoved against a building, having to deal with a pissy Juno this early in the morning without at least two cups of coffee in her system is rather on-the-nose. She grits her teeth against the hand pushing her face into the wall, laughing coldly the way Reem from  PR told her to, “B-baby, are your palms usually this sweaty or is it just a...

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Author bio

A parade of mice, mind the door.