Rebecca Miles

Author on Reedsy Prompts since May, 2022

Stories (32)

32 Stories

2497 karma pts

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“How the Leopard Lost its Spots” by Rebecca Miles

A gull can fly but Asad could race across the beach like a boy with wings. Gathering speed, he would run lightly across the pebbles, laughing at my attempts to catch him. He was always two steps ahead, but my imagination lifts the memory and gives it flight, so he rises up, soaring clear of the shore. Across the waters, arms outstretched, he disappears into the hope and fear of the horizon. If I squeeze my eyes shut, I am with him, gliding like a seagull against a blood-red sunset. I picture us, arms sprouting feath...

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“The Green-Eyed Monster” by Rebecca Miles

Beware, for my appetite is hard to satisfy. Once I have sunk my teeth into you, savoured your particular taste, it is very hard for me to let go. Think of when you suck juices from the bone, relishing every last drop of roasted meat; or the times when you lick the plate, greedily, trusting that no one is watching, sauce dripping from your chin. That is like me, feasting on a most delectable dish: you. You do not need to be marinated, tenderised or steeped in spices, I enjoy you quite as you are; yet it is remarkable...

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“Clippings” by Rebecca Miles

It was an envelope, small and pastel blue; sealed and then folded up as if it wanted to disappear or the sender had meant it to. Without name, address, or stamp it was like a summer’s sky on a cloudless day; it should have heralded opportunities, yet Simon felt only trepidation, turning the square over and over in his hands. His stomach had lurched when he’d opened the box this morning, sent as promised by the care home, and the letter had all but jumped out at him; flashes of the frightening Jack-in-a-box toy he’d tried to break when jus...

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“How the Whale Freed his Throat” by Rebecca Miles

Who knows of what a whale sings when he opens his throat and releases that deep, sonorous sound. If you hear it, then feel it, shivering over your skin as you stand on a windswept shore, you will be struck by its resonance: a force which passes all human understanding. But this is not a story of whales in the general: behemoths of the ocean; symbols for salt-shriven sailors everywhere. No, this tale is about a very particular whale and one mariner who had been, for a while, this giant’s lunch. The swallowing and reg...

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“Touched by Majesty” by Rebecca Miles

Earth has not anything to show more fair:Dull would he be of soul who could pass byA sight so touching in its majesty(Composed upon Westminster Bridge by William Wordsworth)Outside the carriage window, crowds as deep as seas wave flags. Children are hoisted onto shoulders to catch a glimpse of the historic moment; countless phones like periscopes, angled in the hope of capturing the newly crowned monarch. He has waited so very long for this moment; now it has come ...

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“On Cherry Tree Lane” by Rebecca Miles

When the April winds blow, the first blossoms drift, like a wedding party has passed, carpeting the pavements of Cherry Tree Lane in confetti. The streets are so colourful you can easily feel like you’ve stepped from the pavements through the frame of a painting, and you’re sauntering through a shimmer of pastels along with everyone else, out for a Sunday morning stroll. The beautiful scent perfumes the air and passers-by are like bees, drawn to the heavy pink clusters swaying overhead. My aunt stops beside me and inhales deeply. 

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“A Blaze of Hope” by Rebecca Miles

It was so terribly cold: I struck a match, but its tiny flame could never warm me.Snow was falling: dreaming of food and a life of plenty, I lit another match; but flame and dream spun into smoke. It was almost dark: the third match sparked, but a complete and final darkness enveloped me. I lost consciousness, gripping my final match. Four matches: four life chances, just waiting to blaze bright, however briefly. Friction made...

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“The Day the Music Died” by Rebecca Miles

Have you heard the rumor? The one going round town? About a no-hope kid, his luck just going down. Rumor has his number,Rumor's splashing it around;Rumor shouts: run, kid, your luck just hit the ground.Gnawing the stub of pencil, I look back at the lyrics. Not quite Bob Dylan, but the words sing my story; the ballad of the howlin’ no-hoper: Mitch Malarkey. It’s a freezing Monday in March and the wind tugs at...

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“On the Pulse of Tomorrow” by Rebecca Miles

“You can check by gripping my wrist, you know.” The doctor looks at me like I’m something quaint, like a moth-eaten teddy; something that one used to hug, but now needs consigning to storage. “To measure the pulse,” I circle my papery wrist, pressing my thumb to the blood flowing, tapping an almost imperceptible stream. “Ah yes, of course.” He nods like he’s remembering something he was once told, perhaps as a joke, on his first day at med. school.“Well...

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“The End of the Line” by Rebecca Miles

The waveYour lips are telling me you love me and that you’ll be home tomorrow. I watch your legs briskly walking away. With decisive steps, you mount the train steps and the doors slide shut. When you sit at the window, I think perhaps it is so you can see me one last time; but when the train pulls away, you are already checking your messages. I raise a hand and wave to your bowed head. Is this gesture to catch your attention? Look at this tableau: your wife waiting on the platform, hand half rais...

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“Save the Last Dance for Me” by Rebecca Miles

You look beautiful in that dress, floating under the disco lights like silver smoke. You dance in his arms, but I imagine you spooling apart, drifting out of his hold, back to me. No one else can see the ten slight pressure marks where his fingers meet the softness of your flesh, but I feel them like his hands are on me, not you. And you are smiling against his cheek, wearing a lipstick I have never seen you in, never kissed you in, before. Your first dance of the night is over and others stream onto the dancefloor ...

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“The Climb of your Life” by Rebecca Miles

Rising up before you, the mountain dominates everything. Craggy outcrops interspersed with woods carve out of rolling green fields, reaching higher and higher, before thrusting into the sky. It is here that elements must collide: earth gives way to space and finite matter stretches into infinity. There are other peaks, a whole mountain range in fact, but this is the one you have set out to climb; and that summit, well it’s got your name on it.Quickly lacing on your boots, flinging a small rucksack on your back, you start off on the...

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“Cinderella Respun” by Rebecca Miles

TW: sinister...When he put the slipper on my foot, beaming up at me from the crimson cushion on which his knee was resting, the thought did pass through my mind: where did he get that other matching shoe from? For I’d left him only the one on the palace steps, that momentous midnight; yet, here he was, on the eve of our wedding, slipping a second identical one onto the foot he claimed had won his heart.“Don’t say anything Cindy, my love,” he said, putting a finger to my lips, “this is my little gift; to say...

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“The Summoning Bell” by Rebecca Miles

 -The Cutter’s Inn, 1844Winter trees reach with long dark fingers into an unresponsive sky as the figure strikes the match, eagerly bringing the hungry flame to the paper’s edge. Clouds mask the moon as they did a year ago and no reflection from the inky waters mirrors the man’s face, shaggy brows knitted in fervid concentration. He is alone, only thoughts and fears for company.The canal carves its quiet way through the night, secrets flowing through each of the 105 locks, linking this backwater to the smog and...

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“The Emporium of Dreams” by Rebecca Miles

John Flounder woke with a start from the most amazing dream. Time was of the essence, he must record his recollections; there wasn’t a second to lose. Groping blindly in the dark, he reached over to the bedside table, knocking his phone onto the floor. With a groan, he leaned over the mattress and rooted through the pile of clothes which he’d discarded last night. No phone, it must have slid under the bed. A piece of paper then. If he was quick, he could hold onto the dream with the strange man and his bulbous eyes; the atmospher...

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Author bio

We all have a tale to tell. Let's come together and weave a web of wonder with our words. Rebecca is a displaced Brit living for the last 14 years in the land of sausage and beer. She's written her first manuscript for a YA book and is seven chapters (and counting) into a book based on the Castles in the Clouds story; Reedsy shortlist, competition 171. Teacher by day, writer by night and lover of stories every minute of every hour. Happy to critique, just send me a comment to any of my stories and I'll hear you by the yellow button! As of December, Reedsy Judge too. Writing success: First place in The Writer's Forum magazine: Blackout. Winner on Reedsy: Letting Go. Shortlisted on Reedsy: Castles in the Clouds; The Keeper of the Flame; The Poison Tree; Cinderella respun. Copyright © 2022 Rebecca Miles - All Rights Reserved. Using content for commercial gain without written permission is prohibited.

Winning 1 story 🏆

Contest #166
Letting go – read story

Shortlisted 6 stories ⭐️

Contest #216
How the Leopard Lost its Spots – read story
Contest #185
On the Pulse of Tomorrow – read story
Contest #183
The End of the Line – read story
Contest #179
Cinderella Respun – read story
Contest #171
Castles in the Clouds – read story