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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Apr, 2020
Submitted to Contest #98
“I had one of those chilling dreams again,” I told my sister over breakfast. She was standing at the stovetop frying an egg. I was sitting at the bar, casually buttering my toast, so I didn’t immediately notice her turn and look at me with wide eyes. “What?” I asked when I saw her, surprised at her reaction. I set the knife down and took a bite. “Jenny, these are happening more and more often. Aren’t you the least bit worried?” I shrugged. Through a mouthful of toast I said, “They’re just dreams, Maya; I’ve always had vivid dreams.” ...
Submitted to Contest #85
With sweaty palms, Martha opened her borrowed attaché case and slipped her resumé out to review it while she waited on a pew bench in the extravagant lobby. This would be her third interview that week, and her nerves were nearly frayed. She would be showing in no time, and she knew no one would hire a pregnant woman. Martha had stuttered during the second interview and had fought back tears as she walked home in defeat. On this morning, more determined than ever, she practiced her old speech exercises as she walked the 20 blocks to tackle he...
Submitted to Contest #81
I knocked several lemons off the display as I dug for the brightest, most perfect one. “No, no, no,” I whispered as I bent down to clean up the mess, hoping to avoid attention. I didn’t want a pearl-clutching customer to notice I was drunk and alert a manager. I was craving a lemon drop martini to top off my sad, lonely night of pub-hopping, and I didn’t want to pay a premium for the cocktail at a bar. So, in an act of frugal brilliance, I braved the fluorescent lights of the grocery store. I could only imagine the state of my face in that m...
Submitted to Contest #56
“Your bone supplement, Ms. Tenley.” The nurse handed an antidepressant to Caroline Tenley who flashed a look of uncertainty to the eyes of the visitor sitting next to her.“It’s okay. Go ahead,” the visitor said to Ms. Tenley, knowing full well this was no bone supplement but hoping her encouragement would soothe Ms. Tenley’s doubts. Caroline Tenley, who would turn 87 the next day and lived in an assisted living facility, needed the antidepressant desperately as her dementia continued to set in more and more each month. She would forget to ea...
Submitted to Contest #52
Aisle eight is where I come to cry. It’s the catchall aisle housing paperbacks, obscure medicines, batteries, lightbulbs, and, of course, greeting cards. The cards draw me to them like magnets every time, even if I had only intended to come to the store for milk. I stand facing the seven rows and nineteen columns of greetings of all varieties. The birthday wishes, the thank-yous, and the graduation kudos all mean nothing to me. What I focus on, what I torture myself with, what I read over and over again until the tears obstruct my view, are ...
Submitted to Contest #50
2:53pm This HOV lane is about to end, and Adam is not going to make it out. Main-lane traffic is crawling up ahead. He is going to try to squeeze in between the cars like a pastry slipping into a toaster, but it’s not going to work. And if it’s not going to work for Adam, it won’t work for me because I’m right behind him. I have already calculated the time we have left before the exit based on our speed and distance. The exit is in 2.1 miles. I’m keeping up with his speed of 95 MPH. In 2.1--now 2 miles flat, we will both be forced to exit ...
Submitted to Contest #49
I’m disgusted by her doe eyes and half grin that she had plastered onto her face during the entire trial. She’s a psychopath, possibly demon-possessed. I’m the only one who knows the truth. She knows that I know. That’s why she was able to bat those flashy eyelashes and look everyone in the eye in the courtroom, the judge, the jury, even my husband’s mother, and never once could bring herself to look at me. She knew where I was sitting because I sat in the same spot every day of the trial, my grieving mother-in-law t...
Submitted to Contest #47
It’s shocking when the person in your thoughts suddenly appears before you. I know this because I’m doing it to you right now, and you look mortified. How did I know I was in your thoughts? I knew because I know everything now that I’m dead. And I know that you killed me. You wanted to for a long time. I saw it in your eyes. You never said anything. I never said anything. It was an unspoken tension between us. We made eye contact and we both just knew. Wait, don’t run, they’ll notice. Just listen. I had what you wanted. I get that. I...
Submitted to Contest #46
The frustration took hold of me, tensing up my whole body, so to shake it off I had to get outside. I grabbed my hat and my house key, checked my beard in the hall mirror, noticed my bloodshot eyes, took off down the front walk, and promptly forgot if I had locked the door or not. So, I trotted back up the walk and up the porch steps to check. I had. This was another point of proof that I needed to clear my head. I turned left on my street heading for the beauty that lives just two blocks over. I hung a right at the first intersection, the...
Submitted to Contest #45
Today is my 26th birthday. I’m walking back to my mom’s house from the grocery store to celebrate with my family. These grocery bags are heavy, but I feel light. It’s a Friday in May in Georgia, so it’s humid and hot. The sun is beating down on my brown skin, and this is when I feel most alive, when I’m walking or running outside. Free. The sun only thinks it’s a tour de force, a powerful skin darkener. But my flesh and I have proven it wrong time and time again, staying the way we always have been, splitting the middle between milk chocolat...
Submitted to Contest #44
Monday, June 15thYesterday, I watched Tall, Dark, and Hot roll his suitcase up his driveway towards his house, and he didn’t know I was watching him from my bedroom window. He, who we’ll call TDH for short, definitely doesn’t know I watch him from my bedroom window every single day. Except for this past week while he was gone; what a long, lifeless week.I’m his next-door neighbor, but my house, and my upstairs window, and even I might as well be invisible to TDH. I’m being secretive about his name because, well, I’m a first-rate Peeping Tome...
Submitted to Contest #43
All the people in Flat Town were outside that day. The sun was shimmering pink, and flecks of gold and orange were fluttering about its edges like confetti. The farmers were farming, the mowers mowing, the kids playing. All the people in Flat Town could see all the other people going about their business, even from a mile away, because the town was small and, well, flat.Everything in Flat Town was grey. And all the people in that town looked exactly the same. Well, some were older and bigger, some were younger and smaller, but the eyes, ears...
Submitted to Contest #42
She’s gone.And I only have one chance to find her again.She’s been gone since the day we parted from our 7th grade summer camp. An era before we had cell phone numbers to exchange. As a couple of thirteen-year-olds, we weren't smart enough to nail down each other’s contact information. Did I get her address? No. Stupid, stupid. We were living in the present moment during a sticky summer week of playing and giggling with abandon.She’s not from my town. I have never been able to find her on social media. She’s not even Google-able. Did she cha...
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