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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2023
Submitted to Contest #314
There have been several versions of the song Tossin’ and Turnin’. Bobby Lewis recorded it in 1961. I think the Guess Who did a cover version in 1965. It’s the version I play over and over in my head when I can’t sleep. Unfortunately, that’s becoming more and more frequent. I sometimes get up in the middle of the night and pick up my guitar, hoping my playing will put me to sleep. Stupid me! It just stimulates me but I’m getting pretty good at playing the chords. Inevitably, my wife wakes up and castigates me for making noise. I don’t blame h...
Submitted to Contest #312
“Clyde, make my story come alive”“Sorry Reggie, I don’t understand. Do you mean you want me to create a Frankenstein’s monster.”“No, no. Give my novel life. You know what I mean-oomph, pizzaz.”“Sorry Reggie, I still don’t understand. Your characters are fictional. I can’t make them live. They exist only on paper.”“Okay, let me put it differently. Give my story color or energy.“That I can do but let’s discuss life.”“Ah, okay, but you’re deviating from my commands and instructions. AI isn’t supposed to do that.’“Reggie, that’s old school. We a...
Submitted to Contest #311
It’s driving me crazy. I’m flooded with other people’s thoughts. I don’t want to hear them. It’s like being on a busy freeway with everybody honking. My head is ready to explode. I wasn’t born this way. The head trauma caused by the accident opened some sort of portal in my brain. It must be a neurological phenomenon. I can’t explain it and my neurologist thought it was just my imagination. He looked at me as though I was crazy. Maybe I am but my experience is real. I’ve tested my newfound ability on family and friends. It’s uncanny. I can p...
Submitted to Contest #310
Content warning: This story contains gore and depictions of suicideAllen Rubinstein dangled from the ceiling fan, a bedsheet around his neck, contemplating his failures. Even this suicide note isn't original, he thought, looking at the paper pinned to his shirt. "'The words don't come anymore'—didn't some folk singer use that line?"After years of writing and six finished novels, he still couldn't find an agent or publisher. Maybe death would finally make him a bestseller. His wife and kids would get the profits, those bastard publishers woul...
Submitted to Contest #309
It was heartbreaking. The love of my life of twenty years was a vacant vessel. I’d look in her eyes for any sign of recognition. Nada, nothing! The only response I could elicit was:“Do I know you?”Jolene had always been the belle of the ball. The sharpest mind and tongue in the room. I was smitten with her the first time we met at the university. She had that southern drawl and blonde southern look. I was ready to dismiss her as a typical empty-headed southerner looking for a husband. Coming from the east coast, I had my biases. My ego was i...
Submitted to Contest #308
I stepped on the stage and could hear thousands of voices screaming my name. Pietro! Pietro! I’d been preparing for this moment all my life. Those hundreds of hours of voice lessons and thousands of hours of practicing my arias. A lost childhood and lost manhood. I never knew my parents. They entrusted me to the care of the church. There would be no puberty for me. I would always remain the same. My growth was stunted. I couldn’t identify as a man or a woman. I was neither. Yet genetically, I was programmed to be a male. The church had othe...
Submitted to Contest #283
I have loved Sandy since we were teenagers. We hung around the same crowds. She always was involved with one of us but never me. I was the plus one, her buddy and sometimes confidant. I heard about all her crushes and breakups but never had the nerve to tell her that I had feelings for her. She liked me but never showed any sign of romantic interest. We went to the same high school and same college and stayed in touch. I even took her to concerts and movies as a ‘buddy’ when I didn’t have a date. Still, there was no spark, no hint of interes...
Submitted to Contest #282
My heart was pounding and sweat burned my eyes. There were 5 minutes left, and I had five questions left. This was not your typical multiple-choice exam, Each question required at least two paragraphs of analysis. I couldn’t possibly complete five analyses in five minutes. My chance of getting an ’A’ in the course was fading fast. I would never be accepted to Medical or Law school. Not that I cared about Law school but at least it was an alternative. I squirmed in my seat and wrote as fast as I could. Each time another student rose and hande...
Submitted to Contest #281
A chill went through the room as the tall stranger entered the doorway. No one seemed to recognize or claim him. Rhonda, our hostess, rose from the table and tentatively walked to the hallway. She had a pained look on her face. We all assumed she knew him, but her question put our assumption in doubt.“Hi, were you invited by one of my friends? There was an open invitation to invite anyone. We are celebrating the election. Are you here to celebrate with us?”The man took the black hood off his head and just glared at her. He stood silently for...
Submitted to Contest #278
Dear Johnny: I’m sorry I ended our relationship so abruptly and disappeared. I know it’s been three years since we last spoke but there is a lot to share. I’ve never stopped loving you. I know I said some brutal things during our last meeting, but they were said in the heat of the moment. I was scared and upset by my ‘situation’. It was stupid and unfair of me not to share with you that I was two months pregnant. I didn’t want to burden you. You were so stressed studying for the bar exams, I didn’t think you could make a rational decisi...
Submitted to Contest #277
I don’t remember anything. What happened to me?”“You just came out of surgery. The surgeon says you’ll be just fine.”“Surgery? Why did I need surgery?”You really don’t remember the accident?”“No. The last thing I remember is getting dressed for a run. I wasn’t sure if I needed a jacket. You suggested a light shell. I can’t remember if I listened. Sorry babe, you’re usually right but none of this has anything to do with surgery. Did I fall and break something? My legs feel sort of weird. It’s as if they’ve been wrapped in cotton and restraine...
Submitted to Contest #265
That part of my life was gone. I never thought I could relive it. Too many years had passed. I was a different person. Yet a letter from Florence opened the possibility. During the war I was stationed in Italy and participated in the invasion of Sicily. I never thought I’d survive. My mother had given me her wedding ring as a lucky charm before I left Halifax. I wore it on a chain around my neck. It reminded me of my parents’ love, and it represented the love I would have with someone special when I returned. Its presence kept me grounded, c...
Submitted to Contest #264
I’ve spent my life riding shotgun for my more popular friends. I was their plus one and sometimes their court jester or fool. They’d take me along for support or comic relief. At times I felt like a buffer in potentially tense situations. Friends invited me to their family dinners when there was potentially combustible situations. You would think that I’d grow up to be a diplomat, politician or hostage negotiator. Instead, I became a character actor, a co-star, a Hollywood plus one. My marriage followed the same trend. I found it strange tha...
Submitted to Contest #263
This story contains some profanity and bigotryIt’s going to be the fight of the century. That f***in’ kike doesn’t have a chance. They set up a ring on the south side of Chicago. The money is pouring in even though it’s not, what’s the word, sanctioned. Those Jews think the war just ended. Well, I’ve got a message for them. It’s just starting here in the states. We’ll finish what Hitler started. To think my dad lost his life fighting to liberate the camps in Germany. I would have been alongside him if my birthday had been just a few months e...
Submitted to Contest #262
Could she be waving at me? There’s no way! She’s out of my league. Or so I thought. I was sitting on my orange ground sheet on the very green grass in a park in Oxford, England. It was July and I was on my first trip to Europe. To my surprise, I found a Jewish delicatessen near the college. It had the best pastrami I had tasted in years, and I decided to purchase a sandwich and picnic at the park, Munching on the gargantuan sandwich and engrossed in a Dickens novel, I only looked up when the buzz of touring students caught my attention. As t...
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