Russ Lydzinski

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jan, 2021

Stories (7)

7 Stories

120 karma pts

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“A Night at Samantha's House” by Russ Lydzinski

Submitted to Contest #92

It was still hot at midnight when twelve-year-old Kyle arose, as he’d planned. Slipping out of his Star Wars pajamas, he changed into the clothing that he had earlier laid at the foot of the bed: underpants, tee-shirt, and cutoff shorts. With sneakers in hand, he tiptoed down the hardwood stairs in bare feet. The door clicked shut behind him. Inside, he’d been a prisoner. Outside, he was an intruder on the night.            The backyard trees—mature maples and smaller, recently planted v...

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“Finding Uncle Paul” by Russ Lydzinski

Submitted to Contest #86

A long-ago image came to mind from my pre-school years. We'd been out walking when Uncle Paul pointed to a patch of cup-shaped flowers peeking out from the snow.            His eyes sparkled with wonder as he brushed off the snow, revealing bright purple petals. "These are crocuses, he said." It means spring is coming." Uncle Paul would take me on walks every day when I was little. Sometimes we'd stop in the bakery for donuts and eat them on our way home. "Don't tell your mother," he'd s...

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“Disney-Pittsburgh” by Russ Lydzinski

Submitted to Contest #85

“That’s the thing about Pittsburgh…its history,” I told Mom, trying to get her on our side. She and Dad had been arguing—discussing, they would say—about which virtual Disney adventure we should take for summer vacation. Mom wanted to go to Disney—MallWorld, back to when people walked from store to store, fingered merchandise, and sometimes physically, not virtually, tried on clothes, actually putting them on their germ-ridden bodies. Mom thought it would be exciting. I thought it would be boring, and so did Dad.    &nbsp...

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“Caribbean Climax” by Russ Lydzinski

Submitted to Contest #83

Content warning: Adult content John's wife, Alison, emerged from the blue-green Caribbean water at the Paradise Point Resort. She adjusted her top, gathered her hair behind her head, and scanned the beach for familiar faces. I waved to her. She waved back, her mouth forming my name, "Peter." I glanced at my wife, Nora, laying on her stomach in the sun, barebacked, with her top unfastened, her breasts flattened against the sand. Nora was nothing to sneeze at, but it was Alison, the forbidden woman I coveted ever since the four of us became fr...

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“Heels Over Head” by Russ Lydzinski

Submitted to Contest #81

It was the morning of May Eighteenth, Nineteen Hundred Eighty. Mount St. Helen’s was erupting in Washington State, and Thomas was taking his morning walk in Penshaw, Ohio. He stood on a familiar street corner in a drizzle, watching a tall, slender woman cross the street. She wore a raincoat with a plastic hood. With her collar turned up, he couldn’t see her face, but she had glanced at him without making eye contact. Was it Sherri? He raised his hand to greet her but stopped, not wanting to appear a fool. Instead, he followed her from a dist...

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“Ordinary Citizen” by Russ Lydzinski

Submitted to Contest #80

Miriam and I are best friends. At work, we’re known as “Laurel and Hardy” or “The Odd Couple” when they see us hobnobbing about the office. She played basketball at OSU, she’s a head taller than me, and she’s not skinny, either. They call me the blonde feather.            It’s lunchtime on a Friday. Miriam feigns distress when we sit down to lunch at the Liberty Diner, our favorite haunt, across the street from Driscoll Sales and Manufacturing's offices where we work. Her eyes are wide, ...

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“Nothing Under the Tree” by Russ Lydzinski

Submitted to Contest #79

On the last day of school before the Christmas holidays, smack in the middle of class, Mr. Murray scolded me for the verse I handed in as my writing assignment instead of the five-page story he’d assigned. He rubbed his fingers through his graying beard and said, “You’re a talented writer, Leonard, but you’re in danger of failing.”            Mrs. Shay, my landlady, would have been disappointed in my behavior, but right then, I didn’t care. I hadn’t made any friends since I’d transferred...

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