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Scott Christenson

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jan, 2022

Stories (143)
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477 Followers
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143 Stories

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Alpaca Republic

Submitted to Contest #169

My father casts his shadow 50 feet over my shoulder out onto the cobblestones of Prazania Square. The outline of his preposterous Generals hat is the icing on the cake. If someone had told me I would be standing in front of his statue wearing the same hat giving a speech to the nation, I would have laughed, but reality is stranger than fiction.Side note: by law, my father's statue is the tallest structure in the capital city. Which is fine by me because I build most of my structures underground.I face the crowd of seventy thousand and begin ...

26 likes 14 comments 14
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Stories on a Train - Xinjiang 1995

Submitted to Contest #168

As I stand on a crowded train platform in Beijing, baking in the summer heat waiting for a train that hasn't arrived for an alarmingly long time, a very tall Western male with shaggy gray hair approaches.“We should travel together, it’s safer that way,” he says with a strong Australian accent. I had never met an Australian before.“What do you mean?” I stall and try to figure out who he is and why I would need to travel with this widly exotic individual. But I also might be lost and don’t speak the local language. “My train should have left 2...

34 likes 26 comments 26
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Racing Conditions

Submitted to Contest #167

Day 2A rabbit runs along a trail watched from above. I am the rabbit. A rabbit who runs faster and faster from a hawk I can't see but can feel closing in on me. I search for shelter but cannot find a hiding place...The vibration of the mobile phone on my right shoulder snaps me out of the daydream. I pull it out of its pocket in my running vest, and answer while jogging along the trail etched into the high western slope of Mt Fuji.“Hi Mom. Sorry. I’m running right now.” “We,” my parents always speak using the plural pronoun, “just wante...

32 likes 21 comments 21
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Stiff Competition

Submitted to Contest #166

The eyes of two hundred passengers at Gate 27 stare at a monitor that now reads, “Flight 873 cancelled - Bad weather.” They look at the red letters of death and then at me behind the boarding gate counter. Something changes in the humanity of the crowd as they advance toward the counter, shuffling in one by one. It's a crowd now thirsting for airline employee blood.  A minute before, my esteemed coworker Kristin went for a bathroom break, leaving me here flying solo.Before the crowd reaches the thin defensive line of my plexig...

30 likes 19 comments 19
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Liability in Lingotto

Winner of Contest #165 🏆

When the police forcibly entered 43-year-old Paulina Fiore’s apartment, they found her lifeless body on the floor of the kitchen, covered in mysterious bruises. The lead detective immediately suspected homicide and ordered an autopsy. But after extensive analysis, the coroner concluded the cause of death was vitamin C deficiency.In a video appearing on social media, Stephanie Brolo, who sources confirm is a close friend of Paulina, is seen weeping and uttering, “This is all my fault.”**At the offices of my city’s largest newspaper, I sip my ...

158 likes 108 comments 108
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The Crumble Will Survive

Submitted to Contest #164

My daughter Liz’s teacher sits in our kitchen, sipping tea, and coos in a Newcastle accent, “Paul Hollywood, Oh yes!”“Paul…,” I reply in a syrupy tone. “He just exudes manliness.” “He can bake my cake,” Catherine quips and we both break out into giggles.A few minutes later I will stomp out after she says “Where I come from, Yorkshire Puddings are made with beef drippings”, and wonder if I have just ruined Liz’s school year at school over an argument about puddings.**I think back to moments earlier when things were going so well. I ...

20 likes 6 comments 6
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The Y2K Crown

Submitted to Contest #163

My brother remembered last year we played a family trivia game with Dad and his pick for a ‘last meal’ was lamb chops, so we cooked him those for dinner tonight. Lamb chops are not a common dish in Chicago. Mom found them at the gourmet supermarket in Buffalo Grove. She said it’s the least we could do.At the dinner table, all those lamb chops are grilled and arranged in a crown. Sitting behind them, Dad looks at us and announces, “Computers around the world are going to crash tomorrow. Do you realize what that means?” His voice is loud and d...

30 likes 29 comments 29
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Beverly Hills Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Submitted to Contest #162

In my gorgeous foyer in Beverly Hills, Flatman, a competing realtor, thrusts his well-dressed but tiny 5’5” sized chest out and vents bile in my direction. “You stole my listing, Losh, you piece of shit,” Flatman says, “and I was just about to invite you over for one of my famous grilled cheese sandwiches.” The words are fierce, but his face is not, a tell there will be no price to pay for my quick move with his client. Will he receive an apology from me? And would I like a grilled cheese sandwich? No and no thank you. “I guess she just...

26 likes 25 comments 25
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A Talk in Tulsa

Submitted to Contest #161

Mom’s eyes are popping out. “I wish you were never born,” she’s screaming, “If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t be stuck here.” Maybe she’s mad I messed up on stage. Maybe she’s mad we’re in Tulsa, I don’t know. Sometimes when I make mistakes she hugs me and tells me how much she loves me, so it's hard to tell.“Get out!” she says, and then takes her angry look up another level. I back up toward the hotel room door. My neck and legs are trembling uncontrollably. I can’t think of anything to say and go into the hallway to give her space ...

27 likes 28 comments 28
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Murder at Harajuku Michi(道) Soba

Submitted to Contest #160

Jun looked at Sayako and pointed into the dining room at the customer who had come to murder him. Sayako carried over a glass of cold water and placed it in front of him.“Welcome to Michi Soba Restaurant!” she said in the spirited up tone that she used with customers, and presented him a menu. Sure, the man looked a bit rough, but more like a construction worker than a murderer.This is what she was paid to do. Serve glasses of water to customers that walk in and take their food to them when it was ready. Two years out of high school, and she...

20 likes 22 comments 22
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Amber Code Hell

Submitted to Contest #159

Last week after getting off a flight in Hong Kong and being sent into a 3-day hotel quarantine, I was naked, alone and afraid. Admittedly, only naked when I needed a shower, but alone and afraid much of the other time. After disembarking the plane, I notice the authorities have worked out all the detours I might make before showing up at the hotel. Shops. Bars. Walks in the park. I'm channelled out of the airport and straight into a taxi with locked doors. In the early days of quarantine, more than a few tourists had stopped for ‘a...

28 likes 19 comments 19
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Gluten Is What Makes This Nation Stick Together

Shortlisted for Contest #159 ⭐️

In Hoboken New Jersey, Felix lied to his wife Luna that he was going out only to pick up the sandwiches. Luna was very patriotic about wanting to eat sandwiches for lunch. He knew her preferences well. In the three or four years since they had been married, he couldn’t remember a time when they had ever argued about anything. Next year they even planned to make a baby.Outside, instead of going directly to the sandwich shop, Felix walked around the corner and away from Luna’s spying eyes, went into a bank branch. He took out his New York bank...

45 likes 55 comments 55
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Your Cat™️ Customer Service

Winner of Contest #158 🏆

Hi, I'm Timmy McHill and drugs and AA started me on the road to where I am today in the world of feline telephone fraud. I’m not sure which one, maybe both. My career in Customer Service began right after I took a quick detour from university at age 19. My educational readjustment happened because the University Police didn't understand the economic theory of harm reduction. Since the nursing students I was attending class with had an inflexible demand for party drugs, they would be dealing with real drug dealers downtown, which was har...

176 likes 150 comments 150
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Blind Date Done Deal

Submitted to Contest #157

“I’m trying to figure out who should be jealous of whom here?” Regina’s date asked, his handsome features glowing. She thought about how she would answer this question as the cameras of Australia's largest reality television show zoomed in.**Pre-Date Interview:“What do you hope for in life?” the director asked.“To be happy,” she said, smiling and looking straight ahead and not moving around in her chair as they had taught her. Her mother had told her to always look her best, “We need to have men look at you the way your dad looks at Aus...

26 likes 17 comments 17
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2072 / The Third Gender

Submitted to Contest #156

“What is it you are missing that gets you feeling restless, for what do you yearn?” The cheerful voice on the television moved to the next public service announcement. “In 2072, every child needs a Father, a Mother and a Jander. Or a Mother, a Mother and a Jander, or…”   Watching TV in her faction's break room, Ava found herself annoyed to be told that 3 people had to find each other in order to start a family. She hadn’t even managed to find one yet. Desperately, she wanted to change the channel but there weren’t many other c...

23 likes 22 comments 22
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