Shari Tiedens

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Mar, 2021

Stories (4)

4 Stories

93 karma pts

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“Exactly The Way It Is” by Shari Tiedens

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #125

Arlen didn’t know that graveyards could close. Yet here she was, idling at the front entrance of Holy Hope Cemetery, iron gates frowning at her tardiness in an all too familiar way. Brick posts blushed and glowed in the sunset, embarrassed on her behalf. “I want something in time for her birthday,” Mom had said. “It’s just so hard to get out there, with the shut-downs and holidays coming.” “It’s fine, Mom, I’ve got it.” Except she didn’t. She tried. She planned. A schedule of useful tasks ending with lunch at a favorite restaurant on the ...

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“On Being a Big Thing in a Small Package” by Shari Tiedens

Submitted to Contest #87

What did I ever do to deserve this? Nothing, that’s what. Well, nothing I can be blamed for. I didn’t know what to make of it at first, her sudden appearance. A small, grub-like creature, always attached to one of the Subjects. A parasite, I thought, wondering if I should try to remove it for them. It took me months to realize I had a new Subject, one that had not yet fully formed. That amused me. I remembered it myself, being in search of a shape and a purpose. A form finally given to me by the male, not long after I found him. My firs...

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“False Spring” by Shari Tiedens

Submitted to Contest #86

Anastacia woke alone. It was cool and dark in the Den, the pods around her still and silent. That was wrong. Some should be out by now, aglow with pre-revival routines. Others should be awake. She should not be the first. Not if everything had gone as it should. Wake up, Canary, she thought, with a tight feeling inside. She unfolded from her sleep on unsteady legs, every inch of her trembling. An inquiry to the ship’s computer revealed the problem. A triggered perimeter alarm. But the numbers that should have told her where and when were a...

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“In-Between” by Shari Tiedens

Submitted to Contest #85

Men sweated all around her, but Karen Fleiss felt the heat only as a pleasant baking sensation after the cool of the SUV. She knelt next to the exposed footer to read the letters printed there.SHAWNShe smiled. The name was blocked out in a childish hand, made clumsy by the drag of wet concrete. Still obscured by dirt and washed out in the high desert sun, it was surrounded by markings she couldn’t quite make out, but which seemed to place the name at the center of an eye with spiky lashes all around. She imagined the little boy, barefoot and...

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Shortlisted 1 story ⭐️

Contest #125

Exactly The Way It Is – read story