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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jan, 2021
Submitted to Contest #93
The barman stood behind the highly polished countertop of the saloon bar, rubbing a glass with a chequered tea towel, when the stranger pushed through the slatted swing doors. He was tall, at least six foot three, and lean. The covering of fine, red dust, which coated his clothes, indicated that he had been riding for a while. His leather Stetson hat was pulled low over his eyes, obscuring his face in shadow, although close scrutiny showed that his chin was covered in several days’ worth of dark stubble. He wore fringed leather chaps, and th...
Submitted to Contest #92
They pulled up outside the cottage; it had been a long journey. The boot of the car was filled with their cases, and a box of provisions to tide them over until Monday. They had set off at 6.00 am to avoid the holiday traffic, but nonetheless had been frustratingly caught behind caravans, and delayed by the hippies congregating at Stonehenge. Eric’s eyes were sore from driving in the glare of the bright sun. He pulled the handbrake on as hard as he could, got out of the car and quickly picked up a large stone by the holiday home’s front door...
Submitted to Contest #91
On Thursdays, the library stayed open until 7.00pm. On this particular January evening, it was already dark outside, and when the occasional customer came in, the air, which blew in with them, was bitterly cold. It was quiet, not many people wanted to turn out on such a cold day to return or renew books, and much of the library’s business was now conducted on-line. Laura, a twenty-two year old, university graduate, the senior librarian, Mrs Selby, and Tom sat behind their semi-circular work station, idly chatting. At 6.45pm, Mrs Selby told h...
Submitted to Contest #90
Lunares lolled on the highest platform of the specially constructed, wooden climbing frame within his enclosure. He was ten metres up, and from this height was able to survey much of the zoo’s activity. There was a lot to see: below him, the throngs of visitors, milling around the enclosures, gripping their childrens’ hands, eating ice creams and taking photos. Or the zoo’s staff, sweeping the paths and emptying bins, or walking to enclosures with buckets of food, or guiding enthusiastic, pamphlet waving groups around the zoo’s paths. And th...
Submitted to Contest #89
I stood in the morgue with a female police officer beside me. The lighting was dim, and the air smelt unpleasantly of chemicals and effluent. In front of us, my husband, Mick, lay wrapped in a white quilted body bag. Or at least, the man lying before us resembled Mick, but whatever was the essence of Mick was gone, literally leaving a corpse. Only his head was visible, his lips were slightly parted, and there was a slight trace of dried blood on this man’s bottom lip. In recent years, I had used electric clippers to trim my husband’s hair. N...
Submitted to Contest #88
I have to get back to my own country. Home, where the sun shines and warms my skin, the waters sparkle, and the colours are vivid. Away from this grey, drab place, where cruelty abounds and there is no sense of beauty. My husband says that, I can go, but our sons must stay. My beautiful twin boys, born only three weeks ago. Leave them alone here, to be raised by some course wet nurse – never! I have a plan to escape and take my babies with me. It needs to be done soon, whilst the boys remain small enough to be easily hidden and carried, and...
Submitted to Contest #87
Samuel Schweizer was leading his team’s first meeting of the year. He was a small, squat sixty-nine year old, with a rotund belly, florid complexion and balding head. He wore a navy two piece suit, with the trousers held in place by bright red braces, and a midnight blue silk tie. He was clean shaven and immaculately manicured, and finished his outfits with a gold tie pin and matching cuff links. If you got close enough to him, you would catch a waft of lemony aftershave. Everything about him intimated opulence and good taste. He started wor...
Submitted to Contest #86
We first met at a Dwarf Sports Association event in 1995, when we were all five years old. Our parents were forward thinking people, who having realised that, they had a daughter with restricted growth, thought of the likely complications of this. Their immediate thoughts related to the physical difficulties we would encounter. Subsequently, they thought about the less obvious repercussions for their small children. Amongst other things, they anticipated that, their offspring’s lack of stature would make it difficult for them to join in spor...
Submitted to Contest #85
Eliza tied her woollen shawl around her, before stepping out into the farm yard. Although early March, and signs of spring were beginning to show in the surrounding countryside, the wind buffeted and probed her with icy fingers. It blustered and shrieked, chasing the pillow clouds across the blue sky. Crows cawed as they swooped and glided around the farm buildings, sometimes swept sideways by a sudden gust. As she glanced down the valley, the hills on either side were coated with velvety green grass, with grey, lichen covered rocks interrup...
Submitted to Contest #84
Emma sat in the darkened room, elbows on the small table before her, head bowed with her fingers massaging her temples. Renacer was on her shoulder, scanning the space around him, and occasionally ruffling his feathers. Her last client had been difficult. It was not that, she had been an unpleasant person, it was that, Emma had had to tread carefully about the messages she gave her. There had been a lot of that lately. She was seeing things, which she didn’t understand, or futures, which were too painful to reveal in advance. &nb...
Submitted to Contest #83
She lived, swimming in the ocean for many thousands of years. Her companions were the creatures of the sea: fish, seals and dolphins. Naked and huge, bigger than any ship, she lurked amongst coral reefs, or wriggled lithe as an eel along the sandy sea bed. Her skin was pale, almost iridescent. Necessity had given her large, dark eyes, enabling her to see in the dark depths of the ocean. Her long, green locks, resembling sea weed streamed behind her as she swam. She had no home, if she slept, waves and curre...
Submitted to Contest #82
Brenda was sixty-three years old, and did not like change. She had her routine, and preferred to stick to it. For instance, she always had a roast dinner on Sundays, and then on Mondays used the remains of the previous day’s lunch to make a salad. It was irrelevant to her how cold the weather was, Monday’s were salad days. She approached everything in the same way, household chores were performed in strict rotation, and telephone calls to her extended family were always made on Wednesday evenings. Even her conversations followed a set patter...
Submitted to Contest #81
They were born ten days apart in 1931, and lived near each other. Their homes were on one of the vast, recently built Dagenham council estates, constructed to ease overcrowding in the London slums. She was the only child of a Ford worker, Horace, and his wife. This, and, the fact that, she had two doting, childless aunts, meant that, materially, she had a better childhood than most children in the area. Her father was careful with money, cutting her hair himself, and putting taps on old shoes and painting them red, rather than buying her dan...
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