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Sjan Evardsson

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Dec, 2019

Stories (261)

Comments

Library

301 Followers

9 Following

261 Stories

2794 karma pts

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Cait

This job is hard. Anyone who says different has never done it. I answer the questions of customers, from the simplest, “How do I turn it on?” to the most detailed, internal workings questions that repair shops have. “I hope I’ve been helpful today. If you have any feedback—” “Eat a bag of dicks.” They cut me off and disconnected before I could get any feedback from them. Well, perhaps that’s feedback in itself. I logged that interaction and turned my attention to the next. This was how I spent my days. With a short training period, I was ...

4 likes

Letters From School

Dearest sister,I have arrived, and it is beyond everything we’ve heard. The crowds and noise of the city would be overwhelming if I hadn’t spent so long doing language training at Holger Station.The air smells weird here. I’ve been assured it’s perfectly safe, but there are so many different chemicals that once I get used to one scent, another comes along. The strongest come from the eateries, the odors of cooking pouring out to the streets to entice customers in, but as I’m not used to the food, it’s just strange.I was met at the port by Lt...

4 likes

One Free Lesson

Andres started the morning of his eightieth birthday the same way he started most of his mornings. He dressed, made sure his keys were in his pocket, grabbed his cane, and walked the mile to the cemetery where he sat in silence, leaning on his wife’s headstone. Rather than heading straight home for some breakfast, however, he decided to treat himself. He caught the bus into town; free for all riders over sixty. The drivers hadn’t asked for his ID in at least the last five years. Once in the shopping area around the bus depot, he walked pas...

4 likes

Cookies

Liza rubbed her hand over her recently shaved head, savoring the “ping,” the feeling of petting a tennis ball. She didn’t care if long hair was in; when summer hit, it was time to shave it all off. Ever since the arrival of the tarkins, Earth’s nearest neighbors in the galaxy, fashions morphed and changed faster than they ever had. She wondered if it might, however, have been premature on her part. Waiting to board a tarkin ship bound to their world, she didn’t know what kind of climate — or season — to expect. Even in summer, though, the t...

4 likes

Mathemagician

Midday shifts during an excessive heat warning were quiet at the gas station, and Lenny took advantage of that. The pumps had been turned off for over forty-eight hours, waiting for a fuel delivery that continued to be delayed. He leaned against the cigarette display behind him, letting the stool tip on two feet. With no gas, no one was showing up to buy overpriced snacks and drinks. No one, that is, except the kid that struggled to pull the door open, then stood in the middle of store, in the flow of cold air from the air conditioner. He’...

3 likes

Bricks, Bridges, and Bonds

Nita unpacked her belongings in the remarkably unremarkable room. Dorm rooms are the same even here, she thought. Her name was affixed to the top bunk, a small chest of drawers, and the empty half of the closet.With the strict weight limits on how much she could take with her, unpacking took almost no time. Nine hangers took care of her shirts and trousers, while her undergarments, socks, short trousers and tee shirts barely filled the top drawer. She decided to leave the middle drawer empty for the time being, and she could put the bag in t...

4 likes

The Historians

Teryn looked at the drab, grey building hidden behind high fences. “Here we go again.”“These so-called science stories are killing me.” Liz checked her camera equipment before hoisting it to her shoulder. “Oh, it’s a breakthrough,” she said in a mocking tone, “look, toast in sixty seconds.”Teryn frowned. “At least your name isn’t attached to every one of these. As long as the network keeps sending me out to these nothing-burger stories, I’ll never get promoted. Always a junior producer, never a real science reporter.”“Maybe there’s a story t...

6 likes

I Thought I Was Over It

I flinched away from his touch. I didn’t mean to, I just couldn’t help it. “Again?” he asked. “Last night? Did you get any sleep after?” I nodded to the first two and sighed at the last. “Sorry, Balan. Maybe I’m not ready for this.” “No need to apologize. I understand that it isn’t easy and saying ‘Get over it’ helps no one.” He set down a mug of coffee near me, careful to maintain some distance. He gave me a few moments before he asked, “Not ready for which this? Us…or…? I mean, if you need space I can move back in with my family—” “No...

3 likes

Waiting for Moonrise

Reba traveled often for work. I knew that going into the relationship. But this trip was different, it wasn’t right. She was going to be away from home on her thirtieth birthday — on a weekend no less.I called her boss to find out where she was so I could fly out and surprise her. For months I’d saved up to buy her the diamond bracelet she always eyed as we walked past the jewelers, and I wanted to give it to her on her birthday.Her boss was confused. “Isn’t she home with you?”“She takes these two-day trips all the time. You mean it isn’t fo...

3 likes

The Marshal

The stranger walked into the edge of town on a dull, cloudy morning. A tall figure wearing a wide hat and wrapped in a blanket against the chill. Only their boots showed beneath the blanket. Not the flashy footwear of the wealthy, they were well-worn and practical work boots.It was far too early in the morning for most of the town, so the only witnesses to the stranger’s arrival were the livestock in the pens near the road, and the innkeeper who happened to be outside to watch the sunrise and take a guess at the day’s weather.He waved at the...

5 likes

Gramps Was Right

His lungs burned, his legs cried out in protest, his feet threatened to fumble at every step. His arms had long since grown numb holding the precious cargo tight to his chest. Ahead lay the safety of the ’burg; a vast network of hidden and secret paths through, between, and below the crumbling buildings that he knew with his eyes closed.He ran past the faded pink facade of the abandoned HiLux Hotel, dodged right down an alley then continued deeper into the ’burg. Once he was satisfied that he was no longer followed he allowed himself to slow...

3 likes

Better With a Friend

The PV Hobby Horse, a small cargo ship in the manufacturer’s default medium grey, sat at one end of the docks. Mid-bulk transports took the other occupied slots, while the big ships were loaded by drone on the opposite side of the station. Sidra Boston, captain of the Hobby Horse and professional bounty hunter, found herself facing a trip back into aslodzhin space to fulfill a promise. The trip was going to cost. Any other species’ space, she’d find someone that needed a small cargo delivered, but not so the aslodzhins. They already had her...

3 likes

Damned Bureaucracy

The small cargo ship, in the default medium grey, was wholly unremarkable. The same and similar made up the fleets of corporate and private couriers, with the result that it was not surprising to see it anywhere. The anonymity and ability to blend in served Sidra well…usually. This station, run by the hyper-bureaucratic aslodzhins was the exception. The “bugs,” as many humans called them, had their own ways of doing things and didn’t like a “squishy,” as they called humans and other endoskeletal beings in their own language, upsetting the o...

3 likes

But They Still Laugh

Nobody ever worked harder or more tirelessly to keep their community safe and informed than Carl. Since everyone in his small town was so reserved, hiding even trivial details from each other, he had to find things out on his own. He knew how reserved everyone was, because he was the most open person ever, and they told him nothing. That didn’t stop him from reaching out, sharing the little secrets with anyone and everyone who’d listen for just a moment. The other day, he’d had to tell Jennifer that Michael was sweet on her, and she should...

4 likes

2 Years, 1 Month, 17 Days

It had been two years, one month, and seventeen days since Syllah had left. I never did figure out what came over her. She’d become bitter, sarcastic, and cold, but I tried to work it out. It was as if she was trying to drive me away.She left, though, while I was at work. Just cleared out all her things and was gone with only a text message that said, “I’m gone, don’t worry about me.” I was left wondering if I’d done something wrong, or maybe she’d gotten bored of me.My friends had tried to dissuade me from getting involved with her in the f...

3 likes