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Squirrelly Writer

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Oct, 2019

Stories (78)
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382 Followers
140 Following

78 Stories

2320 karma pts

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L’orinne Loves…New Year’s Looks!

Submitted to Contest #74

“Write a top ten NYE party looks and beauty must-haves list”, the last minute brief went, landing into my inbox on a Wednesday morning where my only plans had been continuing to eat chocolate for breakfast. Yes, that’s right. We’re in yet another lockdown and the government is fining people who meet up with others, yet Glimmer remain resolute that you, dear reader, want to squeeze into a tiny sequinned something and spend hundreds painting your eyelids to resemble fireworks. Fine. Let the cosmetics countdown begin. 10. (Also the number...

17 likes 6 comments 6
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Grandpa's Little Helper

Submitted to Contest #73

I pressed the doorbell and saluted to the camera I knew was watching me. There was a muffled crackling noise and then I heard Grandpa say “Rosalyn! I’m so glad you could make it. Come find me in the kitchen.” He was the only one who still called me that name. Everyone at school, even the teachers, calls me Murphy, because I remind people of that dead actress who was in Clueless, Brittany Murphy. I guess maybe with the hair and eyes I can see what they’re talking about. Grandpa was buzzing me in. I pushed the door but luckily before I pu...

21 likes 3 comments 3
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Red or Blue Slush?

Submitted to Contest #70

  I rapped on the trunk.   “Back soon Rube. Call of nature.”   There was no reply. Maybe he couldn’t hear me. Or maybe I couldn’t hear him. Which was just as well, didn’t want my precious cargo attracting any attention. I began the walk to the service station, my goddamn bladder kicking me for pulling up in such a far, secluded spot of the carpark.   Washing my hands after attending to the necessary, I glimpsed myself in the smeared mirror. Between the speckles, I thought my grey eyes looked darker than they did this morn...

18 likes 11 comments 11
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Crook Woods

Submitted to Contest #68

It had been twenty-four years since she’d last seen it, but the place looked exactly the same, apart from the plaque declaring what she remembered as ‘Woolwicke’ was now ‘Little Beam’. The white painted double garage with its navy blue painted roller shutter doors. The neighbour’s lamppost she used to be able to see peeping over the hedge when playing in the garden, making believe Mr Tumnas was waiting for her under it, even in midsummer. The conservatory she could see from between the bars of the wrought iron front gate. The shadow inside t...

18 likes 9 comments 9
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Over the Skin

Submitted to Contest #65

Listening to the soft panting seeping through the thin bedroom wall, a few of Warren Walker’s oddities from yesterday started to make sense to me now. I gave him a few days to settle in, then invited the new neighbour round. Opening the door, I was struck by how his hirsute frame seemed to occupy of the doorway. Yet in my peripheral vision, I nevertheless detected a synchrony of net curtain twitching over the road. I’d long past giving a crap what the housewives thought. I am still considered an outsider in this little town, despite ha...

19 likes 3 comments 3
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When the Weather Turns

Submitted to Contest #63

“Harvest Mooncha? I mean, surely even you must admit that’s a bit of a stretch?” I laughed, nervously. It’s my knee-jerk response. Only involving my mouth, not my knees. Ferry and I were browsing the menu in Bean and Gone. As soon as the first leaves began to fall, they’d wheeled out the chalkboard list of seasonal drinks. The coffee shop was one of five branches the independent had grown in Brainton. People came in droves to photograph themselves and their friends sipping lattes in the reclaimed furniture or against wallpaper bearing f...

16 likes 8 comments 8
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Woody's Vacation

Submitted to Contest #62

“COREYYYY!”Olivia shut the fridge door with a sigh and listened out for signs of movement from her six-year-old son. Or rather, six and three quarters, as he frequently corrected her and her husband, Jason.“What’s up, Ma?” a tremulous voice asked from the top of the stairs. Corey knew if his mother raised her voice it meant trouble. Olivia enjoyed quiet pursuits, such as meditation and crocheting (“means I can better tolerate your drumming and your Dad’s bedroom DJing practice” she had explained to Corey once).“Care to tell me why my eggs ar...

19 likes 4 comments 4
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Don’t You Cry

Submitted to Contest #60

Even when I was a child, when this country’s surface was still cool enough to walk on barefoot, I didn’t get on with other children. Mother and Father’s friends, relatives and neighbours would pay visits, bringing with them their droppings, pudgy lifeforms incapable of moving in a straight line, that I was expected to entertain. To form immediate bonds with all, merely owing to being of similar ages. To host tea parties with teddy bears and dolls. To this day I am disgusted whenever I see a toddler trailing a doll behind her – evidence some ...

22 likes 12 comments 12
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The Wired Rats

Submitted to Contest #60

From: A History of the Vischerpeople, 2065. Introduction Many students will be familiar with the Vischerz, a race who drill holes in trash islands to comb the ocean floor for idea chips. They then clean these up, using their advanced eyesight to detect any faults, tweaking them with tools at the ends of the upper limbs where you and I have hands and fingers, and transport these restored findings to Planet Jujj. The Jujii reward them with Ark Ma, a substance which provides momentary bliss and forgetfulness of the pandemic that has made ...

18 likes 3 comments 3
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Toby’s Mood Journal

Submitted to Contest #53

16/07/20Good: really hot day. Happier when the sun is shining.Good: found a popsicle I’d forgotten at the back of freezer when putting food delivery away.Bad: popsicle melted after I got it out and left it on the side while I hung laundry out to dry. It was my last one.17/07/20Bad: reading over yesterday’s entry and realizing something as innocuous as a melted popsicle can really negatively impact my mood.Good: at least Dr Simpson will be pleased I’ve finally started this journal.Bad: had the nightmares again.Good: I just wanted to end an en...

27 likes 21 comments 21
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The Necklace

Submitted to Contest #51

“That’s it? That’s all I get?” “I’m afraid so, Mrs Daniels.” Ian Wilkes of Wilkes Atkinson Johnson Solicitors twisted the piece of paper on his desk so it faced his distraught client. He tapped the offending paragraph with his pen. He folded his hands on his ample stomach (of which he was rather proud; many expensive meals had gone towards building that mound). He leaned back slightly, as though that would afford his ears some protection from the howling peroxide spectacle in front of him. “But…but that’s not fair!” The woman Ian had...

37 likes 3 comments 3
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The Floorboards

Submitted to Contest #49

“Look at your watch now…” I can’t. “You’re still a super hot female!” Not currently. The thought makes me smile wryly, then I refocus as my arms start to shake. I try to focus on the rhythm rather than the words of the song I put on, one of the go-to tracks when I need a boost. I judge (pray) two minutes of it have surely passed by now. I close my eyes, but the image of the floorboards I was staring at remains lodged in my brain. I consider the years’ worth of detritus caught in the cracks. I think back to the time I dropped my co...

15 likes 5 comments 5
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Quill Bill

Submitted to Contest #48

I turned my back on him, hoping he’d get the hint. “Why are you ignoring me?” I twitched my worn out body away from the finger poking into my spine, causing more of the duvet to accidentally join me. The protective heaviness didn’t last long, being promptly snatched back. “You always do this. Taking all the covers for yourself. Just goes to prove: you don’t value my feelings.” I drew in breath. Held it there for a moment, like a billion articles I surreptitiously searched for in any free moment I managed to carve out had instructed m...

20 likes 6 comments 6
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Reply All

Submitted to Contest #46

Kate breaks from reading the messages on her PC from her woman’s shelter fundraiser page to read one from her editor on her mobile. She wants last minute changes made to Kate’s article on soothing face masks that can be made from items commonly found in kitchen cupboards. Next to a cooling cap of decaf coffee declaring her a 2018 Chester Triathlon Club runner up sits a pile of literature her obstetrician has dutifully posted, seemingly unaware of the omnipresence of the internet. Kate has read through half of it already though, tenderly patt...

16 likes 4 comments 4
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Walking With Einstein

Submitted to Contest #44

Lee listened with half an ear as Greg listed the advantages and setbacks he had recently discovered in converting his wine shop to a home delivery service. Einstein yanked on other end of the lead held in Lee’s hand, similarly impatient to get going. He’d spotted a cluster of pigeons pecking at picnic leftovers that had tumbled from one of the park’s many overflowing bins.“…but what can you do, eh?” Greg shrugged his shoulders in theatrical self-pity, eyes crinkled in merriment. The two acquaintances both knew what was being left unsaid – Gr...

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