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Story Time

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Aug, 2020

Stories (246)
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246 Stories

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Jelly Stick

Submitted to Contest #174

“I can’t move my right arm anymore,” she said, moving her right arm, “Do you see what I mean? It won’t move. Not an inch.” Back when they were living together, Marcy would have corrected her. In their twenties, every moment was an opportunity for explosion. Their friendship was held together by nitro and lit matches. They could fight about anything--a quality most of their rotating boyfriends loved to mention as though it were some great insight. That’s why the boys never lasted and the friendship did. Until it didn’t. “Brett doesn’t w...

38 likes 19 comments 19
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Take the Yak

Submitted to Contest #173

“I need a price check on this yak.” Nobody will respond to my call. I’m behind enemy lines. It’s every man for himself. Every man and/or sixteen-year-old young lady attempting to make some extra cash so she can buy her sixty-year-old neighbor’s broken-down Buick at some point in the near future. That’s how you wind up working the cash register the day before Christmas Eve at Felicity’s Department Store at a mall that only has three stores left in it other than the one you’re working in. A pretzel stand, a frozen yogurt emporium, and a pet ...

37 likes 11 comments 11
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Poetry for the Epilogue

Submitted to Contest #172

Bertram Fitzgerald never found out I wrote him poetry. Across the street, Bertram would work at his typewriter. He would churn out articles all about the impending war. I pictured steam coming off the keys. Puffs of smoke wafting from the “W” and the “A” and the “R” and all the other letters that make up words like “barrage” and “tyranny.” His articles always appeared in the Gazette on Wednesday’s and Friday’s. I would be the first in line at the newsstand holding out a quarter. Sometimes I would commit his words to memory. To this day, I ...

31 likes 21 comments 21
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Seven Books I'll Never Read

Submitted to Contest #171

There were seven books on the nightstand. We had packed up the rest of the bedroom. In the other room, I could hear my sister taping up the last of the cardboard boxes that would contain what we wanted to keep from our mother’s house. The house that we grew up in. The previous morning had featured a yard sale. We parted with the things that held no sentiment for us. This was more difficult than we thought it would be, because we were not raised to be emotional. Our mother grew up in a rural part of Pennsylvania. We never saw her cry or bec...

39 likes 30 comments 30
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Rhonda Reschedules

Submitted to Contest #170

Rhonda rescheduled when she lost her alpaca. “I have no idea where she is,” Rhonda explained over the phone, her voice catching with panic after every third word, “Louisa never DOES this. She NEVER runs away. WHAT could she have been thinking?” Marty assured her that they could reschedule. He had nothing on his calendar for the next few months. His cousin was getting married in April, but that was it. The wedding was going to be underwater on one of those new matrimonial submarines that were becoming all the rage with brides. He would ...

28 likes 17 comments 17
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Gerald

Submitted to Contest #169

“Somebody has to tell Gerald that Peter moved out.”Morgan and Nic, Peter’s parents, thought about doing rocks, paper, scissors to see who would do it. It’s not that they were afraid of Gerald. They simply didn’t know how to broach the subject with a three-headed monster. Which head would they give the news to? Did it matter? Neither one of them had been in Peter’s room since they packed up his things and dropped him off at the university.“Don’t forget to tell Gerald that I’m gone,” he said to them as he was folding t-shirts in his new dorm, ...

47 likes 39 comments 39
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It Won't Be Like This Always

Submitted to Contest #168

The train to Oliver Junction is never late. Not once has it ever been late. Something to be proud of if you’re a train. Or a conductor. Whoever is in charge of all that. You can set your watch by it. We put your grandfather on that train. When we did, he was in much worse shape than you are now. They say some things skip a generation. I suppose that could be so. I thought I got lucky. Anytime you think you’re lucky, you’re blind. That’s how life goes for people like us. We live by the water and the shine from the sun gets in our eyes. Hurts ...

19 likes 14 comments 14
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Dandelion Surrender

Submitted to Contest #167

Once when I was a child, I spent an entire afternoon in the kitchen doing nothing, but feeling warm. I watched people come and go out the back door. Every time they would open it, a cool gust of wind would blow through, and I’d feel this relief. This subterranean relief. I think that might have been the first time in my entire life I’d felt that sensation. That something was wrong and then something was right. I didn’t even know the word for it. I’d open my mouth to try and name it, and the door would close again. Back to the heat. Back to t...

42 likes 26 comments 26
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Master of the Drops

Submitted to Contest #166

The Master will be celebrated at nine. An hour later, the King will be dead.  The cause will be natural. An attack of the heart. Tragic thing. Although kings do die young. It’s a known fact. The stress of it all ages them prematurely. The hair grays. The lips chap. They find themselves urinating far too frequently despite not drinking enough water. The King will take to his bed with something of a headache. He will be found the next morning. By then, the Master will be retired to his country house where he plans to spend the remainder...

27 likes 18 comments 18
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How Are You Doing Out There, Sleepy Hollow?

Submitted to Contest #165

Look at all these friendly faces out in the crowd!You know, some politicians hate campaigning, but not me. No sir, not me. I love a good campaign. I love seeing democracy in action. I love shaking the hands. I love kissing the babies. I love eating all those deep-fried butter sticks you all keep cooking up. I cannot believe how many things you can deep-fry these days. Will the wonders of America ever cease?Now, as much as I’d like to stand up here and pretend everything is right as rain at the Annual Sleepy Hollow Fair and Horse Pageant, we ...

35 likes 29 comments 29
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Smoke Detectors

Submitted to Contest #164

Where I come from, you can’t put batteries in the smoke detectors. Mom smokes so much, it’s in the walls. It’s an everlasting presence in the air. There is no air. Not really. Just methanol and acrolein and hydrocarbons and other things that belong in cement and not in the lungs. On the kitchen table, there are playing cards. Mostly jokers. Nobody plays cards here. Nobody knows how to play cards, but everybody likes how they look splayed out next to overflowing ashtrays and tabloids stained with Diet Coke. “Somebody give Boo Boo a piece of...

44 likes 26 comments 26
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Mrs. Chesterfield on Deck

Submitted to Contest #163

Mrs. Chesterfield refuses to board the lifeboats. She insists that the boat is not sinking. We have assured her that it is. We have pointed to the ocean. We have said “You see, Mrs. Chesterfield? You see how it’s getting closer to us? It isn’t meant to do that. The ocean is meant to stay where it is in relation to a boat. If it begins to approach, something is terribly wrong.” With a turn of her chin, Mrs. Chesterfield goes right back to her knitting. She informs us with a curt tone that she was promised an unsinkable experience. Rummagi...

46 likes 29 comments 29
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Roger Reads the Menu

Submitted to Contest #162

Do not order the salmon. I know it sounds good, Aurelia, but it’s not. It’s not good. Nothing here is good. Some things are bad and some are unspeakable. Order something bad. I can’t promise you good. I wish I could, but no good. No good. None of it is good. The salmon, however, is unforgivable. We wouldn’t even be here if not for family obligations. My brother insists he’s a chef. I disagree, but I do so privately. That’s how I was raised. When you’re brought up in a monastery by monks operating under the oath of silence, you learn to...

45 likes 39 comments 39
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Carly, After School

Submitted to Contest #161

Carly,A couple of things--As soon as you get home, make sure you feed your brother. Don’t give him anything with too much sugar in it or we’ll be dealing with him all night. I know he thinks he can handle a few cookies or one of those chocolate bars you sell for school, but we both know it doesn’t take much for him to turn into a Tasmanian devil.Lock all the doors. That should have been #1. Make sure every single door is locked, even the one on top so that you can’t get in even if you have a key. I know you have to stand on a chair to lock t...

50 likes 36 comments 36
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Bobbi Dancing in the Rain

Submitted to Contest #160

My ex-wife Bobbi is determined to dance in the rain. We haven’t had rain in Olfa County in nearly six weeks, which is a shame for many reasons. We’re getting notifications from the local water control folks that we need to take shorter showers. The farmers are fretting. I saw an old dog by the side of the road looking very concerned. While Bobbi may be upset about all that, she’s most distressed over not being able to go dancing in the rain once our divorce is complete. You see, we didn’t have what most people would consider to be an ami...

39 likes 28 comments 28
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