Tempest Phoenix Smith

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jun, 2023

Stories (45)

45 Stories

824 karma pts

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“Meeting in Real Time” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #265

His journey of four thousand miles began with snow on the ground and more falling from a cloudy sky on Saint David’s Day in North Wales. The bulky black cab that would not have been out of place in London had a Welsh driver so the journey, though expensive, provided excellent conversation. This felt like a better sendoff than having to stay in Manchester overnight and risk not getting to the airport in time for any number of reasons. He felt convinced that he was taking the weather with him on the first of March because Philadelphia, too, af...

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“L O L” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #264

Cheryl dropped her mobile on the sofa then plopped down after it, exhausted from another hectic day in what seemed an exceedingly long week. “T.G.I.F,” she sighed, glancing at the fluffy doughnut bed next to her crammed bookcase as if Nabisco would be curled up there signifying his total agreement with one look from under those floppy ears.Her throat caught at how much she missed the little mongrel. His presence in her life had outlasted all her relationships. In fact, if she had paid heed to the times that Nabisco didn’t warm to a few of th...

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“Climbing the Ladder” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #264

McPherson took a satisfied drag from his newly lit cigarette before getting out of the driver’s seat. Despite the fact that the three girls he transported here wore black, he admired the alluring view as they walked to join the crowd waiting outside the church. Sex on legs. Sex for hire. Sex that he obtained for himself when the time was right. Risky because it was against the business rules, but so very worth it. And not one of them, so far, had dared try to get him in trouble. They probably enjoyed it though they pretended to resist. He kn...

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“Fever” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #263

The dream of flying engulfed him. From the sharp points of his talons to the tips of his outspread wing feathers, from the delicate but strong skeleton to the piercing eyes that watched his shadow, far below, skim over field and meadow, aware of the rabbit who froze in its tracks before running for its life.To him, always, the earth was something to leave behind as often as he could, so the fantasy took him, not of plunging down to sink talons into warm fur so he could feast, but to fly higher, up above the clouds and higher still where the ...

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“Thunder” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #263

I remember walking near the river on a summer day. Listening to the birds, sometimes watching them fly across the meadow or from one tree to another. Looking at all the flowers which the bees and butterflies visited. Looking was enough because mam was gone, so I had no one to bring them to who would care to have a bunch of weeds brought in from the fields. I had been told as much by the one woman who sometimes smiled at me since I came here after mam was gone. She wanted no more weeds from me.Besides, though they looked beautiful in the air,...

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“Tiger Lily” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #262

Candis was the last of the gathered poets to stash her notebook and assorted pens in her capacious bag after everyone else dispersed. The highlight of her week always ended too soon.She abandoned the picnic bench outside Scripps Cottage to head back to the main campus of San Diego State University. Glancing down, she paused to adjust her bag so the mermaid portrait trimmed with sequins would be displayed to any passerby. The opposite side only showed a curling wave, frilled with a filigree of foam, not half as interesting.She glanced at the ...

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“Wise Old Owl” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #261

Arthur Tomlinson dragged himself home from the bus stop after an unproductive visit to the doctor.He wanted to get back to his bungalow, slam the door on the world and lose himself in his latest library book. Not plunge into a bottle of his favourite tipple, not any more, but a good novel did the trick as long as it had plenty of action, suspense, and unexpected twists along the way.You could drown in fiction easily enough, forget your current circumstances, ignore the gloomy news which never seemed to get any better and, best of all, not pu...

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“Being Polite” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #261

Thank you, Vicky, for sending me the woven mats Grandmother Victoria made. You won’t remember her, of course, but she was the sweetest person you could hope to know. I’ve never understood why your mother named you after her because she died before you were born.It means a lot to be able to display the weaving when we entertain family. Nobody realised that your mother took them away with her to California. We thought they had been lost in all the upheaval after grandfather died with the house having to be sold and Aunt Bogna moving into a muc...

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“I Blame the Squirrel” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #261

Before mobile phones or computers, back in the Twentieth Century which some people can still remember, a young woman boarded with her half-sister’s family.She paid a pittance to sleep in a postage stamp of a room high up in the attic of the big house but that was okay as she owned few possessions and was unlikely to gather more because she was saving up to own a house herself, though this would take many years if she remained single.The cheapness of the accommodation was not simply due to being a blood relation, but because she frequently he...

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“Marsh Walker” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #260

I had timed it right. As the twilight began to soften the sky after the sun vanished over the edge of the marsh, I finally walked on firm footing and could see my way clear through what I felt sure were the last patches of boggy ground.Of course, I still tested with my staff. Excessive confidence was a danger since the marsh had tricksy ways. I heard enough about that as a child to always heed my mother’s warnings, especially as since then I dragged more than a few people out of the quavering fen, though one of them I had been tempted to lea...

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“Refuge” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #259

The gray and white seagull ignored the buffeting rain and how much every muscle ached from the long flight. The storm wind under his wings was carrying him in the right direction at last. And, as twilight descended, he could see what looked like from this distance a straight white branch sticking up from the ocean.Light emanated from the vertical pole, ceased, then shone again.Although thunder cracked and lightning flickered between clouds and ocean, he felt his heart ease. Where there was light, there must be a keeper. In these changing tim...

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“Frame of Mind” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #258

It was the calico cat that started it all on a Saturday morning.Not even his cat, though he had let her inside a few times since moving to Old Town.Ambrose had stripped the king-sized bed first thing, taken everything to the laundry room, then brought fresh lavender-colored sheets and pillowcases. He had stretched the last corner of the fitted bottom sheet over the mattress corner when he noticed the calico cat staring in through the bedroom window.Taking the cat to be scanned for a micro-chip was on his to-do list as none of the neighbours ...

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“The Tempest” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #257

Luckily, she was good at focusing. In the bustle and noise of costume shop where the sun never shone in the basement of the Dramatic Arts building at San Diego State University, she threaded several needles with midnight blue thread and stabbed each of them into the enormous peach-coloured pin cushion which bristled like a porcupine with pins and needles. She appreciated her preparation, then liberated a needle and began to hem.The trouser press hissed. Costumers discussed last night’s incident when the shoulder of the leading...

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“The 497th Santa” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #256

Mabel patted her hair, fingered underneath the back, then switched the hairdryer off and set it down on the dresser. Silence rushed in. She put one hand on the wall to steady herself and bent over to turn off the mains before unplugging the gadget. She would let it cool down before putting it back in the drawer later today.When she stood up, she was eye level with one of the teddies perched on the long shelf above her daughter’s bed. She tried to read some message in those glass amber eyes, felt she might get some insight, maybe one word to ...

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“Sandcastle in the Storm” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #255

I remember standing on the pale sands in warm sunlight watching the boy who kneels near his sister. He is using the top of a red plastic shovel to shape each turret on the sandcastle towers with deep concentration. She is looking down at him and smiling. He is her best ever birthday gift as he was born on her birthday. Who needs a doll when you have a real baby to cuddle? Only, I don’t remember this at all. I never had children. I wanted them desperately, but never had even one. I didn’t even get so far as a miscarriage. Why does this scene...

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Author bio

Tempest Phoenix Smith loves to weave words into poetry and stories. Her first Read Aloud storybook will be available as soon as her website is up and running, so watch this space. List of stories that belong together: Series One Unexpected Guest Refuge Fever Nightmare Series Two A Solitary Man Lost Between Stations Series Three White Jacket Twin-Pearl Ring