Tess Ross-Callahan

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Aug, 2024

Stories (4)

4 Stories

307 karma pts

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“Weather Patterns” by Tess Ross-Callahan

Submitted to Contest #284

      She had never biked in a snowstorm. Rain, yes. Blinding sun, yes. Whooshing gusts of wind that nearly blew her into the street – also, yes, on one frightening occasion. But it didn’t snow very often this far south. Besides, whenever they did predict a snowstorm, the office was closed practically before the weather reporter had finished her sentence. In a city with a volunteer-only Snow Team, it only took an inch or two to shut things down.          Today they’d ...

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“The Curious Incident of the Child In The Nighttime” by Tess Ross-Callahan

Submitted to Contest #281

Putting your kids to bed just doesn’t happen the way it does in The Sound of Music. If you’ve never seen it, picture a bunch of stylish bilingual children peacefully walking themselves up the stairs, singing, leaving the grownups downstairs to finish their drinks and conversations.  I mean, really.  I only have the two kids, forget seven - which I’m pretty sure is the number of Von Trapp offspring - and bedtime is a whole ordeal. Even on a regular night. Even when it’s not the coldest goddamn day of the year, ev...

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“Hair-Dryer Day” by Tess Ross-Callahan

🏆 Winner of Contest #262

I didn’t know there could be a day too hot for planes to fly but I guess I should’ve, because lord knows it’s entirely too hot for anything else to happen. I figured I should still take the dog out but honestly as soon as I opened the door, he looked at me with these doleful eyes like, Are you kidding me? Makes sense. I was ready to crawl out of my underwear and just walk around with a creatively placed fig leaf or something, so you gotta figure it’s even worse for a furry guy. When we went back in, I dug an old t-shirt out of the ...

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“Liftoff” by Tess Ross-Callahan

Submitted to Contest #261

She had always been early. Of course, she was already here. Jacy saw her faster than he wanted to, if he was being honest. Some part of him had, in rehearsing this moment in his head the night before, expected to have to search the room for her. But his eyes leapt to her as if magnetized. She was gnawing her thumbnail, wearing the jean cutoffs he had helped her make when the hole in the knee of those pants had torn so wide that she’d had to hold it together to walk up the stairs. Now they sat a little tighter on her hips, the zipper curving ...

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Author bio

Third grade teacher in Northeast DC by day, runner / friend / occasional crafter by afternoon, ten-hour-sleeper by night. Writing stories whenever those other things permit.

Winning 1 story 🏆

Contest #262
Hair-Dryer Day – read story