Menu

Menu

Prompts

Contests

Stories

Blog

Directory

Contests

Magazine

FAQ

Thomas Wetzel

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Apr, 2024

Stories (56)

Comments

Library

90 Followers

35 Following

56 Stories

2110 karma pts

?

The Bacchanalia

Submitted to Contest #254

The back of the SUV was loaded with all the necessary supplies; the cooler full of food, several cases of beer, camping gear and, most importantly, all the pagan costumery. The radio was turned up loud and the four 20-somethings traveling north across the Oregon border were all in high spirits.The Bacchanalia was no Coachella or Burning Man. It was not meant for the masses. It was not a commercial venture. The organizer’s didn’t even have a website or any social media accounts. The whole point was for any potential attendees to be clever and...

12 likes

The Golden Loop

Submitted to Contest #253

The Golden LoopMy great grandfather, William, was a professor of Middle East history at Oxford and traveled extensively throughout that region of the world for decades, learning about the history and culture while also acquiring rare artifacts for various museums and individual collectors. In the process, he also acquired an impressive collection of his own during his travels.His son Peter moved to America upon graduating from Cambridge and took a position as a junior professor of chemistry at Georgetown. When his father died, two large wood...

16 likes

More Gray Than Blue

Submitted to Contest #252

CW: Contains themes of substance abuse and suicidal ideation.More Gray Than BlueHe doesn’t really wake up because he never really went to sleep. He just sort of shifts back and forth on the tired old mattress in an ever-increasing state of discomfort for a few hours after he shuts out the lights until the sun is fully up and he knows that any prospect of sleep is gone. Then he rises, and he feels every bit of his 55 years in his lower back, knees and a dozen other places. He grabs a towel and heads for the shower, passing by the room where h...

16 likes

Ain’t No Fun When The Rabbit Got The Gun

Submitted to Contest #252

CW: Contains themes of drug trafficking, violence and profanity.Ain’t No Fun When The Rabbit Got The Gun“Ay yo, Mo-Mo, maybe you should be careful what you wish for. Things is basically goin’ all right now but they can get worse real quick I think. We can prolly smooth this shit out. We should try and talk wit them, for starters at least. Shit.”He just looked at me, with something dark and dangerous swimming through the shallows behind his gray-green eyes.Sure, it would have been easy to just go along with the rest’a them but my pops raised ...

14 likes

Prosopagnosia v. Cotard's Syndrome

Submitted to Contest #252

CW: This story contains themes of mental health issues, suicide and physical violence.Prosopagnosia v. Cotard's SyndromeMy new doctor - a bright and friendly guy named Sarbjit - took the time to explain his diagnosis to me. He told me my condition was mental, not physical, but it was hard to pay attention to everything he said because my left arm was numb and rotting from the inside out. I smiled and nodded and then when I got home I looked up Cotard’s Syndrome online. Here is what Wikipedia had to say on it. “Cotard's syndrome, also known a...

14 likes

Uncle Arthur’s Many Secrets

Submitted to Contest #251

From: James Benson (jben****@gmail.com)To: Anders Westbrook (ande****@cornell.edu)Time/Date: 5:36pm, July 18, 2024Subject: This weekendHey Andy,Just letting you know that I can’t make your BBQ this weekend. I was looking forward to having a few beers with you and the guys and maybe playing a few hands of poker once the eating is done, but I have to head to Albany in the morning.Remember my Uncle Arthur? Don’t worry, I don’t either. (Well, a little.) Anyway, he passed away a few days ago and his sister - my Aunt Bonnie out in Wisconsin - cont...

17 likes

Business As Usual

Submitted to Contest #250

“Come on in. Shut the door behind you, man. Thanks for coming by.”A bright and sunny day, the first one in a while, the glass and steel skyscrapers of downtown Chicago gleaming outside the windows of the corner office.“You see him yet?”Short pause.“Not today. If that’s what you’re asking.”Brow furrows.“You talk to him yet?”Longer pause.“What are you asking me, Ryan? I’m pretty busy just now. Last night I got home from the office around 1:30 in the morning. I’d like to make it home by midnight tonight.”Dead stare. People walking down on the s...

12 likes

The Snowball Fight

Submitted to Contest #249

`Brendan loved the snow. Having grown up just outside of San Diego he never saw it as a kid, never played in it, so when he moved into a small two-bedroom rental in the Boston suburbs after graduating from Northeastern University he purchased his very first snow shovel. That morning he had used it for the first time to clear his driveway and free his car from the foot and a half of snow that had fallen overnight in a surprise pre-Thanksgiving snowstorm that had closed schools and snarled traffic all over New England. Now, on his way to ...

19 likes

Desperate Remedies

Submitted to Contest #248

When the birds all started dying, that’s when it began. Of course we didn’t know that at the time, but looking back now it’s easy to see that was the first sign. We just didn’t know what we were looking at. What it meant. I remember getting the phone call on a Sunday morning when I was at home, sleeping in late.“Hey Jordan, have you been outside yet today? Just wondering if you are seeing what I’m seeing here. This is…pretty disturbing.”After a brief conversation I hung up the phone, put on my sneakers and went out for a jog. It was hard to ...

17 likes

Outside

Submitted to Contest #247

The man with the black tattoo lettering on each side of his neck reading 24731-JAM, known to his small circle of friends simply as “Jam”, awoke at the same time that he did every day. The clock on the wall read 06:00 but that was a purely arbitrary number that simply signified when the strobing fluorescent overhead lighting and the piercing audible alarm would simultaneously activate, ending his all-too-brief daily respite from the sweat and the toil and the tedium of his waking hours.He sat up, cleared his throat slightly, took a sip of bot...

14 likes

Adrian

Submitted to Contest #244

Kate stared at her phone. The time was 4:10 am but the ping of an incoming email had stirred her from her sleep and now that she had read the message sleep was no longer an option. She had been staring at the image on-screen for several minutes but still she continued to stare. She herself was there in the party photo, and she clearly remembered the night when it was taken just over a year ago - the various Halloween costumes, including Jacob ridiculously dressed up as Tekashi 69, rendered the mental recall process immediately simple - ...

6 likes