Tommy Merriman

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jun, 2020

Stories (8)

8 Stories

131 karma pts

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“Apple Picking in Mourning” by Tommy Merriman

Submitted to Contest #63

Oh dear.  There’s a troubled spirit, Miss Geena thought when she watched two people picking apples in her orchard.   Although the skin of Miss Geena sagged down from her face like wet clothes on a rack, her senses were held firmly in place.  She knew the aura of a person struggling with the weight of life’s harshest lessons.  She felt it. No, nothing like a teenage woman living in the mist of some tragedy or other could get by Miss Geena.  Observing the older gentleman accompanying this teenager, Miss Geena ea...

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“Ithoyizi, or a Boy and His Toy” by Tommy Merriman

Submitted to Contest #61

“What is this?”  The awe in the boy’s voice sounded like the labor of building a thousand grand pyramids.  His eyes widened with the wonder of a newborn fawn seeing her mother for the first time.  His fingers touched the toy with the timidity of a bomb expert deciding whether to cut the red or the blue wire first. Despite his weakness and tiredness, the boy’s father beamed down upon his son.  He recalled the moment his own father generously gave him this very same toy.  Such a simple gesture, but one full of meaning...

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“Sammy and Erna” by Tommy Merriman

Submitted to Contest #53

“She’s beautiful.”  Sammy said this with such genuine affection that even the most spiteful person would find it enduring. “She’s 80,” came the blunt reply of Jacob, his gruff voice nicely complimenting his hard-edged personality. “I’m 88.” “Robbing the cradle a bit there,” Jacob guffawed. Sammy just smiled as he adoringly examined the lady of his desires.  He knew well Jacob’s typically cynical and condescending nature.  They had been living in rooms next to each other for the past nine months.  They weren’t friends,...

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“The Story of a Boy and His Star” by Tommy Merriman

Submitted to Contest #51

She looked up at the stars and I felt like she was looking right at me.  At her son’s Guardian.  At a star who failed to do her job. They say that a star will never forget her first child.  I don’t know if that is true or not, but it is for me.  You see, every child born on Earth is given a Guardian Star to watch over him or her.  For protection.  For support.  For wishes.  For love. My first child was Enzo.  He was a beautiful boy with a warrior’s heart.  His broad nose and large, brown ey...

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“The Quest” by Tommy Merriman

Submitted to Contest #49

Michael lived ten years in total happiness.   Then he lived for ten years fighting through the reality he had come to know.   Then he lived for twenty years in blissful ignorance. Of Michael’s forty years of life, thirty were dictated by a single question in which he awaited an answer.  He first asked it when he was ten years old.  How many times he asked, he lost track.  Answers came and went, but nothing seemed to satisfy his thirst for an answer.   In college, at 20 years old, he met Sandy ...

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“Home Affairs” by Tommy Merriman

Submitted to Contest #49

Two-and-a-half years, at the end of it, feels like it went by in a flash.  The pain of going through those 30 months of slow and agonizing ups and downs was brutal, sure.  But now, so close to the end, I feel relieved.  It is so odd how something can take so long, but in that final moment of attaining what you so desired, it feels like you always had it. Well, it isn’t finished yet.  I am sitting here in a run-down Home Affairs building in the middle of a township.  I am waiting.  Waiting for it to be finished....

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“Just a Candle” by Tommy Merriman

Submitted to Contest #46

What drove me to this place?  A run-down church on top of a hill in the middle of farmland.  The nearest gas station - the nearest civilized community - must be a good 20 miles away.  I’m used to nighttime in the city where neon lights flash in the once-upon-a-time flashy district.  A place where stars are not bright enough to be seen as the power of man’s electricity drowns their natural ability to twinkle over our world. Here, outside of some empty country church, I am transfixed at the spot.  Peering up at this g...

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“Inspiration Escapes” by Tommy Merriman

Submitted to Contest #46

...so looking into the distant and ever-eluding horizon, he realized that while he would always love her, he could never truly make her happy. The End With an exhalation that carried the sound of relief, Jerry sat frozen looking at the final two words he just typed.  The End.  So that’s it.  He finally finished his first novel.  After sacrificing so much, least of all his reputation, Jerry had done it.  Somehow it seemed fitting that his final typed words came on the day of his brother’s wedding.  After all, t...

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Author bio

I am a teacher in love with my wife, my children, my puppies, and The Beatles. God inspires me to be better and work for a stronger humanity on this rock, third from the sun.