Ty Warmbrodt

“The Proposition” by Ty Warmbrodt

Submitted to Contest #236

Donald McCaffrey walked out of the video game store disappointed. The newest release of ‘Die, Bitch, Die 4’ had sold out in a matter of minutes. The seventeen-year-old with the mop of curly brown hair and pale complexion, dressed in skinny jeans, Chuck Taylor’s and a black t-shirt reading, “Buzz off, I’m gaming,” kicked at a soda bottle laying on the sidewalk and cussed for all to hear.“Sold out, did they?”Donald turned his head to see a man who looked to be in his early thirties, dressed sharply in an expensive suit, in the backseat of a Ja...

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“Living for Tomorrow” by Ty Warmbrodt

“Oh, I love the Bangles! Turn this up!All the bazaar men by the NileThey got the money on a bet.Gold crocodiles (oh way oh)They snap their teeth on your cigarette.Foreign types with the hookah pipes say,Way oh way oh, way oh way ohWalk like an Egyptian, Sienna sings along.Ugh, the memories. This song takes me back to when I was really little. Me and girls from school would sleep over and do our make-up like Egyptians and pretend we were having a concert. We’d have to take turns being Susanna Hoff singing into hairbrushes. She was our favorit...

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“Racing Thoughts” by Ty Warmbrodt

Submitted to Contest #235

I’m an Iron worker, and a foreman. This past week we have been working twelve-hour days through the hottest part of the summer trying to get the Highway 47 bridge complete. I have had to deal with missing materials, late deliveries, on-site injuries, absences, and a boss breathing down my neck. We’re behind schedule and a lot of that heat is falling square on my shoulders. So, I need a day, my day off. I get one a week. One day a week to sleep in. One day to relax and enjoy some time with my family. I had planned on waking naturally with a g...

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“On the Air” by Ty Warmbrodt

Submitted to Contest #235

“Ten and two with forty seconds on the clock. Pilgrims down by six. The Bulldogs apply double coverage to All-American wide receiver Tanner Scott. The ball is snapped. Jones fakes the hand off. Scott is off like a rocket. Jones brushes off a tackle and launches a Hail Mary. Scott has a read on it. Into the endzone they go. Look at the vertical on Scott, and he pulls it in! Oh, he’s hit hard, sent head-over-heels and lands in a twisted heap, folks. Scott is down. He’s not moving. Coach Wilson is heading to the field to check on his player. Ev...

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“Tomorrow, the Sun will Rise” by Ty Warmbrodt

Submitted to Contest #234

Journal 6, Entry 23, 6/13/2018 Today we stood in front of an open grave in black suits, black dresses, and with white handkerchiefs. Everyone huddled close under a ceiling of umbrellas as God’s tears poured down on us over the life of a courageous and thoughtless young man. I watched the stars and stripes soak up the drizzle as it lay there on the perfectly polished mahogany casket suspended above its final resting spot. Standing before the gravestone, the priest gave his benediction before the flag was folded up and presented to my wife a...

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“Letting Go” by Ty Warmbrodt

Submitted to Contest #233

I always wanted a man, thought I needed one. I thought all the answers to all life’s problems lied in finding the right man, a real man. A man of my own ideations that fit strict criterion so that they were man enough to tame the wildness in this hot-headed, smart-mouthed mid-west prairie girl.My daddy didn’t set much of an example of what to look for in a man, only what to avoid. He collected his welfare checks and repaired cars on the side. Momma left him when I was ten. I guess I remind him a lot of her because he took his frustration and...

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“While the Sun is Dying” by Ty Warmbrodt

Submitted to Contest #232

Austin Conners                                                          04/18/3002To: Julia ConnersSubject: Recent EventsJulia,I hate to tell you this way, but you’re a hard person to get a hold of. While in the field ...

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“A Christmas Wish List” by Ty Warmbrodt

Submitted to Contest #230

Dear Santa, It’s me, Sarah Michelle Klein. I turned seven this year. I don’t know if I’ve been a good girl this year or not, Santa. I don’t do well in school. My grades are bad but I try as hard as I can. Daddy would yell at me every night and wouldn’t let me play with the other kids. I would do my homework until bedtime trying to get it right, just to get more bad grades. I also get into fights sometimes because the other kids are mean to me for not being as smart as them or for the clothes I wear. This makes daddy even madder. He spanks ...

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“One Good, Happy Holiday Memory” by Ty Warmbrodt

Submitted to Contest #227

Trigger Warning: Contains sexual content.You hate the holiday season and can’t wait to escape it.“Record breaking snowfall expected. Airports and highways have already shut down, anticipating life-threatening conditions. Please, do not attempt to travel. Stay where you are and make the most of this unprecedented white Christmas…”“That’s just great,” you mumble to yourself as you turn your attention from the TV monitor to the flight board to see all flights change to canceled.“Augh, I was supposed to be with my folks for Christmas,” says the ...

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“Filling the Void” by Ty Warmbrodt

Submitted to Contest #222

“Come on Allen, you’ve got this, just one… more… rep! Great job, Champ! How do you feel,” Clint, Allen’s personal trainer asked him after he had pushed through his fifth push-up.Allen lay there on the mat, drenched in sweat, gasping for air. “Weak. Tired. Sore.”“That’s good, you’re feeling it. That means it’s working. Let’s do some lunges!”Allen sat up and looked around the gym as he calmed his breathing. People were looking and talking, shaking their heads, and laughing.What am I doing, he thought. Look at all these perfectly sculpted peopl...

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“The Ouija” by Ty Warmbrodt

Submitted to Contest #221

Growing up we all have that certain someone who is our rock, our safe person, someone we can relax around and just be ourselves, someone we can confide in and turn to during our darkest moments. That person for Lucinda Maxwell was her Granny Erma.Lucinda is a bit of a peculiar girl, somewhat socially inept. She’s the very definition of Plain Jane, dressing conservatively for the nineteen-fifties, much less the twenty-first century. She prefers books to television and board games to video games. She writes and draws in a journal she keeps wit...

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“The Pool” by Ty Warmbrodt

Submitted to Contest #220

If you could cure the world, would you?I took my family on a little camping trip in the desert. It was supposed to be a time of bonding before Melanie, my daughter, went off to college. Of course, she would much rather have spent the time with her friends, so she didn’t want to be there. She got angry the first night, locked herself in the car to read, and fell asleep, draining the battery. That left it up to dad to trek across the desert to the closest town for help.Six hours into my journey and the twenty-four ounces of water I took with m...

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“Beers at Breckenridge” by Ty Warmbrodt

Submitted to Contest #220

“It’s time we do it.” I look at the face my phone. It’s Steve Mansfield at 6:00 AM. “I haven’t heard from you in four years, and you call me at six in the morning?” “Sorry, didn’t account for the time zone. Living out east these days. It’s 9:00 here, Davie.” “I go by David know,” I tell him as I roll over and put my feet on the floor and push the hair from my eyes. “Well, David, your mom told my mom you just graduated from Oregon State University. It’s time. I already talked to Bobby. He’s excited to see us again.” “Time for what...

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“If I Could Break These Bars” by Ty Warmbrodt

Submitted to Contest #219

If I could break these bars, there wouldn’t be a soul to tell the tale of what happened. Seven days they’ve been pulling me behind these flagellant beasts who aren’t smelling any better as the days pass; wet dirty horses dropping their feces where they see fit, always right in front of my nose. If their stench wasn’t enough, my captors don’t let me out for nothing and my own defecations slosh all over this cage like porridge in a pot. You would think all the rain we’ve encountered would keep the smell down, but it makes it worse and creates ...

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“Favorite Baby Girl” by Ty Warmbrodt

Submitted to Contest #218

After the traditional Thanksgiving dinner has been presented and vanquished, Harland Covington retires to the family room to watch some football while everyone else cleans up. He sits in his old faded brown recliner, the one that hugs every contour of his seventy-seven-year-old frame. It’s the same chair that has been the subject of many arguments with his wife, usually with Harland exclaiming, “When something hugs you just right, you don’t throw it out, you hug it back!” The chair is positioned by the fireplace so that the warm dry heat swa...

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