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Valerie Preston

Author on Reedsy Prompts since May, 2020

Stories (123)

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124 Followers

1 Following

123 Stories

2184 karma pts

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My Worst Nightmare

Valerie Preston

Submitted to Contest #113

“Why am I doing this?” I ask myself. I have the instructions of how to get to the place scribbled on a piece of paper and I can’t even read my own handwriting. My friend was telling me over the phone but was obviously in a rush, and talking too quickly. It’s easy when you’re not the sleep deprived one trying to write it all down with a blunt pencil. “So that’s the address” she told me “Did you get it all ?” “Actually, what comes after 116 Brent Street?” “Not Brent Street, it is Bowen, B O W…” she started to spell it out for me. “I get ...

8 likes

Gran's Argument Swayed Me

Valerie Preston

Submitted to Contest #112

I think it was my parents who put me off marriage. When there doesn’t seem to be any love between your parents, actually that’s not strictly true – I think in a rather macabre way they did love each other. They just weren’t happy. Fights and arguments were a normal part of growing up in my family home. Nothing physical I might add – (not for lack of trying on my mums part but she just wasn’t a very good aim) - the verbal and emotional stuff was enough. A recurring disagreement was the lack of money for the lifestyle my mother wan...

9 likes

And Then There Was Light

Valerie Preston

Submitted to Contest #111

She thought herself lucky to get the job with so many people out of work, but for it to be so vastly different was what she was really happy about. Leaving behind the hard life of farming on the family farm – a daily grind of back breaking digging, picking, lugging heavy sacks of feed and all the other farm tasks was back breaking for a young girl. She now worked for a young family in London. She was a smart girl and knew that to be able to read and write would have advantages when it came to employment.Her father used to say to her in his ...

12 likes

Hitchhiking can be scary

Valerie Preston

Submitted to Contest #110

All she could hear was the hoot of an owl eerily sounding in the distance. Her breath was like small puffs of smoke as she breathed heavily in the cold night air. Even in the car it was freezing. The moon was a sliver tonight and almost completely hidden by dark clouds - not allowing her to see anything as she peered out of the window – just black silhouettes, different shapes and sizes. The car was stopped and parked on the side of the road, her phone was almost dead but there wasn’t a signal anyway. And she felt scared. Marie had been sitt...

5 likes

I'll Think I'll Keep My Old Car

Valerie Preston

Submitted to Contest #109

“Oh I love it Margie but how could you afford a car like that?” I was happy for my friend but a bit envious at the same time. I looked across the road at my ten year old Datsun, a big dent in the side of the door where someone had rammed into me in the local shopping centre, without even leaving a note or a phone number. I had asked the manager of the supermarket if we could look at the CCTV camera, but of course it was broken, so with no witnesses, that was the end of it. Of course I couldn’t afford to have it fixed, not on my wage. My brot...

10 likes

My Best Mate Disappeared

Valerie Preston

Submitted to Contest #108

The date is etched on my mind. – It was the day Robbie disappeared, the 17th June, 1974 – forty seven years ago, and it changed the lives of family and friends for good. It left a small space in my heart and it’s still there today. Robbie would be 60 this year. In twelve days’ time it will be his birthday, but there won’t be a special ‘who’s an old man now’ party. I will raise a glass to my best friend and wonder where he went. He was just an average thirteen year old kid. He lived at home with his mum and dad, his brother and sister and hi...

13 likes

Lies Hurt So Many

Valerie Preston

Submitted to Contest #107

We moved to this town when I was only two years old. My father was killed in a car accident, not that I knew anything about what actually happened but that’s all I was told. I had asked my mother a few times why she chose this place to come to – I mean it is a great place to live but I won’t be staying here when I’m old enough to leave. I want to see things, go places, meet people, and this place is not where I will do that! She told me that it was far enough away that she could forget about how life used to be and start again. I was curious...

7 likes

He Found Beauty in Everything

Valerie Preston

Submitted to Contest #106

He found beauty in everything. Ever since she could remember he could look at a plain stone he had picked up from the sand and lovingly exclaim “Would you look at the colour in this one” as he held out his hand to me. I would of course agree with him and he would be happy. His bedroom was full of ‘stuff’ he had collected. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder they say, and in the case of James, it was true. All along his window sill were sticks, small and large. Just plain old sticks to me but James insisted ,once dried out could be made into...

9 likes

Three Way Split

Valerie Preston

Submitted to Contest #105

“Why can’t you just leave him?” he asked quickly getting dressed, falling over as he tried to pull his shoes on and his jacket at the same time. “You said he doesn’t care. He’s away a lot of the time with work and leaves you on your own. And in your words ‘the spark is well and truly gone’. She lay back down on the bed and said “I know, and it is”. She lay back on the bed, smoke swirling into the air and blew smoke rings, round and perfect. “I just can’t, not yet anyway. When Jessie leaves school and starts Uni. She’ll be old enough to ...

7 likes

Chalk and Cheese

Valerie Preston

Submitted to Contest #104

Light and dark, soft and hard, introvert and extrovert - all opposites and yet in so many situations one couldn’t do without the other, and quite often they even complement each other. This was how it was with my best friend Annie and me. She was the extrovert and I was in introvert. Sometimes I would hate her for making me do things, go places, meet people, but ‘occasionally’ afterwards I would think ‘What would I do without Annie? I’d never go out and I’d just be a hermit’. Annie would tell me that she was ever grateful when I told he...

9 likes

The Man of My Dreams

Valerie Preston

Submitted to Contest #103

She’s late. The alarm didn’t go off. She jumped up as she felt the warmth of the sun on her face through the sheer curtains. At first she swore and putting her arm up to shield her eyes said to no one “I need blinds on these windows, go away sunlight”…but as she went to turn over in her tangled old bed sheets, she remembered that it was usually dark when the alarm went. Falling out of bed in haste and rubbing her eyes she ran towards the bathroom and turned the shower on. The aging bathroom was mouldy under the shower taps and some brok...

12 likes

The Mysterious Woman

Valerie Preston

Submitted to Contest #102

They both cast their eyes upwards towards the old house. The red brick looked stark against the greenery surrounding it and the old clay roof tiles, a different red to the bricks, were dotted with dark moss, like greens on a pizza, with some tiles missing. A big piece of tin flapped in the wind on the side and it looked as if it could have been nailed on to the roof at one stage to probably keep out the rain. The upstairs windows were wooden, with big strips of paint peeling off them and the exposed timber was grey underneat...

8 likes

The Hole Was Dark Like The Whole Of My Heart

Valerie Preston

Submitted to Contest #101

‘I’ve done this a lot of times but I don’t like digging a hole for my friend’ he thought looking at the damp pile of earth next to him. He sat down on the hard ground and took off his gloves calculating on his fingers roughly how many times he had dug a hole so that someone’s mother, or father, or sister or brother or just someone’s friend could be put into it – and the dark earth that he had painstakingly taken out of the ground, being shovelled back in on top of the lid on top of the person. He used to write it down, but forgot a few times...

9 likes

Forgiveness

Valerie Preston

Submitted to Contest #100

Forgiveness “What time are they coming?” he asked angrily, as if it was the bailiff coming to repossess their house. “You know what time. You’re just being annoyed because you don’t want them to come” she replied holding a wine glass up to the light and rubbing an imaginary mark on the glass. “And you haven’t actually shown any interest in helping me to get it all ready”. “Don’t start for heaven’s sake, I’ve been asking you what you want me to do” he retorted watching her trying to fold the napkins into swans to pop into the glasses, ...

6 likes

A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

Valerie Preston

Submitted to Contest #99

“Oh go on Gran, tell us again” they chorused, sounding like a lot of little monkeys chattering at the zoo. “Oh you don’t want to hear my stories again. Go outside and play”. “Pleeeese “they begged, their faces sticky and happy. “Ok then, which story?” I asked, hoping it wouldn’t be the one about the disastrous caravan trip. I had embellished and added to that story so many times I couldn’t remember what was true and what wasn’t! “You pick Gran” they replied. “Alright then, would you like to hear a different story, a new one?” “Yeesss” they a...

6 likes