Vincent Cruz

Author on Reedsy Prompts since May, 2020

Stories (26)

26 Stories

453 karma pts

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“A Writing Life” by Vincent Cruz

Submitted to Contest #66

I’ve been at the same job for nineteen years and eight months. It will be twenty years driving trucks at my next anniversary. I’ve driven all across this country. I've seen polarizing politics, unique fried food, the same damn chain stores all across America. I’ve navigated some of the best roads crisscrossing the nation. I've seen the variance of life, of culture and the subtleties of being. When I go to sleep--the road lingers in my mind. The endless highways and freeways with their long white lines and dotted yellow ones. Headlights as fa...

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“Crater” by Vincent Cruz

Submitted to Contest #60

El Restaurante del Cráter is at the center of the largest crater in Mexico. The state of Guerrero, like the entirety of the globe is in ruins, desolation, and ash. The fires that have engulfed the vegetation of the world have mostly burnt out. The old refineries and destroyed pipelines still spit out their fuel like dying dragons across charred landscapes. The sky is black, the sun, blotted into a red orb is a symbol of what has become. The human population, decimated and delivered into the state of a previous era when the hunter gatherer ru...

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“The 87th Floor” by Vincent Cruz

Submitted to Contest #59

    I’ve been in New York city for six years and in that time so much has changed. After spending nine years in LA with Sandra, my ex-wife, we escaped the West Coast. We bought a lavish penthouse in the heart of Manhattan with views that cost us multiple millions. We hired an assistant named Claire who moved into one of the bedrooms and handled the day to day cleaning, ran errands, managed our bills, did our shopping. I still remember meeting her for the first time and wondered how in the hell such a beautiful woman would coex...

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“I Will... ” by Vincent Cruz

Submitted to Contest #57

I’m going to begin writing a draft of my will because I worry that I’ll die tomorrow. Although Sarah, my therapist, assures me that my fear is irrational. When I leave her office she tells me that I’m not going to die. “At least not yet.”  My only daughter Lauren doesn’t know it yet but she won’t be in my will. Sarah doesn’t agree with my rationale about leaving her out, especially since the amount of money I’ve accumulated over the last ten years is a considerable sum. But it's my decision.   Sitting on the bus I watch four...

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“A Life, like Vibrant Dreams” by Vincent Cruz

Submitted to Contest #56

Certain memories in one’s life live in the brain like unfading dreams. They grow in their vividness over the years and become more vibrant and alive. These specific memories are oftentimes the most tragic or hurtful. Lighting up the brain when they flash across the eyes where every detail is magnified. The memories rattle the psyche with their powerful sense of now. But it's only an echo.   I can still see Dennis turning around as we walked up the porch. His face glistening with sweat and the panic like lightning across his eyes.&...

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“ The Center” by Vincent Cruz

Submitted to Contest #55

“Can you keep a secret,” Joffrey looks into his hands. Vaulted ceilings rise twenty feet above him. The masonry is ornamented with somber looking statues and the rows of dark hardwood pews stretch in front of him. A couple sits in the first row praying.  Greg, who is sitting next to Joffrey, leans closer and says, “We’ve been trading secrets for as long as I can remember. No one knows I’m here. And plus we’re brothers. Blood never turns on blood.” Greg looks behind him. The large church door, double in its face, is closed in ornament.&...

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“Love, Repeat” by Vincent Cruz

Submitted to Contest #54

Love sends us in directions we never imagined going. Paths that very often end for unexplainable reasons. Like when he or she didn’t return your call and never spoke to you again. But sometimes love ends for clearly obvious reasons. A Cheating partner or different growth patterns. An annoyance a lover can’t get over. Like the way she laughs, or the way he curls his toes. Sometimes people just get bored and want something different. Marriage often happens too soon. Before a couple knew better. Before they know what they want. Long before they...

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“Houdini ” by Vincent Cruz

Submitted to Contest #53

There is a radio playing music somewhere. The sound waves travel out onto the covered porch from the garage where classic rock is surrounded by the swirling smoke of a cigarette. Three shirtless adolescent boys are on the porch resting during another subsequent day of what is said to be the longest heat wave in county history. The distant music lulls them into a kind of hibernation where their thoughts dance with disorientation. The lyrics occasionally come to mind while most of the melody is lost in the stale heat of August.  The boys...

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“Inside the Dome” by Vincent Cruz

Submitted to Contest #51

It’s long into the night before it gets dark. The blue sky seemingly evaporates revealing the cosmos. Hanging high above a giant oak tree sits the Earth’s glowing satellite. In it’s near fullness it reflects back it’s counterpart the sun, fusing and exploding daylight from the other side. A young girl peers through her new telescope pointed at the mysterious glowing orb, her face squished against the long cylinder with one eye covered by her hand and the other full and deep brown, accepting the light that shines through revealing the cratere...

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“To escape the Inevitable” by Vincent Cruz

Submitted to Contest #50

I am running up the ramps of a parking garage at full speed but I'm not wearing running shoes. If I had known today was a running day I would have packed them in the car, but this morning has unfolded all wrong. It could be worse. I could be dead on the pavement outside the noodle bar where everything went down. I could be choking on my own blood and gasping.  I’m wearing black and white Converse. They’re holding up okay despite being seventeen years old. How old am I? It's been so long since I was born that I often forget who I’ve bec...

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“The Door” by Vincent Cruz

Submitted to Contest #49

Her thumb was numb and it had been this way for two weeks. She didn’t want to know why but after complaining about it to her mother, Beatrice was finally made to call the doctor.  “You need to look into it, honey,” her mother said.  “What if it's serious? You need to go in. Do you want me to call for you?”  The waiting room was overcrowded and two small boys chased each other around a large flat purple seat made for children. They were laughing and their noses were snotty, people watched them play and it wasn’t clear who th...

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Author bio

I write. You write. We all write together.