Vj Hamilton

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2020

Follow
Stories (16)
Comments
Library
25 Followers
2 Following

16 Stories

447 karma pts

?

“Thirteenth Labor of Hercules” by Vj Hamilton

Submitted on 07/03/2020

There are always expectations, and Hercules hates to disappoint. “Oh crap,” he says to Jack as they are unpacking the camper van, a souped-up refurbished Airstream, “I completely forgot about the three-chilli guacamole.” Anxiety washes over him. What the hell kind of friend is he? He’d told Jack he’d bring the guac and yet here he is, empty-handed. Jack, the friend he’s known longest of all, who has stood by him ...

3 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

“Troubadour” by Vj Hamilton

Submitted on 06/26/2020

Suitcase in hand, you head to the station. Once inside, you watch through the glass door as Father’s old green half-ton hastens away. Your borrowed suitcase contains one change of your current clothing (Dad’s old shirt, a pair of split-seam pants) and one change of the clothing you will wear coming home (a pair of Ladies’ elastic waist pants and dark-pattern top). Your bras are sturdy cotton, blazing white. As per instru...

11 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

“Launch Day” by Vj Hamilton

Submitted on 06/19/2020

At the book launch, when Jo began reading aloud from the first chapter, everyone in the crowded aisles of the small indie bookstore listened with rapt attention, chuckling mildly at the humorous asides, growing solemn as the stakes intensified. Finally, the plucky heroine overcame the first of numerous nasty obstacles. Chapter one wound up with a satisfying wallop. Jo heard a small gasp in the audience, followed b...

11 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

“Winds of Change” by Vj Hamilton

Submitted on 06/12/2020

A young man, his head full of easy, random thoughts, cycled to his friend’s house. He rang the doorbell and heard the muffled tones of Winchester Cathedral resounding within. No answer. Pat – pat – pat. Drops of rain began to speckle the concrete stairs and his T-shirt. He leaned back and squinted skywards. The low elephantine clouds threatened a major dump. He peered inside, looking for movement on the other si...

42 likes 19 comments 19 WINNER 🏆
Read story

“Goodbye to All That” by Vj Hamilton

Submitted on 06/06/2020

The packing tape squealed as Professor Augie Sorenson ran the roll over the flaps of the last box containing the final odds and ends from his office. A voice outside the door said, “Found it, thank you.”Augie looked up quickly, feeling the blush cross his face as if he’d been caught absconding with the silverware. A stern-looking young man entered, displeasure writ large across his face, the look quickly wiped away and replaced with a toothy smile. Augie used this tactic himself: the dissatisfaction made one appear discerning, and ...

6 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

“Peace Be With You” by Vj Hamilton

Submitted on 05/30/2020

Morning shuffled over the city, the clouds like discarded tissues on a floor changing from deep blue to azure. A few cars and trucks ventured into the streets. Far away sirens wailed. Grocery stores and pharmacies here and there began to roll up their shutters while reluctant shoppers in facemasks began to queue, six feet apart, watchful and silent. The shop doors whooshed open and one person at a time moved carefully inside.Olive, lying on a sofa, under an old wool blanket, saw only the clouds passing from the sky, as if an invisi...

6 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

“As Close It Gets” by Vj Hamilton

Submitted on 05/23/2020

I could feel Sean’s comforting bulk as he settled beside me on the sofa. The small hairs on my forearms stood and waved at the dark silken hairs on his forearms – and were ignored. We were hanging out as usual in the common room of the Grad House, a pleasant old Victorian-style drawing room, complete with overstuffed armchairs and broad oak coffee tables where we liked to spread out our laptops and papers and snacks.“I just don’t get this,” Sean said, clicking until the screen before us filled with his open email. He scrolled until...

5 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

“Rainbow and Jaycee” by Vj Hamilton

Submitted on 05/12/2020

Beyond the cracked sidewalk, a patch of dry brown grass, and the telephone pole with layers of flyers in a rainbow of colors, there stood a twelve-foot high concrete block wall. There was a small shrine at the foot of it, with dead flowers, burnt-out candles, and a few soggy teddy bears. A lot of graffiti filled the wall, but the biggest word of all said: Rejoice!Chewing his thumbnail, Jaycee sat on an elephant-sized boulder in Greenview Park, far from the wall. How he hated that word: Rejoice. Rejoice? You couldn’t rejoic...

9 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

“Mr. Tomato” by Vj Hamilton

Submitted on 05/08/2020

The four friends were the last to leave the pizzeria at the strip mall. The end of exams, the end of college! Woo-hoo! Glorious freedom! The friends paused outside the doors of Mr. Tomato, squinting under the harsh lights of the parking lot, savoring their last evening together, wondering what possibilities the night might hold. The occasion seemed to call for something more than the usual fond farewells after a shared meal. The two-foot-high curbside Mr. Tomato sign was a perfect photo op and soon everyone was looking for...

4 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

“In a Little Village” by Vj Hamilton

Submitted on 04/30/2020

The dispatcher’s voice filled my car: “Gavin, you’ll have to do that street again. Remember to keep a constant speed.” “I DID redo that street. Already,” I said into the mike. Those twits at Central processing. The left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.“Maybe something’s busted,” the dispatcher said. “Get out and take a look at your transmitter, wouldja?”Now this really got my back up. We Streetview drivers are paid per mile of street recorded, so I hated to stop the car. But stop I did, heaving a ...

6 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

“April is the Cruelest Month” by Vj Hamilton

Submitted on 04/25/2020

Francis Haythornthwaite was riding his bicycle on the on-ramp to the Expressway when the light turned red and he pulled alongside a semi-trailer full of squealing pigs. Until that moment, Francis had been daydreaming of Anneli, the new hire, the only one at work who “got” his kind of humor. He was also thinking how sweaty his green Styrofoam bike helmet and pink plastic shoes were, due to the exertion on this, the first truly pleasant day in April. But the squeals of the pigs wrenched him right back to reality. He knew full well th...

15 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

“The Rise and Fall of Joe Mag” by Vj Hamilton

Submitted on 04/17/2020

Imagine holding a party and giving each departing guest a party favors bag with a stick of dynamite in it. That’s what my daughter-in-law Anjali did. To be fair, many guests never lit their stick of dynamite, or if they did, it fizzled out soon.It started off with the best of intentions, as these dynamitings often do. Anjali and my son David invited us to the “gender reveal” party. Anjali was an adept hostess, making sure to introduce her guests, even though most of us had met a year ago at their wedding. She swanned about, ...

5 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

“Dinky Cars & Dandylines” by Vj Hamilton

Submitted on 04/09/2020

August 8, 1980I hate Mom. The cat survived. What is she so mad about? Dad sed cats always land on ther feet, how was I to know for sure.Now I am grounded. Mom told me to rite my thots in this note book. The pages are full of blank lines. She sez she will help me spell. Mom will not be much help. The baby crys and crys. Forchunetly I am good at sounding out words.Wer did the baby come from. Why did the baby come here if this is all it can do. The baby bothers us all.The hayloft is only 8 feet hi Dad sez. I did...

5 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

“The Patron Saint of Bad Boys” by Vj Hamilton

Submitted on 04/01/2020

Crack! Crack! The blade of Tyler Johnson’s icebreaker chipped away at the mound of ice in the family’s backyard. The snow had been thick this year, smothering everything, especially the flimsy carport roof. A couple months earlier he had shoveled the snow off the roof, creating a gargantuan snowbank, now shrunk to the size of a baby elephant, in the freeze-thaw cycle of early spring. It was far too hard and icy for the kids to ride their toboggans on, as they used to.“What on earth are you doing?” Ester shouted, her annoya...

3 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

“The Laughingstock” by Vj Hamilton

Submitted on 03/21/2020

The LaughingstockAfter I left Shari’s place, the first person I encountered on the street jumped to one side and gave an embarrassed chuckle, sort of “now look what you made me do.” I patted my hair and looked back at her place, a ramshackle two-storey house, where her two older kids tussled amid the dead plants in the front yard. Early spring, only crocuses were brave enough to poke their purple crowns out—and they were getting trampled.My sister Morgana had recommended Shari to me. “She’...

3 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Author bio

Vj Hamilton has not written a bio yet!