Now, as an adult, your character looks back on this summer as the summer when they grew up.

Posted in Character on Sep 1, 2023

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✍️ 41 stories

“Realm Of Reality” by M. K.

Submitted to Contest #214

I sat on the porch and stared out into the sea. It looked calm and chaotic, as if there was both nothing and everything in it. I walked down towards the dark blue array and stepped on a broken shell, causing a cut on my foot. An echo from the back of my mind shouted, "Hey, are you okay?" I turned around to see a guy with a concerned look on his face. "Yes, thanks. I just have a little cut," I said. "You should go back and wash it," he suggested. I smiled and when I was about to walk away, he asked, "Where are you staying? Do you need help wi...

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“West Virginia Wild and Wonderful” by Brett Gordon

Submitted to Contest #214

The chirps in the mist bellowed under the summer’s sunrise. David, looked into the fields that he freshly mowed the day before. He could recall a time that tending to the fields from summers past was not worth his time. He neglected the farm he grew up on. It was filled with goats that from time to time got their heads stuck in the square fencing. It was a time of angst and pain. The angst seemed to be fading. A recent return to a open house for his teen nephew Bradley; opened that wound. It would be hours till the moon would set on this day...

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“Secrets of the Sea Emporium ” by Bitsy Tandem

Submitted to Contest #214

Brown hair is unusual for someone of her kind. Gold, silver, auburn, and even the occasional shades of blue are far more common. Yet there she is, the only one with brown hair, attracting a lot of attention from the audience. She's new here, which is her main appeal, of course. The regulars always like to ogle at the new ones. But in all the years I have spent my summers here, I have never seen one with brown hair before. Stopping to watch the show for just a while longer, I sigh and stretch out my back. With a broom in one hand, I o...

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“A Tale of Two Summers” by Tony Smith

Submitted to Contest #214

A Tale of Two Summers By Tony Smith With the heavy suitcase bumping against my legs, I manoeuvred my way between the seats to the front carriage and shared the view of the driver. Gleaming rail tracks, following the gentle contours of the Surrey hills, were fast disappearing beneath my feet. Rabbits grazing went tail-up and ran, tumbling into their burrows, as the steel monster invaded. I’m -going-home. I’m-going-home, beat in my brain to the rhythm of the wheels. Ahead a tunnel of solid blackness - then we leapt into bright summer sun. I ...

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“Last Summer of Childhood” by Jarden Jones

Submitted to Contest #214

I am three-years-old and have a 104-degree fever burning off my hearing but it will be a year or so after I kill my mommy before anyone notices. Mommy is making me take an ice cube bath. She calls the doctor once or twice a week about stuff but he don’t listen to her no more. He just tells her I’ll be fine, to fill the tub with ice and plop me in till I cool off. So that’s how Daddy finds us, me all over blue and Mommy on her knees crying next to the toilet. Daddy takes one look at me then we are running every light and s...

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“That summer when wishes came true” by Smriti Tuladhar

Submitted to Contest #214

I woke up with multiple sneezes and I realized it was a chilly morning. The Sheet of cloth that I had been using as a blanket did not serve its purpose of keeping me warm now that summer was slipping away. It was the first week of September and as every year it was the beginning of the dawn of summer, my favourite time of the year will now come to an end. Summer was my dream, a living dream where I could show as much skin as I want, wear bright colours, watch the long day end late with an exquisite sunset, chilly summer breeze blowing over s...

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“Dream away, my child.” by Gayathri Venkatesh

Submitted to Contest #214

"Freshly cut mangoes, dosas, people, kids cycling, the breeze of fresh air, scooter, colony friends, grandmother, love, laughter, and a mountain of memories."Raji types this, looks away from her laptop, and takes a long sigh, She is trying hard to write about the summer for a contest as she really needs the money to boost her confidence being an amateur writer, She suddenly closes her laptop and walks away to her desk, picks up her brown diary, opens it, and flips through the pages in a hurry, keeps it back and stomps her feet twice on the g...

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“The Summer I Became An Adult ” by Wanda Fischer

Submitted to Contest #214

My parents were Nixon Republicans. They may have been the only Massachusetts residents who had voted for Nixon instead of Kennedy in 1960. Okay, so maybe I’m exaggerating. But that’s how it felt to me. They thought Lyndon Johnson was a wimp for setting up anti-poverty programs. “Those people need to pick themselves up by their bootstraps,” my father said. &nb...

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“The Gravity of Summer” by Joseph Kunkle

Submitted to Contest #214

The Gravity of Summer Josie woke in an eerie darkness, where neither starlight, moonbeam, nor sunshine ever entered. The only light is fashioned to the Red Hermit’s head. Grudgingly, he’ll exchange this bottomless darkness for another form of gloom - by dying - by poison. Josie says, “What's that sound?” The Hermit jerks his head. Carbolic light transits away from Josie’s face. It pierces and then hovers like a UFO in the cavernous vault of deception. Something is there. Frozen. In a side drift. A rat? No. It’s a pareidolia articulated f...

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“Finding the Ground” by Taylor Mack

Submitted to Contest #214

There’s something about soft, warm lighting that comforts the soul. Perhaps it’s the coziness it welcomes in, but the feeling seems stronger than that. A sense of safety? Who knows, but it ignites a creative force in the woman. She takes to writing at the desk in her bedroom. This past summer has been the first time in her life she’s felt grounded; the first time she has ever acknowledged her own presence and felt it meant something. Yes, the past months had been some of the most difficult but, more so, they had also been some of the most ...

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“Dear Anya” by Caoimhe McG

Submitted to Contest #214

Dear Anya, Your eyes were blue, weren’t they? The colour of a hundred uninterrupted summers at the lake, its shallow waters forever churning under the persistent, gleeful splashing of tiny feet at the water’s edge. Or maybe not. They were green, the colour of thousands of leaves bursting overhead silently, a rich emerald canopy so thick the sky couldn’t stick its sapphire head through, however hard it tried. Maybe they weren’t. I now realise that they were brown. You’ll have to excuse me: my memory is not what it use...

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Now, as an adult, your character looks back on this summer as the summer when they grew up.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 41 stories

“Realm Of Reality” by M. K.

“West Virginia Wild and Wonderful” by Brett Gordon

“Secrets of the Sea Emporium ” by Bitsy Tandem

“A Tale of Two Summers” by Tony Smith

“Last Summer of Childhood” by Jarden Jones

“That summer when wishes came true” by Smriti Tuladhar

“Dream away, my child.” by Gayathri Venkatesh

“The Summer I Became An Adult ” by Wanda Fischer

“The Gravity of Summer” by Joseph Kunkle

“Finding the Ground” by Taylor Mack

“Dear Anya” by Caoimhe McG

🌟 Similar prompts

Set your story on the eve of the first day back at school.

What was meant to be a great bonding vacation turns sour when an uninvited guest tags along.

Each year, your character's family goes on the most exotic vacations. Finally they discover why — their family are assassins.

It’s the last evening of your vacation and you’re watching the sunset with your friends/partner/family, wishing summer would never end. But just as the sun dips below the horizon, you notice it returning in reverse.

Contest #214

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

203

Contest entries

94

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: