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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write about two people striking up an unlikely friendship.

Posted in Character on Jun 9, 2023

Submissions are closed

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✍️ 95 stories

“Agatha's Oddity Oasis” by Jane Summers

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #202

Oliver Hartfield retrieved the handkerchief from his trouser pocket. He flipped it out, blew his nose, wiped the moisture from his nostrils and shoved the handkerchief back into its place. An old man in a young man’s body. His brown scruffy hair grew in a thicket of tangles, his young eyes gleamed with bright intelligence. The strength in his limbs contradicted the curved shoulders earnt from years of hunching over workbenches.Oliver Hartfield lived in the clouds. His mind ticked away with cogs and coils, oil and metal. An inventor to his co...

4 comments 4
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“Lord Of Lights.” by Ken Cartisano

Submitted to Contest #202

I knew it was a mistake as soon as I walked into the room. Nobody recognized me, and no wonder, I hadn’t been to a high school reunion in fifty years. Three things brought me here: Free food; free liquor; and an invitation from the bride, ‘Patty McWhatsherface. I looked at the invitation, Correction: ‘Patty Collier.’ I should probably memorize that, I thought, as I tossed it into a trash bin. The room was dark and smoky, with a dance floor, a dangling disco-ball and a makeshift flower-laden altar. The whole thing was hideous: rendered in our...

7 comments 7
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“Ode to Arlene” by Victoria MacDonald

Submitted to Contest #202

I met Arlene in 1963 on the first day of school. She was in my ninth-grade class. At first, I hated her. On the third day of the first week, we were herded into the dressing room adjacent to the pool and told to change into our bathing suits. As I undressed, I struggled to conceal my flat chest with a towel. Unlike the other girls, I didn’t wear a bra. Arlene snickered at my contortions. At home, my older brother loved taunting me in front of his friends. “Flat as a board and never been nailed!”  A bossy school nurse ordered us to li...

7 comments 7
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“A Love Affair In Reality” by Vincent Powers

Submitted to Contest #202

One day while walking home from work, Peter Campbell met a man who looked exactly like him. He even walked like him, moved like him, held his head like him. At first, he thought it must be just a coincidence, but then somehow he realized that the man was indeed himself. There are two of me! He stood there, dumbstruck, and after a few moments of silence, the other Peter spoke up. "I know this is hard to believe, but I'm you, from a different reality." Peter was stunned, but he couldn't deny the resemblance, and the feeling of recognition...

4 comments 4
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“Where you least expect nothing” by David Drake

Submitted to Contest #202

“Where is he?!?” “Why would you want him here at all? The cops will be the least of our worries if he shows up before we’re done!” “Of course I don’t want him here to bust up our little soiree! Not when we’re having fun! I mean he’s usually here 5 minutes after the silent alarm is tripped. So something is amiss.” “Maybe Joey Barlone finally killed him. He swore vengeance on the Red Raven when he locked up his mother for money laundering.” “Alleged….money laundering. I’m with Joey, I think the Raven set up him and his family. Beats me how...

6 comments 6
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“For Better or Worse” by Ralph Aldrich

Submitted to Contest #202

Master Meow lives in a lovely comfortable apartment in Toyko with his human companion, Mr. Sato. Mr. Sato is retired and lives on a small pension, but as he has never married, he has enough to keep himself and Master Meow comfortable and well-fed. Master Meow is a white and light brown cat, part Persian and part Angora. He is very fluffy indeed. He spends his day lying on a satin pillow in the window, purring contently. He loves it here because his food dish is always full of fresh red salmon, his water bowl is changed t...

3 comments 3
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“Boundaries” by Kevin Alphatooni

Submitted to Contest #202

The wind howled and the storm crept its way across the sky, thunder cracking as it neared. I staggered away from it as fast as I could, clutching my bloodied side. The tall pines surrounding me rocked back and forth in the rough wind. It was dangerous to be caught outside during a summer storm, especially in this region of Dunamis where the cold mountain winds mixed with the convective valley heat, creating super storms that have been said could toss a delivery wagon off its wheels. I hadn’t personally seen this happen, but this was a myster...

0 comments 0
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“Me and Scarlet” by Shannon C.

Submitted to Contest #202

The bouncin on the bed was getting faster and louder as Momma stood there washin up the dishes from lunch. I watched Momma turn her head pullin her soapy hands out of the water without even lookin down at me. Grabbin the dish towel, she started marchin down the trailer hallway towards her and Daddy’s bedroom.“You had better stop that jumpin on that bed young lady! I have told you several times not to do that, and if your father catches you, you’ll get a whoopin!” I watched Momma walk down the hall and went back to playin with toys I had stru...

4 comments 4
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“Reconciling the Irreconcilable” by Carina Caccia

Submitted to Contest #202

Cognitive dissonance was not something with which they were familiar. Nothing, never, had ever challenged their reality; nothing, never, had ever fused them thus; and nothing, never, had ever made them friends. Blanche and Noir sat across from one another, in this pink room, this pink space, with two wine glasses filled with red. Drunk, brain fog, throbbing heads. What was real, what wasn’t? What a mess, cognitive dissonance. “He didn’t love her,” said Noir, sipping at his wine. “He must have,” said Blanche, twirling a strand of blonde hair ...

0 comments 0
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“Hoe In The Garden” by Kay Smith

Submitted to Contest #202

Imagine a meteorite hurtling blindly through space toward planet Earth, unintentionally about to wreak havoc upon it. Earth sits spinning serenely on its axis as the meteorite continues along its path, each oblivious to any discord one meeting the other might bring about. This scenario is not far removed from how events unraveled following my mother falling in love with and marrying a man who would have a lasting and deep impact on my life.           At the time of my mother’s marriage t...

9 comments 9
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“Coming Home” by Darlene Chaney

Submitted to Contest #202

Trigger Warnings: War/grief       Catherine McKee stood outside the busy and nearly flooded train depot, anxiously waiting for the Rock Island Line to bring her husband home. Fortunately, her trench coat and matching hat kept her new Lane Bryant dress dry and her hairdo frizz-free; after all, she wanted to look her best for her soldier boy’s return home.       It had been six long months since she last saw William and although the time they had spent together was cherished - it was short...

6 comments 6
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“Harvey” by Michael Heavener

Submitted to Contest #202

I won't say Harvey was my best friend. Jim, my buddy on boy scout camp staff, had been my constant companion since third grade. But Harvey earned my respect in so many ways. In the time I knew him in high school, Harvey's looming presence was my salvation a number of times. In medieval times, he'd have been my jousting champion. From the outside, Harvey was what people call "a bruiser," the kind of bigger-than-life physique that might make him a good bouncer at a rave. He wasn't exactly Andrea the Giant, but he was two inches taller than m...

2 comments 2
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“The Rat and the Reptiloid ” by M B

Submitted to Contest #202

Skreet threw open the door of his ramshackle room above a rarely-visited fruit and vegetable shop on the edge of Vulane. The rent for the place was ridiculous, but it gave him more privacy than he had had staying in the inns and taverns, and privacy was a premium: An especially useful feature for a room to have when sneaking in large reptiles. “Mind your head, and - uh - horns,” the rat said as he led the reptile in.Draknor looked around and grunted. “Hurr, you live here?”Skreet’s tail twitched. “I rent it out currently. I’ve lived...

8 comments 8
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“The Book-Spirit of Tirma'Lauda” by Sam Jacobsen

Submitted to Contest #202

The wind made a call like a siren as it tore across the peaks. Mysterious, inviting, deadly. The peaks wove on for miles--white-black stone interspersed by tumbling green and flowing blue. Tirma'Lauda the people had named it in those distant, distant days when the cosmos had held a different shape. Most folk who passed through it now simply called it 'cold'. It was strange--the skies knew no clouds, and the sun seemed to always hang right up in the center of the sky, but warmth felt distant. When Salvus Korr came marching up from t...

1 comment 1
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“"Everest Bonds: The Unlikely Alliance"” by Najia Farooqui

Submitted to Contest #202

"Everest Bonds: The Unlikely Alliance" In the bustling Islamabad airport, two climbers, Jake from Canada and Li Wei from China, found themselves unexpectedly crossing paths. They were both embarking on separate adventures to climb the magnificent Rakaposhi, one of Pakistan's most challenging peaks. However, fate seemed to have other plans for them. Jake stood by the carousel, scanning the crowd for his bag. He was growing increasingly impatient. Finally, he spotted a familiar-looking backpack in the hands of a petite Chinese woman, L...

2 comments 2
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Contest #202

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This week's theme: A Friend Indeed

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Ended on 23:59 - Jun 16, 2023 EST

Won by Victoria Macleod 🏆

Title: Emma

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