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Write a story about someone seeking a fresh start after a difficult year.

Posted in Christmas on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 32 stories

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Submitted to Contest #126

Well, you thought you've had a difficult year!People worry all about the wrong things for all the wrong reasons. For instance, take the Christmas Crusaders (yes, please take those Christmas Crusaders for a very long walk on a very short pier!). The folks who take umbrage if you commit the holiday faux pas of wishing them Happy Holidays! Come on now, the holidays are difficult enough as they are. I mean, with holiday shopping, attending holiday family affairs, watching as-stale-as-last-season’s-fruitcake holiday reruns on TV, the headaches of...

45 likes 23 comments 23
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The 2nd Floor of the Circuit Court Building

Submitted to Contest #126

“Stay off the 2nd floor of the Circuit Court building,” my older brother advises, lighting a cigarette directly under a No Smoking sign. “Why?” “Ain’t nothing good up here,” he replies, his cigarette ash falling on the paperwork declaring him my guardian. The clerk frowns at him while he signs, but he flashes her a dazzling smile when he hands the papers back to her. One look at his handsome face and all is forgiven. “What’s a ward?” I ask, squinting at the paper.  “A dependent,” he replies, carefully writing out a c...

44 likes 25 comments 25
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The Craft of Deception

Submitted to Contest #126

We pull up in the driveway on a crisp New Year’s Eve morning. It's been two months since I ran away, two months since my failed fresh start.The social worker is watching me. I avoid her gaze.“I won’t be long.”“Take as long as you need, Emer. I’ll be here.” As I leave the car, I catch her gaping at the glass-enclosed terrace, the twin koi ponds that edge along the stone path to the front door, the lavish grounds with green shrubbery, dusted with a fine sprinkling of white ice. I wonder if she thinks I am mad for running away.We're o...

34 likes 21 comments 21
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Say "I'm Sorry", But Make It Naughty

Submitted to Contest #126

The ruckus in the reception room could compete with the sounds of the busy New York street underneath Sara’s window. Through her closed office door, she could clearly hear a man was gradually raising his voice at Vera. The poor receptionist was new but quite competent. Hardly any reason for anyone to bash her like this. Sara tore herself away from the supplies report needed for tonight’s Christmas party and came to see what it was all about.A guy stood perched on the front desk, a little too close for Vera’s comfort, and pointed God knows wh...

26 likes 2 comments 2
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The First First

Shortlisted for Contest #126 ⭐️

Mouse wasn’t small.  When they measured his body in the morgue, he was six foot two.  Even though he could be quiet, I never called him Mouse, I called him Marty because that was his name, but it’s my name too which is why his mother started calling him Mouse after the divorce.  When your son dies, everything becomes a first.  The first Thanksgiving without him, the first birthday, even silly shit like the first time you go to the Chuck Box for a burger and he isn’t there next to you, stealing your onion rings and changin...

25 likes 21 comments 21
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Ordinary World

Submitted to Contest #126

Ordinary WorldBy John Merino           I haven’t tasted whisky in ten years. Warmth is reaching up from my insides, a pleasant burn that pushes against the late December air sliding across my bare arms. The flavor isn’t pleasant, but it’s a discomfort that’s all my own, a bitterness I’ve chosen to taste. This bar patio is my home for the next few hours. I don’t know where I’ll go or where I’ll sleep when they close, but right now this seat is mine, this drink is mine, the table and the a...

18 likes 6 comments 6
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Chew the Nail

Submitted to Contest #126

Jasper felt a yearning. He wasn't exactly sure for what but guessed a woman might be the answer. He went to Wal-Mart to buy a new shirt and pants, and went to the supermarket, and asked Lucille, the cashier, to coffee. It looked to him like she laughed at him, but she said yes. He stuck his first finger in his mouth to chew the nail. He felt buoyant. He hurried back to his tiny basement apartment and checked in the mirror to see if he needed a haircut. He worked as a sanitation engineer in his mind which others saw as the janitor at the midd...

15 likes 4 comments 4
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One Hell of a Glass of Wine

Submitted to Contest #126

One Hell of a Glass of Wine by Stephanie Braeuner Salty drops of open wounds stream down pink and peach hills. Gravity merges their existence into a red ocean of 24 proof escapism. “How did I get here?” she thought. “I followed all the rules, made the plans, followed my dreams, and did everything everyone told me to do to be successful, to be happy.“ And yet, she sits alone, jealous of saline drowning in rouge with leftovers getting cold in the microwave. She doesn’t know why. She mimics the same as she submerges her mistakes in tann...

15 likes 2 comments 2
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Resilience in 2022

Submitted to Contest #126

Every new years eve- there are conversations on resolutions; how can I change, how can I do better, how can I become the best person I am born to be. The problem with a new year’s resolution; is they are always broken, not followed through on, no strength or power to move forward. The mystery of a resolution and why they have no backbone is because, there is no purpose. It is just a game in society where people are pushed to think that their resolutions will work. It is a fog like a cancer that's spread and blinds people from how to truly fo...

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New Beginnings

Submitted to Contest #126

[CW: Substance abuse, mentions of abuse, violence, death]The black splotches were spreading. Neha rotated her hands carefully, watching as the dye tendrils snaked down her wrists. She imagined them like a disease taking over, consuming her, removing what was left of her old self. Until only a shallow shell of her former life remained. And, shells were easily cracked.Neha turned on the shower, cranking the rusty handle as far as it could go. She had a rough go of it recently, she would be the first to admit it. But as Neha’s current tran...

14 likes 4 comments 4
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Tweaking the Recipe for a Fresh Start

Submitted to Contest #126

[Note: mild profanity (one or two occurrences of a-word and f-word);sharp satire or dark humor at times][Disclaimer-1: The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed here are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.][Disclaimer-2: Fair use (Parody) might apply in some situations.] As the clock struck midnight, and the entire world heralded the arrival of 2022 with great pomp, Alan and his new friend turned soul-mate held each oth...

13 likes 0 comments 0
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White Lines

Submitted to Contest #126

She couldn’t get enough of the fuzzy socks she received in her stocking from her family at Christmas this year. The spotted green and black pattern boldly accentuated the pink background in a most pleasing manner. All was calm in her old bedroom, the familiar posters of her youth remained tacked to the walls where she had left them. In her bed late on Saturday evening, journal resting in her lap, fresh-brewed tea on her nightstand, she felt completely refreshed and ready for the New Year.She reached down and scratched at the top of the ankle...

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The Tunnel

Submitted to Contest #126

The trees did not live alone. Within the woods hundreds of breathing stories, kept secret in the shadows, hidden beneath the soil. A refuge for the truth, a shelter for the sinful.Tate switched on the chainsaw and it rumbled in the cold air. Shouts of men in helmets wearing orange vests echoed through the woods and trees fell. Sweat dripped. The bright sun reflecting off Tate’s visor. And in the wind and in his head and in his chest he heard Becca as the chainsaw cut through the aching tree. Frustration and fear and fight in her voice taperi...

12 likes 2 comments 2
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A Matter of Survival

Submitted to Contest #126

A Matter of Survival After 48 years of marriage, some say I’m making a fresh start. If so, it is a forced start forward. Sadly, I'm being dragged into a new beginning with a hole in my heart. My wife Julie died in hospital three months ago. Her death tore my life apart, and here I am, facing the new year of 2022. There is no shouting, “Happy New Year,” for me. There may well never be happy years in my life again without Julie. We were one of a kind, as a couple. We had no children. We had half a dozen close friends who now comfort me an...

12 likes 2 comments 2
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Obsessively Compulsive

Submitted to Contest #126

It’ll be my new obsession, she thought as she stared through a wall of tears at her cracked, beet-red hands. She was almost surprised she couldn’t see bone already. Isla Brown had been washing her hands exactly fifty times a day for three hundred and sixty-five days. Tomorrow was the beginning of a new year, which meant that unless she wanted to do this for yet another three hundred and sixty-five days, she had to stop tomorrow. Isla decided such a task couldn’t be done without tricking the voices in her head. Starting tomorrow, I will only ...

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