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Write about someone giving or receiving a gift.

Posted in Christmas on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 50 stories

Onboard an Angel Flight

Winner of Contest #121 🏆

Onboard an Angel Flight Deborah Elliott An uncounted number of men and women have stepped up and served this country so that we might keep our freedoms.  We should all be thankful when we get a chance to repay them. The story below is fictional, but the service that brings fallen soldiers home is real. Let us all give thanks. *** Fortunately, it had been a quiet flight so far. This night the sky was clear and peaceful, which was a blessing because shortly after takeoff U.S. Air Force Captain Matthew Marrow’s co-p...

152 likes 72 comments 72
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Broken promise

Submitted to Contest #121

“When we’re older, let’s get married.” A blonde girl with pig tales smiled. She just recently lost her two front teeth making her have a small lisp. Her bright green eyes shined with happiness as she suggested her newest thought. “Yeah, okay.” A boy the same age smiles just as brightly. He was young but he knew that he wanted to spend the rest of his days with her. She was perfect and as he responded her eyes only shined brighter. “Pinky promise.” She held out her pinky. It was an unspoken rule between them that a pinky-promise was unbreakab...

57 likes 12 comments 12
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You Shouldn’t Have!

Submitted to Contest #121

Tommy Trent was a very spoilt child. He would prefer to describe himself as “knows what he wants” but the rest of his family and friends knew the truth. He was the kind of child who expected a gift when giving other people gifts. For example, on his friend Trevor’s tenth birthday, Tommy got him a mobile phone on the basis that he also got one, but a slightly better model with more storage.  Every Christmas and birthday Tommy would provide several copies of a detailed list of presents with prices and recommended retailers. Any deviatio...

28 likes 9 comments 9
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The Music Box

Submitted to Contest #121

I don’t know what you expected me to say to her, Jonathan. She is very excited about this new chapter of her life. A divorce is never easy, but a third divorce? Which is to say nothing about all the separations. She and Kasta separated four or five times before they finally made it official, and every time she’d kick him out, along would come a new vocation. Our daughter is a hobbyist who fancies herself a professional--that’s the trouble. It’s gotten so bad I now veer her in the direction of labeling herself an “artist” even though she’...

27 likes 10 comments 10
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Reflections

Shortlisted for Contest #121 ⭐️

TW: Brief mention of suicidal thoughtsWe had been dating for three years before we decided to end it. It was mostly mutual, or at least that’s what we agreed to call it. I hated his red couch, and we sat there with stiff backs and fidgeting fingers. It was his home so he felt more in place than I did. My heart never settled in the crooks and angles of his muddy studio apartment. Isolated from the rest, the couch’s vibrant nature was meant to “spruce up the place” but I think he forgot to realize that when everything looked so dead, putting s...

22 likes 8 comments 8
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A sequined dress, a pair of cha-cha heels and a box

Submitted to Contest #121

It's November 30th, 1996. Surprisingly, there is no sign of snow in the Northern hemisphere. I was born and raised here. I remember, my mother looking through the window and praying for a green Christmas. She was a very superstitious woman, and she used to say that when winter was late, luck was near.I decided this morning that it was time for me to clean her dormitory. She passed away a week ago. For some people, it's too early and inconsiderate, but for me, she left a long time ago. Six months had passed since the unfortunate accident that...

20 likes 4 comments 4
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Blood stained

Submitted to Contest #121

The wolf sniffed as she moved stealthily amid the rock huts. A hare was still gasping in her blood stained mouth. Her pup Luna led her through the rock lanes moving from one corner to another. They knew what the humans did to the intruders, especially if they had fangs and claws. Not all humans are bad, she thought. Like not all wolves are bad. The boy who helped Luna get out of the iron cage proved her point. She was wary though, enough not to make as small a noise as her breath. Her hind legs stepped where her forelegs did, and s...

19 likes 8 comments 8
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The Perfect Gift

Submitted to Contest #121

It all started with a smile... A beautiful, warm, and welcoming smile from a pretty stranger on the streets of Manhattan. If you know Manhattan, you know how rare it is to meet a kind face here. Let alone to see that same kind face more than once. The third time I saw her, I had to speak to her. I approached her nervously, and she again smiled warmly which made me feel more confident. Approaching women is scary because you never know the vibes... Is it giving bestie vibes or is it going to be more? This time though, I knew. She spoke to me b...

18 likes 3 comments 3
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The Gift of Roots and Wings

Submitted to Contest #121

[The First Gift]There is a boy behind the wall. It isn’t a very tall wall, maybe waist height and made of cobble and moss, so it isn’t a very good hiding place. Erin would know. He tried that one ages ago, and the matrons found him very quickly. He places his book to the side, tucking a leaf between the pages to hold his place, and stands from the porch of the Ol’ Vic. He turns around, craning his neck to see into the kitchen, where the matrons and some of the other children were busy practicing their spellwork. Erin was not invited to ...

18 likes 0 comments 0
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Electrical Circuits

Submitted to Contest #121

I struggle with words. Sometimes I can not speak at all for I've undergone selective mutism. It's a part of my illness. I am ashamed but I know if people knew that the electrical circuit in between my neurons had a short they may be more understanding of my awkwardness. I have learned to enjoy my time alone. Since words always deem to fail my expression for life and others I've begun to notice the small things around me. When walking down the cracked weeded sidewalk I notice the well planted flowers surrounded by gigantic hungry bees. I watc...

17 likes 13 comments 13
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Thanks for the Memories

Submitted to Contest #121

           Daniel and Wendy met in a small café several years ago. Wendy worked as a waitress, and Daniel became a regular customer after the first time their eyes connected. He could feel a charge of electricity racing through his body and his knees felt weak. His first words to Wendy were, “Yeah, um…I’ll have a milk with two coffees. Wait, that’s not right. Coffee with two milks please.”           Wendy felt the energy between them...

15 likes 8 comments 8
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The Gift of a Fresh Start

Submitted to Contest #121

[CW: kidnapping and domestic violence] It wasn’t the first time I had received someone else’s mail. Our mail carrier, Mr. Jacobs, was a friendly old soul but the neighborhood consensus was that it was time for him to ride his mail truck off into the sunset of retirement.  It was a rainy Friday evening in mid-November. My students were getting antsy for Thanksgiving break and, let’s face it, so was I. By the time I left the building, my car was the only one sitting in the school parking lot. I tugged down on the hood of my raincoat, ...

15 likes 8 comments 8
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The First Journey to Mars

Submitted to Contest #121

TW: death.I read once that you had to accept everything life offered you with thankfulness. I was thankful for the gift of camaraderie I had received during preparation for the space mission. As I looked right from my tiny plastic seat, I saw a smile of excitement dancing on the lips of Big Brother. He was the oldest of us, forty-two, with fair soft hair I had wanted to ruffle from day one. His patronal tone left no doubt how he felt about us, the second generation of the space explorers. We all called him Big Brother. Yet, thought...

14 likes 4 comments 4
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A Gift to the Past

Submitted to Contest #121

Sheila Thinks ‘What do you get a man who says (frequently) that he has pretty much everything he has ever wanted? It is Francis’ fiftieth birthday, so I have to get my husband something very special to mark his half-century (a term I will not use). I had almost given up, when I got an idea, a crazy one, sure, but I believe it will do the trick. It is a gift that he would never think of giving himself. It is something that goes deep into his past, when he was a child riding on the subway to school and was feeling invisi...

12 likes 6 comments 6
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Winter Sonata

Submitted to Contest #121

 A package has arrived in the post from Vienna today. That's not unusual. What is unusual is the way my mother, Antonie, thrusts it at me impatiently and says in a trembling voice, "It's for you, Maxie—hurry and open it.""Another art book? Mother, we still have plenty from Grandfather's house!"She winces as she always does when reminded of Grandfather Birkenstock, who had been a renowned art dealer and had a vast and valuable collection in his mansion in Vienna. After his death twelve years ago, it had fallen to Mother, as his...

12 likes 3 comments 3
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