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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#100: Breaking Bread

One of the most intimate things you can do with someone is sit down to eat together. The idea of friends and foes, families and strangers breaking bread has been a recurring theme in art and literature for a very long time. It’s something that can bring us together against the steepest of odds; to quote Oscar Wilde, “after a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one's own relations”. But things don’t always end quite so harmoniously — food fights, anyone?

This week, we’re reflecting on the joys (or pains) of eating together or making a meal. Whether the dinner table is a place for communion or conflict for your characters, I look forward to sitting down to a hearty portion of food-themed stories with you. Bon appétit!

This week's prompts

Start or end your story with two characters sitting down for a meal.

Middle School – 264 stories

Write a story where a meal or dinner goes horribly wrong.

Thanksgiving – 201 stories

Write about a group of strangers — or people who know each other, but may as well be strangers — eating together.

Fluff – 152 stories

Write about a character preparing a meal for somebody else.

Fluff – 157 stories

Write a story that involves a secret or magic ingredient.

Halloween – 116 stories

Stories

“Disastrous Date” by Z. A.

Submitted to Contest #100

Cassidy was glad today was her day off. It got her enough time to do the housework and also be ready for tonight. Tonight, Jamie was going to take her out. During these two weeks, both of them were super busy, and they had no time to spend together. After two long weeks, she was finally going to spend some quality time with her boyfriend. If it was up to Cassidy a night in at her or Jamie’s place would be enough, but since today was also their two-year anniversary, Jamie insisted on going to the restaurant they went t...

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“The Concept of Now” by Alexa Mae Pecora

Submitted to Contest #100

Before. I cherish the concept and stop in front of the old, oak table where one of the pieces my mother had painted is hung above the center of the wood. I lift my hand, allowing my fingertips to bump over the places where my mother let the oil paint dry thick. The painting is of the ocean with deep blues and hints of greens. It’s an unfamiliar place to me, but it was the world to my mother. The clink of china. I drop my hand at my side and gather myself into the presence of now. It’s just dinner, I swallow, with people I don’t...

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“The Other Five” by Cass Marie

Submitted to Contest #100

"The Other Five" In southern ladies math, if it is ninety-two degrees with a heat index of one hundred, and your oven is set at four hundred degrees for three hours with two top eyes on simmer, and you are going through "the change", then it is either "hotter than a roasting pig on the fourth of July", or it's "let me roll up my cardigan sleeves, it is a might warm". That day was a "pig on the spit" kind of day. In the deep South, there are ways to avoid heat stroke, but...

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“Bread Breaking” by Jon Meadow

Submitted to Contest #100

The wheat berries are beginning to sprout. He's talking to himself because there is no one, not even a pet that lives with him. His slum dwelling of a house is what it is because when scavengers took the best and trashed the rest, they left a war-zone ambiance, long neglected since his heart hasn't been there; years have gone by without cleaning up after mice/rats and bats, or dealing with a street gang from California that's encroaching on the property line. It borders a dead end road that's twenty-six miles from the closest town with free ...

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“The most embarrassing couple of the evening” by Anupama Iyer

Submitted to Contest #100

“For the last time, Ryan, stop moving the plate! It was perfect just where it was two seconds ago,” Misha said.“Okay, okay,” Ryan said, taking two deep breaths, “I’m just over-thinking this, right?”Misha looked at him softly, thinking about the last time she heard him ask this question, which was just about ten minutes ago.“Probably, yes. But if I was the one constructing a fancy-fancy dinner from scratch for my boss, well, I would have been way worse than you are right now,” she said.Ryan sighed. He gave the table a quick glance, and saw th...

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“Dinner and No Movie” by Amber Taylor

Submitted to Contest #100

Damn, I really need to be studying. My stomach already aches from the lack of food I've eaten but, seeing the D in my Psychology class just made me feel even worse. Like the true avoidant I am, I quickly close out the Blackboard app. As if a coincidence, I get the warning text from T-mobile that my phone bill will be due soon. I had almost forgotten about that. Shit, I got to make up something to tell my mama. My stomach turns even more at the thought of how selfish I am. My mom had just lost her job right before I went o...

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“You can take the boy out of the island but....” by Charlene 🧙‍♀️✨ Boyce

Submitted to Contest #100

Ewan sat frowning, surrounded by cookbooks. He knew Gene wasn’t vegetarian. And he hated fish, which was perfect, because Ewan couldn’t cook fish. But then, Genevieve could be vegetarian, or pescatarian, or any other damn fool food fad. He didn’t know Genevieve. Chicken was safe, and he could make chicken really well. But was it too safe? I mean, you see your brother for the first time in five years, you want to celebrate. Do you serve chicken? Ewan had chicken twice a week. It didn’t feel special enough. But steak felt too… assertively ...

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“Moving on is a slice of cake.” by Maria Johnson

Submitted to Contest #100

“You should see the roses darling.” Sue paused trying to think of the right expression, “Well their coming up rosy” she finished with a smile. Rising from her crouching position she grimaced as her knees clicked and her back protested. Still, looking down at the immaculate grave she couldn’t help but feel a twinge of satisfaction. Brian, in life had always been a tidy man, it was only right that she made the weekly trek to ensure his grave was maintained. “Perhaps I will bring a few next week. Not too many mind.” she hastily added, rememberi...

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“Mema's Kitchen ” by Sue Catrama

Submitted to Contest #100

Jenna learned by her mema's side how to cook and make guests feel at home around her table. By age 3 Jenna was chopping onions and garlic, if the house didn't have the aroma of the two ingredients a proper meal was not being prepared. It took a few more years until Jenna could fill the pot and carry it to the stove for the pasta. In the mean time Jenna learned how to peel and separate garlic cloves to be shoved into a roast in order to assure just about every slice served had a sliver. Fresh vegetables from mema's garden rinsed and peels wi...

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“The Birthday Dinner” by Ruth Smith

Submitted to Contest #100

The clock struck 11:00 and Darlene looked over at her oven. How did she mess that up, she wondered. She was sure she had timed out the turkey so it would be done before the 12:00 dinner, yet the timer said there was 1 hour and 45 minutes left to cook. She checked her rolls and they were raising perfectly. They would be ready to go in on time, but that turkey worried her. In Darlene's world, you don't undercook turkey. Jeremy was turning 18 today. It had been a difficult year, 2020, and Darlene was determined to give her youngest son the be...

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“March 13, 2020” by Amy St. Pierre

Submitted to Contest #100

My alarm went off at 6am. I hit snooze and dozed off for a blissful extra nine minutes. When my alarm went off again, I quickly shut it off, trying not to wake my husband, and I rolled groggily out of bed, grabbing my glasses off my bedside table. In the bathroom, I decided to take a hot shower before I got dressed. It was March in New England, which meant that the mornings still held onto the chill of winter for dear life, and days weren’t much warmer, even though by then we were all sick of winter and anxious for the warmth of spring and...

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“Trêve de Noël.” by Drew Andrews ( Backup Account)

Submitted to Contest #100

Three. Just three; things that you look forward to in a combat zone --- more so on the front line. The first every grunt would say would have to be sleep, seventy-six straight hours of non-stop gunfighting tares you mentally and physically, followed closely by food; sometimes the two would switch importance and need of --- the mind and body can go a lot longer without sleep than food. The third: a hot shower. Of course to see peace is the first.... But only the dead see it.... Or do they.*****Chapter one:The 101st Airborne's Paratroopers of ...

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“The Problematic Ones” by Duck Lucy

Submitted to Contest #100

“So, uhm…Did you guys know about this tradition?” “Nope.” They all replied. “Great. What do we do?” “Eat?” I looked in front of me at my empty plate, then quizzically looked at the man opposite me. Just as I was about to reply with a sarcastic comeback, we heard shuffling. Silence settled as we listened to what was happening outside the locked door, then a letter was pushed underneath. I snatched it away. “Hey!” The idiot who wanted to eat air complained. “Shut up, let her read it!” Replied the only other woman in our 5-person group, I...

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“Caviar to Lobster! ALL IN ONE!!” by Soumyabrata Chakraborty

Submitted to Contest #100

The Chromium inlaid pod doors opened with a whizz, letting in warm air. Dave felt an excruciating pain as the cryogenic fluid thawed resurrecting him. His chest seemed to collapse as he coughed out the liquid ventilation fluid, letting in fresh air which seemed to pierce his pulmonary tissue. A jolt of electrical impulse rushed through his body, revving up his vitals.His eyes seemed to pop out owing to the great sudden pressure difference, and he felt a sharp pain gradually receding. The light flowing through the small round porthole almost ...

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“When the Shadows come out ” by Mila Van Niekerk

Submitted to Contest #100

Accepting Mica’s dare was a big, big mistake.I realize that now that I’m standing here on top of the flight of crumbling stairs, gawping at the height she wants me to jump. The wind is whipping at my crazy curly red hair, blowing it everywhere and making it hard for me to see. I’m scared the wind will whisk me away along with all the autumn leaves, and I know that instead of floating daintily to the ground, I’d become an ugly human jam on the cement way down below.The old railing of the abandoned Children’s Hospital’s main staircase has long...

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$50

Prize money

891

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jul 02, 2021 EST

Won by Rayhan Hidayat 🏆

Title: mie goreng

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

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