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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

“The Burdens Strangers Share” by Chloe :)

Submitted to Contest #100

Content Warning: use of cuss words “So,” Melanie Bloom began, taking in the people before her. She wondered why it was so hard to talk to each other, so hard to be like friends again. They used to be a group, one so close it almost surpassed family. But, after so many years she guessed that relationships could be covered by time, their past becoming something new for them in the future. Clara, Peter, Henry, Sylvie, Matz, Laya, and Finn. They were missing one, but she couldn’t get ahold of her. They were all acting so...

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“What on earth is Seder?” by Kathy Landes

Submitted to Contest #100

It was the holiday season and I had been helping care for my elderly mother. I arrived at her home to set up the Christmas decorations and she out of the blue ask’s: Young lady would you like to accompany me to a seder feast at the Episcopalian church tonight.?” I turned and looked at her to make sure she was not overly medicated. She actually looked quit smart in a Sunday church outfit she had on, which I hadn’t even notices when I first enters. “Seder,” I replied. “You mean like when we were both younger and use to hear gr...

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“Different, but the Same” by Abbey Long

Submitted to Contest #100

Silence engulfs them across the room. The tension is palpable, as four stony faces all stare at each other suspiciously. It suffocates them, an invisible glove around all of their necks. They await further instructions, whilst they sit at an empty table. “The feast will begin in a few minutes.” A monotonous voice calls out from a speaker attached to the wall. “Be there, or don’t.” The threat hangs in the air, and slices through them like a knife. They all shift uncomfortably in their seat. Theres...

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“Vaguely Familiar Strangers” by Ellie K

Submitted to Contest #100

The room was quiet, save the sound of chewing and the occasional clink of silverware and dishes. Despite the lack of conversation, Jane was happy. She was reunited with her high school friends, and that alone was enough to make a smile involuntarily play around her lips. Together, the six people sitting around the dinner table were once the closest friends in Chelsea, though you wouldn't have been able to tell from the silent meal. It was a sad sight, and Jane was disappointed that no one was talking. It was almost as if the old friendships ...

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“The Doll-Parents ” by Writer Wannabe

Submitted to Contest #100

What if I said you hate your parents?Some of you might say it's false, or some of you might say it's true. Some might even say it either.We'll see, but would this story be interesting for you? The reader behind the screen, gawking at the screen brightly before you. Hmm, you don't have any interest in reading it? Perhaps you'll get interested in the end, or are you already?*********My eyes were closed, the warm soft ray of sunshine hitting my firm face. The blankets keeping me warm, the soft material keeping me more comfy. Thoughts wash over ...

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“Trust No one” by Consistently Lost

Submitted to Contest #100

"You here. Sit now." A guy gestures to the empty seat beside him. Well that's one way to make friends, I guess. I look around, for an escape or something, but I realize I have nothing else to do today so Why not? I take the spot on the bleachers next to him, unwrapping the lunch my girlfriend made for me. We sit in awkward silence as, he too, pulls out a foil covered sandwich. He doesn't really look down at it, he's looking off in the distance in the direction of my other teammates as they bid the coach goodbye. Once the men are out of ears...

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“Table for Six ” by Emily Bronte

Submitted to Contest #100

It had been a long exhausting day. As the ‘dean of discipline’ (which some teachers called me) I got all the rebellious students in our large high school to straighten out. I had about fifteen kids sent to me today- nine for starting a food fight in the lunchroom, two for making out in the hallway, one for bringing a pocket knife to school, and three more for trying to start a protest about the upcoming SAT’s. I was pretty tired by time school let out that afternoon, but I’ve gotten used to it. One of the teachers that day said to me… ...

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“Family Affair” by Catherine Githui

Submitted to Contest #100

The day was sunny, the skies were blue and the sun was shining. It was the star of the day. The land was green, with a well-manicured lawn. Rono attempted not to think whether it was carpet grass or naturally grown, it didn’t matter, it was a beautiful place. She had chosen a beautiful location. The lawn had wooden chairs. I don’t know what carpenters would call that type of wood, but it was beautiful. Rono immediately fell in love with the place. She had always seen it and the river that flowed by it, on her occasional days along the bypass...

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“THINGS FALL APART ” by Abby Cyndi

Submitted to Contest #100

In my life all through I have been thinking that I know my sibling in and out only to prove myself wrong, that was just imaginations .My elder brother and I were very close when we were younger (born almost the same age) and while we grew up as teenagers, we remained real true friends that no one could even manage to separate us (united we stand to protect each other).Now we are grown up in our youthful age ,that has all changed, and I fear that we have completely lost what we once had .I am eagerly longing for the moments we spent together ...

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“Forced Dinner Party” by Brooke White

Submitted to Contest #100

The doors buzz and then open, letting me and nine other men step out of our rooms for the first time in hours. Hours? Maybe days. There is no clock in there. All of us are silent as we are ushered down the corridor. Through the thick windows, I can see it is daylight outside–that still doesn’t help me deceiver how long I’ve been cooped up in there for. ...

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“The Testimony” by Elle S

Submitted to Contest #100

There are four of us in total. Our host is preparing a meal as we wait in emotion-charged silence around a well-decorated, rectangular dining room table. Three candles burn in the middle of a golden tablecloth laid over it, placed in careful alignment with the gaudy chandelier suspended high above. There are three doorways within the dining hall. One leads to the kitchen, the other to the lounge. The third door is closed shut and I find myself puzzling over where it leads. The walls are thickly armored with avid displays of artful paintings....

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“Food for Thought by Lisa Reid” by Jean Davis

Submitted to Contest #100

Down the long driveway we went and there it was; a house. A house, what? Did we go to the wrong address? No, it was the right one and there was a sign. "Courtney, it is a house! What if this is a snake dancing church, I will die!" She laughed so hard she was about to pee on herself. "Well she is our friend and we spent a long time in college with her". We had been praying for her husband all those years, and he finally gave his heart to the Lord. Going back to the week before; my friend Maraleigh called and asked me to come to their church ...

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“"Could You Pass the Salt?"” by Brianna Damplo

Submitted to Contest #100

“Could you pass the salt?” Amid the quiet, slow munching of ten exhausted survivors, there was a faint, but unforgettable, beeping. The woman designated as the Counter tapped slowly and steadily and whispered, “five.” We all nodded silently and continued eating. The wait was unbearable. The match was lit, salvation was at hand, and here we sat together for one, final meal. It was then that the man’s comment rose like a steamy hiss from a rice cooker, a device I hadn’t used in years but appeared in my mind as vivid as the ash, filth...

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“Culinary Cultures” by K. A. Young

Submitted to Contest #100

Mauricio gently turned them over. Dark-skinned thighs revealing pale flesh. His fiancée leaned forward to form loose blonde-colored braids with quick fingers. They were good together. He turned his attention to white becoming burnished gold beneath his skillful touch. Deftly he poured on the sauce, adding spice to the pleasure. Yes, they were good together. He wanted their parents to recognize this, to see what can result when the familiar encounters what is different, the outcome—a feast for the senses, nouri...

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“A Casserole” by Kayley Dickins

Submitted to Contest #100

His best work had always been done when under pressure and he had no doubt that would be true here too. He was armed with a cookbook he had purchased when he moved to the city to make him look travelled and experienced, but he was concerned it wouldn’t be enough, there was about an hour before he had to leave for the hospital and hope was quickly fading that he was going to have finished on time. With his ingredients spread in front of him, it was looking like hard work. Perhaps after a week on hospital food his partner would prefer a takeaw...

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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.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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