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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

“King Malachi's Guest” by Chris Wagner

Submitted to Contest #100

"Unhand me, you brute!" I smiled as two of my salamander-like underlings carried in a near hog tied figure in a pink dress to my banquet table, depositing her in the seat of honor. "Welcome, Princess Strawberry." When our eyes met, her face flushed red, all the way to the tips of her pointy ears. "What is the meaning of this, you, you scaly creep?" I waved to the feast my reptilian chefs had set out on the linen spread. "Dinner." She shook her blonde locks out of her face, giving me a pouty look. "What, you intend...

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“Chocolate Apple Waffle” by Kinada King

Submitted to Contest #100

“Eric, can you also draw me something cute on the waffle?” “Something cute? Lots of things are cute, you’re gonna have to...” But Sonny wasn’t listening. Hey, at least he was thinking about it. “What would she like...?” I heard him mutter, as he stared at the green cafe walls. So it’s for that girl he mentioned a while back? “Alight, I’ll keep it simple and draw her a cute penguin or something. How does that sound?” “Hey, isn’t that just what you like?” Sonny said. He sighed soon after though, admitting his own defeat, “Yeah, a penguin’s...

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“Perfect” by Nimisha Kantharia

Submitted to Contest #100

Then 7.00 pm I could hear the sizzle of the oil sputtering as my mother tempered the lentils. My eyes roved over and over our living room, making sweeping passes at first, then alighting on individual furniture and objects. I estimated that the edge of the sofa was the correct distance from the wall. I checked that all pot lids were placed the correct way up, that all electronic devices were closed shut and all throw-able objects were out of sight. And yet when the sound of the lift caught my ear, the ancient elevator creaking upwards and la...

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“It's a Long Way” by DREW LANE

Submitted to Contest #100

Water dropped from the green-painted pits of the porch on the other side of the door. Right there, by the counter that faced the gleam of the lake. It dropped and dropped just like the clock ticked and ticked in my back. It all ticked and dropped, it all dropped and ticked.And still, she wasn't there.I wasn't expecting her to show up on time. I wasn't even expecting her to show up. At all. The opaque clouds I had expected, the fog wrapping around the inn I had foreseen, even the rain at the foot of the mountain, I had imagined. But her showi...

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“Blueberry bread and Honey cake” by Sita J

Submitted to Contest #100

My heart skipped a beat when I saw her!! Nearly 15 years! The dwindling past now seems like someone else’s story. All those deep emotions of fond memories have evanesced… like the faint fragrance of dried potpourri flowers slowly losing their scent. We have not kept in touch. I wonder why! Actually, I know exactly why. While I was standing there pondering, her eyes met mine! I waved at her. She waved back. From feet away, I could see her eyes sparkling, like the big diamond ring on her finger. Engaged?! Married?! She walked towards me. ...

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“Unexpected Music” by Elizabeth Maxson

Submitted to Contest #100

The coldness of the room had nothing to do with the temperature. My father and I had avoided each other for several years. Ever since I found out he had another life for most of my childhood, I couldn’t look at him the same way. He missed many of my events because he “had to work,” and it was clear those really were just excuses for him to spend time with Justina. Her name was ironic because everything about her was not justified. She spent time with a man who was already married with three kids and a life that needed him.&nbs...

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“The Text” by Yvette Francaise

Submitted to Contest #100

Her stone cold glare could freeze Hell. My mother sat across from me in a drab grey dining room at a white kitchen table. Her grey wool dress looked even more dull in the flickering chandelier above our heads. Her grey hair was in a bun so tight that it must have been the source of her tension. It felt as if I was in an interrogation for a crime that I didn't commit. My simple black sweater dress felt uncomfortable as I ran my hand through my long brown hair. Unfortunately dinner was a salad and chicken soup. "Have you considered yo...

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“Bread of Stories” by Luna V

Submitted to Contest #100

It was the early days of October. Classes suspended, I sat idling in front of the dining table. The radio blared the loud reporter's voices as they talked about the start of the monsoon season. One or three storms more to come this month, they say. With eyes half open, I watched as the table filled up with dishes of all sorts. A bowl of yellow chicken noodles with a poached egg on top glared over me as I looked about the kitchen. Sausages and fried eggs, fried rice and hotdogs -- oh, but who could forget the steaming bread in the middle...

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“" By changing Myself,I can change them"” by Ifrah 009

Submitted to Contest #100

Monday morning, as tiring as it could be ,standing along the pole ,near a bus stop ,Sarah is dreaming about studying in "Oxford " ,changing the world ,becoming a famous motivational speaker and a writer suddenly she is shocked by horn of the bus,comes back to the reality.Scene: 1Sarah knows that she has to strive hard for translating her dreams into reality ,so she gets into the busShe knows her limit,she never let any one to fool her ,she is a feminist ,she never get too close to any male friend and does not waste her time in building in re...

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“A Ravenous Hunger” by SCOTT GEORGE

Submitted to Contest #100

The terrain of Geneshtra's surface was grey, cracked, and dry. The soil crunched under Arawn's boots, the sound so resonant that it nearly drowned out the electric hum of his plasma rifle. The planet's stale, sulfuric wind caused continuous torrents of silvery dust to spurt forth from the ground, the phenomenon making it appear as if he were cloaked in a thick and impenetrable shroud of fog. Rigel's voice erupted through the Arawn's earpiece. Due to the interference of Geneshtra's dust clouds, his voice was soft and staticky. "Did you hear t...

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“My Older, Estranged Reflection” by NOKWAZI MOKOENA

Submitted to Contest #100

Today’s sunset is so cloudless and nostalgic, when it disappears I fear it will take a piece of me with it that is drenched in her memory. I feel out of sorts sitting here on the veranda without her. She should be sitting beside me right now and asking me to read from the holy book the scripture that her pastor was preaching on Sunday. She would complain how hot the weather is, but still find her sipping on piping hot tea. I would sit on the opposite chair beside her every day and tell her that she had the most beautiful brown eyes. T...

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“When The Kids Know” by Carolyn Varvel

Submitted to Contest #100

Start or end story with two characters sitting down for a meal When The Kids Know by Carolyn Varvel Sue Carson whispered fugitively into her cell phone, “Are you sure? Do we really have to tell them? I’m not sure how the boys will take it.” She chewed her lip as she listened. She looked quickly around the kitchen and realized she’d forgotten to do dishes when she came in from her after work meeting. Her son, fourteen year old Neil Carson slinky crawled out of the kitchen doorway, down the three steps into the sunken living room. “...

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“WHAT ALIVE TASTES LIKE” by Justine Buhl

Submitted to Contest #100

A ghost and a zombie were staring at each other. It was hard to tell which one of them was more dead. The zombie had a greenish skin that matched perfectly her pink destroyed clothes. Some said she had once been this famous singer that no one ever remembers. Nobody listened to her songs anymore. She was really dead and yet, she could talk and walk. Sitting on one of the tombstones in the graveyard, anyone would have thought she was a real person in disguised. An old one, with hair falling from her round skull and not enough teeth in...

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“Peace Offering” by Allen Dorf

Submitted to Contest #100

Peace OfferingThe two were fighting once again. Phenius of the Zweihander and Garv of the Scimitar. Two legendary warriors of the kingdoms of Logozoros and Hemla. So powerful, and unorthodox, were these two that they would end up separated from their enemies every time they faced each other in battle. Their kingdoms had been at war with each other for 300 no signs of stopping. As such, today was another such fight between these two… and it now took them five miles away from where their actual armies were fighting...A man in bright, loose, fl...

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“My Sweet Claire” by Vedviyas Sridhar

Submitted to Contest #100

The neatly set dinner table and the carefully folded red chequered napkins were a perfect tell-tale of how important this dinner was for him. It is just once a year that he gets to meet her anymore and for him, everything has to be perfect as it can be on this day.A cruel yet exciting wait ensued now as the clock ticked incessantly. Every second felt like an hour. A really, long boring hour without seeing her. He gently sat down in his usual chair and closed his eyes with a reminiscing smile and a long heavy breath. “This time I need to ask ...

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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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