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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

“Anna and the Ogre” by Tom D

Submitted to Contest #100

Dusk, and he is hungry. Anna stumbles into the vast, cavernous kitchen, staggering under the weight of the two wooden pails she carries. Water sloshes from them onto the broad flagstones and runs in rivulets along the floor. Setting one down, she hefts the other between her tiny arms and, clambering onto a stool, reaches up to tip its contents into the iron cauldron which hangs above the open fire. Steam spurts up, hissing like a viper. Anna jumps, startled. That part always startles her. Gathering her strength, Anna heaves the second p...

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“Gram Lenn's Cornbread” by S.E. Reed

Submitted to Contest #100

There are various times throughout a woman’s life when she gets nostalgic. Like around the holidays or at the birth of a new baby or with the passing of a loved one. She can’t help it. She’s just wired that way. (I should know, I’m a Neurosurgeon). For me, the nostalgia is strongest when I smell cornbread. The savory-sweet perfume carries me home. Back to Savannah-- to nights at Gram Lenn’s house, sweet tea on the wrap-around porch, cousins laughing and racing around the yard, and her famous cornbread in the oven. I spent most...

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“Lettuce” by Grace Portico

Submitted to Contest #100

“Did you know once upon a time lettuce was a sacred sex symbol?” She asks this while shuffling her fork through the plate of salad in front of her. “Oh?” he says, looking with new interest at this rather plain creature across the small table from him, the one his brother insisted he ask out, the brother who had spent one whole New Year’s eve party manoeuvring the two of them together, often leaving them in uncomfortable proximity with nothing to say to each other. After that interminable evening of contrived encounters, they had both g...

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“Max Kraner Goes Fishing” by Keith Manos

Submitted to Contest #100

Max Kraner had already changed his table at Chilli’s once. Who wants to sit by the kitchen with all the servers going in and out? Plates and glasses clanking. No, he wanted their table to be perfect: some dim lighting and a female server because he knew he couldn’t compete with those thin-waisted, blond guys who always seemed to work in restaurants like this. Next to him, a family ate meatloaf and chicken strips. The two children kept talking about Disney World and fireworks. Starla would arrive soon. What if she looked poorly on his table...

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“Behaving As One Should ” by Kayley Dickins

Submitted to Contest #100

He didn’t own any board games, they were in the wrong flat for that. He knew there was a stack of them in the cupboard under the stairs in his partner’s flat, but of course they had decided to come here instead. It was closer at the time, and he had been certain that he had food in, whereas his partner had spent the majority of the drive over trying to remember whether he had any milk in the fridge, and if he did, whether it was even in date or whether they would be assaulted by milk that was more lumpy than one would usually like. Deciding ...

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“dinner is ready” by Paul McWade

Submitted to Contest #100

Dinner is Ready... paul mcwadeI perched atop a tall kitchen stool watching Mommy hand-roll tiny meatballs as late winter sun cast a dusty wave of light through the grimy window. Like a warm hug, her nimble fingers gave a pinch of veal, beef and pork the assurance that she wouldn’t cheat them the care and consideration that each of these posthumous ingredients deserved. A sudden aroma jumped from the big blackened iron skillet and danced past my nose when a gem of spiced meat kissed the sizzling olive oil and garlic. First the aroma of the pe...

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“Maybe He'll Love Me When I'm Gone” by Lory Datu

Submitted to Contest #100

TORI married the love of her life when she was twenty. She knew her husband never loved her at all, he was only forced to marry her to save his family's business using her inheritance from her wealthy father. At the age of twenty-one, she had a miscarriage, losing her unborn child. Her husband treated her badly and even bring his mistress home. She endured all the pain and sadness for almost five years. After a long time, she finally thought of ending her miserable life. Tonight. It was six in the evening and Tori nearly finished cookin...

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“Under the Golden Arches” by Philip Scholz

Submitted to Contest #100

“Mommy,” the little boy whined, “I’m not done.” The little girl seemed on the verge of protesting as well. “We have to go,” the woman insisted, stuffing the food back in the happy meal bags. “We’re … late for an appointment.” The boy and his sister continued whining as she led them out of the restaur...

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“Soul Food” by Daisy Torres

Submitted to Contest #100

Mama always hummed during the rush hours.At lunch time, everything was busy, but we were happy for it. I even heard some people say she was the best cook in all of New Orleans.I sat on the floor in the corner of the kitchen, cross-legged and coloring."Yolanda! Yolanda, where you at, child?!"I dropped my colors and jumped to my feet, my dress swishing around my knees. "Over here, Mama! What do ya need me for?!"Mama turned the corner and found me. Her apron was dusted with flour.She grinned. "It's the biggest crowd I ever seen yet! You think y...

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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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“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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“When Nobody Likes the In-Laws ” by Emily Bronte

Submitted to Contest #100

When my parents said they were flying in for a couple weeks this summer to visit the kids, I had no idea they meant the exact same week my in-laws were. I mean, I love my parents like life itself, but they really could have just picked another week. My parents, and my husband Eric’s parents, didn’t really get off to a good start with each other when we were dating. We were fresh out of high school, and my parents were fine with that, but Eric's weren’t. They said, ‘You’re too young and will be immature with your choices. You need to ...

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“Guardian of The Deep” by Elizabeth Inkim

Submitted to Contest #100

Standing at the ship’s bow, Carina flung her arms out into the open embrace of the sea breeze. She breathed in the scent of salt and sweat and dust that clung to her―the taste of war staining her tongue. War drums sounded behind her, drowning out the waves that crashed against the Pratyush’s hull. Named for sunshine and the promise of better days, the battleship was made out of a Telkhines alloy, the colour so dark that it swallowed up the afternoon sunlight. Soon, she told herself, soon she would be home again. It had been almost a year sin...

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“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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$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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