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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#11: Childhood Meets Adulthood

Hello, writers! My name is Aja Pollock, and I’m a developmental editor and copy editor. If you’ve ever wondered what Neil Gaiman, Bruce Springsteen, Isabel Allende, and Ron Burgundy have in common, the answer is: me!

You can check out my Reedsy profile here.

My theme for this week is "childhood meets adulthood." Childhood often seems to me like a puzzle that could unlock your understanding of yourself — if only you could solve it. Whether it’s truly possible to solve that puzzle is an open question, but whenever we can fit a piece into place, there’s potential for big insights. Hopefully, these prompts will inspire you to explore what childhood can tell us about adulthood. Happy writing!

This week's prompts

Write about how a person’s perspective on an event from their childhood shifted in their adulthood.

Adults – 31 stories

Write about someone who returns as an adult to a place they last visited as a child.

Adults – 83 stories

Write about an adult event or gathering from the point of view of a child.

Kids – 15 stories

Write about a parent who sees pieces of a family member’s (or their own) personality in their child — whether that brings them comfort, terror, or something in between.

Adults – 20 stories

Write about the moment a child (of any age) first comes to view a parent as a three-dimensional human being, and not just a parental figure.

Teens – 23 stories

Stories

“Me and Dad” by Pauline Breatnach

Submitted to Contest #11

I wanted to dip my hand deep in the water. Dad shouted, 'No Tommy, no, it's too dangerous, we are at sea.'I always loved stories about the sea and so did Dad. After Mum died he used to read me bedtime stories about the sea. He even read me a few pages of 'Moby Dick', making me promise that one day I would finish it myself.One sunny afternoon when I came home from school in Rotham, having flung my satchel into the corner of the hall, I found Dad on his hands and knees packing a suitcase. Me and dad loved going on adventures, fishing...

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“Pale grey dot” by Marte Van Der Linden

Submitted to Contest #11

“I never thought I’d see this,” Eric said as the grey, pockmarked surface drew nearer.Nell focused on the panel in front of her. “Mission control, this is Muninn. Our altitude is seventeen hundred and thirteen metres. Confirm descent trajectory.”“Trajectory confirmed.” Lena’s voice was loud and clear over the com system. “What’s the view like?”Five high-resolution cameras were mounted on the outside of the Muninn module. The images were displayed on small screens inside, and no doubt on dozens of full-size ones at mission control. Still, the...

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“Shorn” by Karen McDermott

Submitted to Contest #11

Dear diary,This morning Mummy took me to the hairdressers with her. I was to sit quietly with my book and behave, Mummy said. I didn’t think her hair needed cutting but she said it was starting to look like a bird’s nest. I asked if that might mean birds might come and lay eggs in it and then we could eat them for tea, which Daddy found very funny.I don’t get my hair cut when I go with Mummy. I go to the barber when Daddy goes. Mummy says it’s much cheaper to do it that way. The barber is nice to me but loud and smells of cigarettes and his ...

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“The Waterfall” by Igor Costa

Submitted to Contest #11

It was June and my kids had just taken a vacation from school. We were going through a very hot month in California, it was the warmest in recent years. I saw a lot of news about people who were very sick with the heat wave that hit the West Coast of the United States. I still had to work in the office but I was still worried about such a heat wave that was hurting everyone. I was appalled at how hot heat could make people sick. We have sickened the planet and now we...

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“That Day” by Via L

Submitted to Contest #11

I walked slowly up the pathway to the front of the house. It had been so many years since someone had been here, and even longer since I had. The once quaint bushes that used to grow on either side of the path that had used to only gently spill over onto the concrete now grew with nothing to hold it back, leaving very little room for walking. I ran my hand along the rusty railing barely hanging on to the three steps that led up to the front door. My hand clanged on the metal, making a dull clink...clink...clink noise, and it wobbled with ea...

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“How To Plant A Human Bean” by Harminia Escarmiet

Submitted to Contest #11

How To Plant A Human Bean“How do you plant human beans?” I asked my father. He had a strange look on his face, as if I spoke in humour. “I’m not kidding, father.” I responded to the grin beginning to form across his mouth. Why does he think of me comically? Often he comments about me being ‘inconveniently’ clever, I don’t even know the word, but I like to pretend I do. He sat there in the garden stool, trimming the leafy things. Twice he glanced at me, as if to see if I was insistent enough to remain standing, a vegetable I plucked limp in m...

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“Faith like surgeries” by Lauren Adjei-Tawiah

Submitted to Contest #11

His favourite colour had always been blue. Not because it was depressing or anything -it wasn't- but because it seemed to soak in the light, and then give some of it back. "Like black," he said to me once, "but less dead, less drab." Lucky for him our scrubs are blue. He said it was a sign from God. "There's a reason for everything so I believe that there's a reason my colour is blue. Blue shows I'm in the right place." Those were his words. All the days I had known him in civilian garb, he never presented himself to the world without a blue...

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“Different” by Lindsey Starrberri

Submitted to Contest #11

There were tons of fancy cars around. Not that I'm into cars, I'm only eight years old, but I know a sports car when I see one. And that car over there? No way. It was, like, lighting up and booming music with words Mom would literally murder a person who said them. Mom stepped out of the car in her hundred dollar dress, a poofy one made of lemon colored metallic material that showed a lot of skin. I don't even know how she walked in those heels that got stuck in every crevasse she stepped in. I don't even know how I'd be able to walk in tho...

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“It's a Different Place” by DEVIKA P

Submitted to Contest #11

He was eleven years old and had to leave his birth country to go and live in a foreign country for better life prospects.Life changed as a light switch from on to off he didn't have a clue of what to expect in this foreign land. At first, he lived with family in a small town. He was not familiar with this family and lived in a small house. Each day was a nightmare to go out with friends and to meet boys of his age group to behave as an eleven-year-old boy.The eleven-year-old boy thought lots of his childhood he had left behind and could...

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“Home sweet home” by Efrat Rosen

Submitted to Contest #11

And here I am again. It's being 13 years since the last time I was here. It's almost as I nothing changed. But this time, by my side was my husband, Dror.13 years ago, we bought another house and rented this one. As I told my mother I am pregnant, she told I could go living there if I wish too, as the renting contract of the current residents is about to end in three months, and they have no interest staying there.As I looked about the house of my childhood, I couldn't but wonder what made them leave it. Well, I knew why we did. But it's bee...

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“Isolated Thunderstorms in the Morning, Sunny in the Afternoon” by Hamadryad 77

Submitted to Contest #11

Wow, what a tiny space! If I tried to crawl under there, it would feel a lot tighter than before, but I think... umph... not impossible. Nope, it's not impossible. I'm animate. I live and I grew, but this bed cannot. It's logical, yes, but my mind can't seem to make sense of it. Was I really so small? Was this really the bed? I was and it is. So I used to come under here... hm, because I was tired sometimes? No. It was because... ouch, it was because I was afraid. The pain I felt is coming back to me, rushing in and right by my heart. It's a...

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“Stranger” by Unknown User

Submitted to Contest #11

Curiosity. Innocence. Laughter. All that existed in my mind as a four-year-old who rarely got out. It was an early morning and the minimart was quiet. Hand in hand with my mother, I took in my surroundings as a zoo-bred tiger would when released into the forest for the very first time. As my mother was paying at the counter, someone caught my eye. It was that very second, when the barrier around the only world I had ever known crumbled down, and I was introduced to a whole new concept - differen...

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“Cocktail Memory” by Amy Wannenburgh

Submitted to Contest #11

She’s crying into her drink and the world keeps dancing. Like it always does, of course, war or no war. Tears or no tears. Not that she expects it to stop. But there’s a part of her that wants to be Margo in All About Eve - to lose it completely, let it all out in a rage, jump up, throw her glass at the shelf behind the bar, and scream into the face of anyone who will listen.Or maybe just cry into someone’s shirt. That will do, too. She sighs sharply, choked breath hissing through her lungs. She clicks her cracked nails on the glass and star...

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“Summer at Camp Lagerie” by R P Lenney

Submitted to Contest #11

I had almost forgotten the smell of pine. A fresh smell of clean air and pine needles, giving the sensation of your lungs being opened up and detoxed from the smog of a city life. I could feel the air move around me as it circled the lake and drifted through the trees, collecting their scent and delivering it to my memory.Camp Lagerie welcomed my memory. The wood-log cabins were connected by un-renovated dirt paths that had now become discolouration’s in the grass rather than gravel paths. Standing under the entrance arch, the vines seemed t...

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“Fluffy” by James Offenha

Submitted to Contest #11

After tomorrow, Fluffy is going to a place called Summerland so I won’t have to walk her anymore. I never heard of Summerland, but I went to school yesterday and asked my Geography teacher, Mr. Billson, if he ever heard of it and he chuckled to himself and said Summerland wasn’t a place on a map, but a peaceful place old people go to when they get really sick to relax and feel better. Maybe that means it’s in outer space or something, because how could Fluffy be going somewhere that don’t exist on a map. That doesn’t make sens...

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$50

Prize money

172

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Oct 18, 2019 EST

Won by Lee Witkowski 🏆

Title: The Tree

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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