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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

“Playground Pretend ” by Aubrey Meyers

Submitted to Contest #11

My feet take me back to the small world of my childhood. The gate bent and graffitied and the playground now small and drab. The plank is now a faded green with scratches of hearts of incomprehensible words and drawings. The fireman’s pole is scratched and small. The stairs and bridge you would run up and down sunken in since the last I’ve been here. The rubber tire turf is now torn up and replaced with sand and softer material. The soft material contrast with the playground bullies. The tall roof the older kids would climb and sit on....

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“The Revisit” by Debra Clewer

Submitted to Contest #11

Ruth gazed pensively at the lines on the back of her eighty-five-year-old hands. They stood out like railway lines, the tracks of her life. There had been derailments, rough journeys and times when life needed much trackwork. That’s funny, really, considering that Jim has always loved the railways so much. The last few years in particular had been difficult, especially adjusting to changed circumstances, but today was to be special. James was arriving by ambulance transport to take up residence in the facility. She was a little nervous,...

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“The Bakery” by Fiona Jeeves

Submitted to Contest #11

She isn’t there anymore, the old Bakery. The timber frame was painted black, the panelled walls the faded cream of spilt milk. Layers and layers of ancient paint held the daub together. Maybe it was more paint than anything else. It used to smell sweet. As thought the scent of fresh bread had been baked into the walls. Loaves, cobs, buns and pastries crafted and sold for centuries before the Bakery became a house, a home. Now it’s gone, I can only smell the acrid tinge of smoke and taste it on the back of my tongue.My Aunt moved to the coast...

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“And the Orange was the Earth on Fire” by Eric Von Stroheim

Submitted to Contest #11

Madge was an old woman with not much left to give this world. She was 77, but it felt like, in the past decade, death had—as they say—knocked at her door once or twice. Ever since her daughter moved her into Cupid’s Arrow Nursing Home, Madge felt dead to the world, anyway. Linda hadn't visited in six months. She hadn't called in three. Madge still enjoyed her evenings with a bottle of port. She had always been a drinker, but ever since moving to Cupid’s, it had become almost a nightly habit...

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“The bright colors at the end of the day” by Isabella Apodaca

Submitted to Contest #11

As a child, I never once thought that adulthood would be full of love and heartbreak. But the past few years of adulthood have been full of the two and recently I had experienced the worst heartbreak of my life. Our love had started so quickly only to end just as fast, with just as much passion as there was in our relationship. Every waking moment had been spent together and now it felt as if there was a gaping hole in my chest. She was beautiful but complicated, kind of like poetry, complex and confusing but so enticing. Her bright w...

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“Homecoming” by Tyriek Harper

Submitted to Contest #11

I gaze out the window of the plane as it was parked into the docking gate. I see the same city I’d always seen as a child, the same skyscrapers stretching towards the heavens, the same mountain ranges surrounding the territory painting an almost Van Gogh like beauty to the city. I feel a hint of a smile cross my lips as I listen upon the awed whispers of my fellow passengers looking upon the city’s unmistakable beauty. Despite my mixed emotions to this place, I’d be lying if I said that its outward appearance was unappealing to the eye. T...

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“A Lifetime of Memories in a Moment” by Jeya Maxime

Submitted to Contest #11

As I drive down the road, I think about where I'm heading, and grin. I haven't been to this place in so many years I'd almost forgotten how to find it. Forty minutes later, I pull into the driveway of my grandparents' house. Their house was renovated in 1973 before this area became a city. This house brings back fond memories as I look at it, and I sigh with happiness as I head to the front door. Even the trees are the same, albeit taller. I smile as I see the last remaining flowers of my grandma's garden struggling to stay alive despite it ...

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“Small Falls ” by Toni Blackburn

Submitted to Contest #11

I remember the laughter that rang throughout the walls of the swimming hole. A little secret place my friends and I went to each summer right up until the leaves started falling down around us, warning us that it was no longer the season to be swimming outdoors. In a little county in Maine called Franklin County, sat a swimming hole known as Small Falls. My friends, Billy, Jane, Derek, Lokas, and I spent almost every waking hour of our fifth-grade summer there. It was the summer of 1989 and it was the best summer of my life. Splashing ...

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“What Happened on the Farm” by Steph Marini

Submitted to Contest #11

Elena steps onto the dry grass from the old driveway. What was once a path for cars and tractors is now overgrown with patches of grass and weeds. Mother Nature, slowly taking back what was hers and erasing evidence of the entrance to the farm. Elena walks across the lawn. The yellow grass crunching underneath her shoes. The ground is dry, just like that night. She sees the shell of what was once a barn. Slabs of charred wood and rusted panels still holding their ground, surprising her that summer storms have not completely knocked it ...

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“The Garden” by Tal Khaimov

Submitted to Contest #11

Rose keeps the tears at bay, blinking them back as she tries not to relive the way she received the news that had been shared with her the day before: She had just stepped off the stage after receiving her Master's Degree in Environmental Engineering. "I'm sorry," the messenger said.She's in her car on the driveway of her destination. For some reason, she can't let go of the wheel. As if her body wanted to still believe that she was still on the way to this... dump. Or even backing out and driving away. Dread builds within every fiber of her...

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“Kings of Trentonville” by ALLISON FRANCIS

Submitted to Contest #11

"Dad! Dad!" shouted the teenager as she ran to the door of the study. "Clara!" the man called firmly, "What did I say about coming to my study like this?" His hand was pressed against his forehead, emphasizing the beginnings of wrinkles atop his brows. Clara stopped in her tracks, her innocent blue eyes looked down towards her feet, "I know Dad. I am not trying to interrupt you, but I really need to show you this!" She looked up at her father sweetly and turned on the charm that usually got what she wanted. Her father sighed, they had just ...

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“Back to the old schoolroom” by A.P. Yates

Submitted to Contest #11

Those cracks in the wood are as familiar as the wrinkles in my own hand. Those dark grooves I stared down at with the wastrel eyes of youth. I always wanted to etch my mark into them with my nails, grimy and chewed. Now polished and manicured, I have left every mark I ever will in this world, and the backs of my hands reveal a slight arthritic bent. I remember holding the fountain pen with the wrong hand, ink carving its way through the grooves in my skin. I tried to look as normal as the right-handed boys, lifting my hand slightly from...

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“The Lost and The Found” by Dorian Priest

Submitted to Contest #11

The Lost and The FoundBy Dorian Priest Although Samuel's phone read 1:30 in the afternoon, the thick canopy of leaves obscured the day's light. Oak twigs and the brush of honeysuckle cracked under his boots. How many years had passed since he'd last enjoyed his once-perfect spot of seclusion? Would it be as he remembered? The only respite of quiet from the din of home. He hoped, no he wished--the first wish in so very long--that the clearing in these woods had not been peopled over. Yes, it would be there; he would finally find peace. Years ...

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“A sense of perspective” by Fran Tracey

Submitted to Contest #11

‘Collect some stuff from my place, would you, love? The key’s in the usual place.’ I’ve been here an hour and already my dad’s dismissing me. His voice is gravelly, barely audible. He pauses for breath. He’s in pain, despite the drip, I’m sure. He closes his eyes and begins speaking again. It’s an effort, I can tell. He’s a sorry figure of a man, my dad. Pathetic, even. His chin nicked and scabbed, from shaving I presume. He wears a hospital gown that’s tied loosely, exposing his collar bone, the skin around it liver-spotted and blue-v...

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“Granny Rosie's Garden” by Laura Todd

Submitted to Contest #11

The colours were all gone but the smells were still the same, even after all of these years. I hadn’t visited Granny Rosie and Grandpa Pym since I was 10, and yet I remembered everything in the garden. I stood on the back steps, taking it all in and picturing it in my mind. Granny Rosie loved her garden. Always out in the sunshine. A sunhat on her head and a trowel in her gloved hand, that's how I remember her. Grandpa Pym much preferred to be inside, reading the newspaper or watching the horse racing. As a child, I loved staying at their ho...

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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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