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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#110: Hit the Road, Jack

On September 5th, 1957, Jack Kerouac published On the Road — a hugely influential novel, swelling with jazz, heat, and Americana, that follows free-spirited mavericks Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty on their travels across the States. To celebrate its 64th anniversary, this week’s prompts all take place on the long and winding road (or right next to it). Safe travels!

This week's prompts

Set your story in a roadside diner.

Dystopian – 59 stories

Write about a couple who fall out on the road.

Valentine's Day – 16 stories

Start your story with a vehicle pulling over for a hitchhiker.

Horror – 47 stories

Write about a character on the road — and on the run.

Adventure – 40 stories

Start your story with the line “We have plenty of time,” and/or end it with the line “We were never going to make it.”

Angst – 47 stories

Stories

“Fraud and the Samaritan” by Jay Hurst

Submitted to Contest #110

He stank. Late June in Virginia, minutes before an afternoon boomer, and the yellowish veil of humidity made everything damp. Dark, clammy rings hung under his arms. The navy oxford’s shoulders and back were also soaked, under the carry-ons’ straps, and splots of mustard and coffee squawked from his breast pocket. His hand-me-down jeans, six inches too small just seven months ago, clung to his chafing legs. And his heels were bleeding from those goddamned Doc Martin’s – comfortable shoes my ass. At least he’d made ti...

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“Ride” by Gordon Smith

Submitted to Contest #110

Ride It was the rain that caused the whole thing. It was coming in sideways, hard. The wipers on Clay's Civic were new, but they couldn't keep up with that driving, sideways rain. The cold, and the God damned rain had triggered Clay's sympathetic soul when he saw a figure holding a sign, just inside of an overpass, while heading west on I-20. Well honestly, it was the January deluge, and guilty that guided Clay's hand that morning. Clay had just screamed at his mother and father, and stormed out of his childhood home, in the mids...

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“The Hitchiker” by Alex Holub

Submitted to Contest #110

The Hitchhiker A 1987 red Cobra convertible, with its top-down, slides to a stop in the loose gravel alongside the highway. Brady looks back and sees a man with long black hair held back with a red cloth headband standing next to the road. Brady seldom picks up hitchhikers, but the drive from Tucson has been long and monotonous, and the man is the first person Brady's seen since leaving the workshop. Why the hell did he listen to Josh? "There's a shortcut that'll save you twenty miles," Josh said. "It's called Highway 66. It used to be the m...

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“Good Women Can be Hard to Find” by Kieri Zink

Submitted to Contest #110

I hit the break a bit too hard and the car lurched forward before and backward before coming to a stop. I rolled down my window to give the man an opportunity to approach. He kept his eyes down as he approached my car. Another hitchhiker I thought, this should be fun. “Thanks for stopping miss,” he said. “I’m headed to Westwood, the South Avenue area. Can you…?” “Sure,” I said. I unlocked the car. He swung his khaki colored backpack across the back se...

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“I Don't Recommend Picking Up Hitchhikers.” by Izzi B

Submitted to Contest #110

I don't recommend picking up hitchhikers. Just for future reference. It was a pretty sunny day. I had decided to go to the beach, which I hadn't done in awhile. I left after an hour because it started to get cloudy and chilly, and I grew bored. I live in a relatively secluded town, with a lot of water and tons of trees. A lot of the roads have proud trees surrounding the sides. I drove down one of those roads, going nowhere in particular, finding new paths since I didn't have anything else to do that day. Driving slowly, looking at some ho...

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“Summer Breeze” by Kerry Williams

Submitted to Contest #110

We’re passing through Airlie Beach when we notice her. A young woman who looks to be in her early 20s stands at the side of the road with her thumb out a few metres ahead of us. Her waist-length brunette hair is fashioned into dreadlocks. She has dirt on her face, and she wears a pair of torn floral shorts, a vest, and a baseball cap. She does not wear shoes yet her feet, like many other parts of her body, are covered in tattoos. My mother would have called her a hick, or a bogan, or a hippie. My mother likes to remind us how lucky we are th...

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“Traveling man” by Mark Roberts

Submitted to Contest #110

Traveling Man 1989The man is dog tired and looking haggard having driven for over six hours....

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“Anti-Vaxxer” by C.w. Kemp

Submitted to Contest #110

CW: gun violence, murderAnti-VaxxerBy B. B. KempCopyright 2021It’s not like I went out an’ asked for this shit-storm, but here I am, my thumb stuck out tryin’ to hitch a ride with less than a hundred bucks in my pocket. Why did I leave everything behind and go on the road? It had to do with a woman, but don’t go an’ get excited, there was no romance involved. Sometimes, if a man is pushed too far, he has no other choice but to take drastic action. Didn’t Cain slew Able over who’d wear the hair shirt? Standing here on the side of the road, wh...

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“Chicken Nuggets” by Evan Przesiecki

Submitted to Contest #110

Yes’m. Ol’ Grandmammy Lou used to always say right then in that pretty little knitted saffron shawl of hers, “That boy wouldn’t do no harm to nothin.’” Sweet and precious grace, Granny Lou. The most honest, heartfelt soul in Dixie. I cross myself: Father, Son and Holy Ghost and — oh, heck. I wipe my hand across the steering wheel and there’s still a smear of sweat. You didn’t do no nothin’ wrong. You’re a good boy, an awfully good one. Ain’t no one and anything on this here road to tell you otherwise. Just dirt and trees, a...

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“Joyride” by Vaibhav Sharma

Submitted to Contest #110

Despite the pouring rain, he kept the window down of his recently acquired BMW 5 Series. He would’ve struggled to explain it, but even the rain felt different from the insides of this dream of a machine. He caressed the steering wheel with motherly affection, enjoying the night and revelling in his latest triumph. Cruising effortlessly in the night, it seemed incredible to him how only yesterday he was wondering if he was too old for this game. Right now, his joy left no room for doubt in a car meant for five. He’d been doing this for abou...

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“The Place Called Home” by Tori May

Submitted to Contest #110

Scenarios like this stay afloat in Jenna’s mind as inevitable. There’s too much she doesn’t remember; like how she wound up in the driver’s seat of her car with the girl she hates more than anything in the passenger’s side next to her, her best confidant in the back, a thick layer of crisp leather, polyvinyl, glass, and what feels like hundreds of miles rippling between that comforting presence and her brain. Life was always and never fair that way. Always giving her things she thought she did or didn’t want. “Drive. Faster”, The snake nex...

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“The Refugee's Road” by Amalee Bowen

Submitted to Contest #110

My feet hurt. It’s a low dull ache that starts in the soles and burns in my calves and clenches in my back. I try to count the pebbles I kick from the dirt path to distract myself from that ache, but my mind returns to it again and again like a tongue probing the empty space a tooth once sat. I’ve learned that every place has a feeling--the combination of the experience of the senses with the emotions of the heart. This place is the feeling of abrasive sand between my toes despite the fact that I am wearing socks and tennis shoes. Thi...

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“We Ran Out Of TIme” by Hosue Rodriguez

Submitted to Contest #110

“We have plenty of time.” Those words left a bitter taste in my mouth. I said that with a wide smile with a lot of hope for the future. I can gladly say it was years ago when I said them. I had years with them and that was a privilege that I had but the brilliant little boy holding my hands as we waited. It was a cold, sterile waiting room. It was a nightmare, but as real as it could be. If it was a dream, I would wake up from it in an instant and hold him in my arms. I would cry tears of joy and hate him for the ridiculous reason of getting...

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“Grasping the Sun” by Ethan Wagner

Submitted to Contest #110

I remember those days. Sitting out on that hill. Finding some tree to perch ourselves on. Sun setting on the horizon. Bringing with it complexes in the sky of varying hues and intensity. With colors that changed as it set, from vibrant oranges to deep indigos or even a bronze-like color that stretched across those thick white clouds. I’ll always remember your face as we watched them. How content you were. Seeing the relief on those deep brown eyes. They’d glow like bronze in that sun, just like the bronze that colored the clouds. A polish...

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“Love Out There” by Princy K. Writes

Submitted to Contest #110

We have plenty of time.You and me.I, navigating us over winding trails, you silent by my side.My love.Today, I shattered open our memory trunk and overshared with the owl-shaped urn trapping in your free spirit. I spoke about your zealous eagerness to travel on new roads for discovering the unknowns. Burdening our pillows and cushions with tears, I massaged my collapsing chest, eclipsed by the pain of losing you.I read to it the love poem you penned for me:Fall in love soyour fingers caresseyelashes flickercheeks flush red.Fall in love soyou...

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$250

Prize money

209

Contest entries

144

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Sep 10, 2021 EST

Won by JanetthePlanet 66 🏆

Title: My Mother's Dreams.

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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