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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#137: Albert Einstein

On March 14th, 1879 one of the greatest physicists of all time was born. Of course, Einstein is known for his theory of relativity and his Nobel Prize. But Einstein lived a full (and often dramatic) life outside of the world of physics.

He fell in love with a professor’s daughter while at school, and years later — while married to another woman — confessed his love for her, and the mistake he made not courting her when he had the chance. In 1933, he emigrated to the United States, knowing he’d not be able to return to Germany while Hitler was in power — he and his family were Jewish. After Einstein legally renounced his German citizenship, his Berlin cottage was turned into a Hitler’s Youth camp.

In light of his upcoming birthday, this week’s prompts are a reflection on the complex and storied life of this remarkable man.

🥇 Winner

“The Boy in the Pink Tuxedo” by Kevin B

I met the love of my life at someone else’s prom.He wasn’t my date.My date was a lovely young woman whose name I can’t remember. What I do remember is that her dress was blue the way Southern debutantes in movies always wear blue dresses. At least from the movies I’ve seen. It was blue, but not puffy, and I was grateful for that. I’m resistant to puffy. Puffy and poofy. I can’t tolerate either.We attended her senior prom together, because her boyfriend had just broken up with her the w...

247 comments 247 WINNER 🏆

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⭐️ Shortlisted

“Guava” by Kaiomi Inniss

Dear daughter, The day my mother died, I was relieved. I sat in her living room, watching the guavas fall from the tree, rotting in the grass, oozing that sweet juice. Flies swarming over the bruised green fruit, the pungent guava scent wafting through the house. I closed the window.

19 comments 19 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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“Doctor Robot” by Daphne Chou

You used to have to study to become a doctor. As a human, that is. People sat hunched in libraries for weeks on end, suffered through apprenticeships, lived unshowered in hospital call rooms, drifting from ward to ward. Not anymore. The People’s Consortium (PeopleCon, the humans say with irony) replaced physicians with Eurocentric-accented (British preferred) AI. We don’t mind the terribly long silences while patients fish for their words, and have immense processing chips to efficiently diagnose and tr...

25 comments 25 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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“Ouroboros” by Kelsey H

Ava parked in the dark space between streetlights, under the shadow of a tree. She looked across the road at her sister’s house and saw the light spilling from the bare kitchen window, casting a ghostly rectangle across the lawn.“Just act like everything is normal,” she’d said to Annemarie. “Make him something nice for dinner and crush a sleeping pill into it. Make sure he has a whiskey with it.”Don’t you remember, she could have added.She left the ignition running and the vap...

27 comments 27 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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“The Summoning and the Sacrifice” by Sydney Moses

Mina Montgomery - 35 Chestnut St, The Eldervai Lab August 31, 1989 Sam and Kate Montgomery 51 Pine Avenue Doortree City, Wisconsin 54101 Dearest Mom and Dad,

21 comments 21 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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This week's prompts

Write a story about a scientist.

Science Fiction – 40 stories

Write about a character who gets called an Einstein ironically.

Middle School – 18 stories

Write a story about somebody in love with someone from their past.

Romance – 79 stories

Write a story about a character forced to give up something important to stand up for what they believe in.

Character – 26 stories

Write a story about someone forced out of their home.

Narrative – 56 stories

Stories

“The Boy in the Pink Tuxedo” by Kevin B

I met the love of my life at someone else’s prom.He wasn’t my date.My date was a lovely young woman whose name I can’t remember. What I do remember is that her dress was blue the way Southern debutantes in movies always wear blue dresses. At least from the movies I’ve seen. It was blue, but not puffy, and I was grateful for that. I’m resistant to puffy. Puffy and poofy. I can’t tolerate either.We attended her senior prom together, because her boyfriend had just broken up with her the w...

247 comments 247 WINNER 🏆

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“within the fires” by Alex Sultan

If I remember the date right, it was early September. I think it was the ninth. It’s hard to tell—I didn’t feel like myself back then. I would often lose track of time. On that day, word came to me that we lost the war. I was walking alongside a cart of debris through the remains of our town, and two women spoke as if they were disappointed. The great empire of Japan had surrendered. Two of our cities were destroyed. Reduced to ash and rubble. Even then, I could only thin...

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“Spider Silk” by Deidra Whitt Lovegren

“Where’s Papa going with that ax?” My sister Lizz holds up the book she is reading to her 3rd grade science class. The eight-year-old students go wide-eyed at seeing a picture of little Fern attempting to wrestle away an ax from her father. He has planned to kill a newborn pig, the runt of the litter. Holy shit, I think. Charlotte's Web is brutal. I remember loving the book from my childhood, but now, as an adult? I had forgotten how unsparing E.B. White is with his charming tale about a pig and a...

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“Remember Me ” by Mia Harlan

I'm on my hands and knees, crawling across the front lawn of Eliza Prep. My new high school has mandatory uniforms, and I'm wearing one of their uncomfortably short skirts. My bare knees sting. All I really want is to get up, go home, and cry. But I'm way too freaked out—way too desperate—to stop."Are you bleeding?" His voice makes my heart leap. It's so familiar, and yet so achingly different after the five years we've spent apart. I revel in its deep timbre, savoring this moment that I've been dreaming of since I first...

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“Guava” by Kaiomi Inniss

Dear daughter, The day my mother died, I was relieved. I sat in her living room, watching the guavas fall from the tree, rotting in the grass, oozing that sweet juice. Flies swarming over the bruised green fruit, the pungent guava scent wafting through the house. I closed the window.

19 comments 19 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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“The Hate They Gave” by Kathleen Fine

“We’ve called you in here today to discuss the concerns that numerous parents have voiced over the past few weeks,” Scott said calmly to Nadia as he crossed one leg over the other. Nadia glanced at Scott, the head of Trinity Lincoln School, and then looked at the other members of the board in front of her. They were all coincidentally white, leaving Nadia as the sole, brown-skinned person in the room. Nadia couldn’t hel...

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“Broken Country, Broken Family” by Hen Neralany

I’m flipping through my binder. Going back in time and moving forward slowly as I skim through elaborately written notes and post-its. I’m not using my phone today because I want to save the battery for emergencies. I stop at the last entry I have written, a small reminder I have written for myself at the bottom of a very cramped but organized page.Reminder: SCIENCE QUIZ BEE ON FEBRUARY 24 AT 4 PM!! Remind mama to drive you on her way to the barber with Alex. Good luck!!!I hear my br...

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“Not Some Juliet” by Alexandra Rodriguez

[Warning, contains mention of death of a loved one.]I stood staring at the sea foam green doors. The sea of students maneuvered around me like the flow of a river breaks to a jagged rock in its current. There is no way I can do this.I took a deep breath, C'mon, I thought, You have to do it. For him. He would have wanted you to carry on.Yet as I willed my feet to move, I remained stuck in place. It was here, I remembered, that we had hung out for the first time. We wou...

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“Doctor Robot” by Daphne Chou

You used to have to study to become a doctor. As a human, that is. People sat hunched in libraries for weeks on end, suffered through apprenticeships, lived unshowered in hospital call rooms, drifting from ward to ward. Not anymore. The People’s Consortium (PeopleCon, the humans say with irony) replaced physicians with Eurocentric-accented (British preferred) AI. We don’t mind the terribly long silences while patients fish for their words, and have immense processing chips to efficiently diagnose and tr...

25 comments 25 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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“Oh, the Places I’d Go! (If I could Find my Keys)” by Sharon Hancock

I took my meds this morning. (She says, confidently). Wait…I mean…Did I take my meds this morning? I think I took my meds. Didn’t I? Yes. Was that this morning or yesterday morning? (She stares off into space and forgets what she was saying.) My brain says it wants to look at Disney World vacations instead of writing this. It’s cold in here. I’m hungry. I wish those meds would kick in so I can focus. This i...

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“Past Isn't Prologue” by Christina Reynolds

In her whole life, Alison had never done a dishonorable thing. She never walked the path less taken—never gave in to her selfish desires until now. To be clear she wasn’t sleeping with another man—that was still a bridge too far—but her heart longed for a distant memory, a love from her past. As is usually the case, the emotional affair started slowly, almost without her noticing it.She allowed that familiar person back into her heart as the passion she felt for her long lost love was a force irresistible. Each night she crawled in...

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“A Soldier's Story” by Thom Brodkin

The first time I saw Schmidt was my first day of basic training. We were transported in “cattle cars” to our new home away from home in Fort Benning, Georgia. When the doors opened, there were what seemed like an infinite number of drill sergeants—although in reality, there were only eight. They greeted us using names many of us had never heard before. We were “maggots” and “shitheads” and “faggots.” We were all devastatingly scared—all of us that is, except for Schmidt. It seemed that no matter how much the dr...

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“The Sound” by Brendan Sanders

There it was, that awful screeching. Has it been two hours already? I must have dozed off, understandable since I don’t sleep much these days. I sit up from my chair. I put the fire out and close the chimney. I move sluggish through the empty dark corridors of the mansion. I’m not even looking where I walk as I’ve done this over and over again, once every two hours for as long as I could remember. Searching for the screeching. It only lasts three min...

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“Ouroboros” by Kelsey H

Ava parked in the dark space between streetlights, under the shadow of a tree. She looked across the road at her sister’s house and saw the light spilling from the bare kitchen window, casting a ghostly rectangle across the lawn.“Just act like everything is normal,” she’d said to Annemarie. “Make him something nice for dinner and crush a sleeping pill into it. Make sure he has a whiskey with it.”Don’t you remember, she could have added.She left the ignition running and the vap...

27 comments 27 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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“Breakthrough” by Graham Kinross

The first thing I saw in the drone feed was the gun in his hand. The first thing I heard was the sound of screaming around him. Behind him were the glass walls of offices. His face was colder than the glass. His blue eyes were artic ice in the dead of winter. His smile was murder with a capital M. “Jake? Where are you?” ...

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$250

Prize money

219

Contest entries

120

Stories

Ended on 00:59 - Mar 19, 2022 EST

Won by Kevin B 🏆

Title: The Boy in the Pink Tuxedo

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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