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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.

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 – 54 stories

Stories

“A Giantess of One's Own” by Aborigen GTS

Submitted to Contest #137

Dr. Piccoli monitored her. Months ago the excitement had leveled out, and he was able to check the dials and read the printouts without trembling hands. Now his agitation and anticipation were rechanneled into something like professional pride. “Benino, the triglycerides.” A young man kicked the floor, rode his rolling chair over to another console. “Accelerating but proportional, borchia. As always.” “Pressure?” “She’s pumping like a fireplug without a sign of relent. Totally sustainable.” “Very good. Nigi?” “Beta-somatotropins ar...

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“Lead the Way” by Allie Weiss

Submitted to Contest #137

Lead the Way Allie Weiss I stumble into my apartment with bleary eyes and someone else’s cigarette smoke in my hair. All I want now is an Aspirin, a hot bath, and a one-eyed ferret named Accordion. Unfortunately, my monocular roommate is nowhere to be found. After checking his usual haunts – the laundry basket, the kitchen sink, and the 10,000-milliliter beaker I keep for emergencies – I deduce that he must be off plotting his rev...

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“ A Man or god” by Lee-Anne Lenore Archibald

Submitted to Contest #137

I walked on a path of light and darkness. In front of me was a learning place. It told of all these different kinds of God's. Which one was right? Was I a God? Was God, God? Was a better man, than me, a God? Were there many God's, before? Was all of man his self, a God? Would this life time, be enough time, to learn all of these things? If God exists, surely he would make sure we knew of Him, before we left this place. Would He send us, to the next place, and let us know after, this life? Maybe, there would be many, many, places that we woul...

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“My Sweet Brother” by Christopher Vaughter

Submitted to Contest #137

My Sweet Brother Tomorrow is Sunday. Tomorrow I am scheduled to die. But, not today. Today is Saturday. Today, I will race. Today, I will be free for the first time in nearly twenty-three years. I am about to run in the biggest marathon in the country and I owe it all to my big brother, Albert. I love running. Since I was old enough to walk, all I did was run. I ran all over the house, from room to room. I ran to and from my school. Three blocks! I ran on the playground, the sidewalks, the old dirt road behind our church, and ...

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“Green Beans” by Julia Stratton

Submitted to Contest #137

“Alas, I have found the neural mechanism responsible for loneliness!” exclaims professor Salone. “Now we will be able to create a pill to cure people of the agony of their isolation.”Satisfied with the progress he had made for the day, professor Salone puts away his microscope, hangs up his lab coat, and packs up his things. With one last look at his antiseptically clean workspace, he leaves the lab and heads to his car.Professor Salone turns the key in the ignition and puts on the radio. “Why are all these songs about love?” he thinks to hi...

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“The Life's Work of a Botanist” by Madelyn Tomson

Submitted to Contest #137

There was nothing more unsettling than a quiet room, so the only logical way to solve that would be to blast sea shanties through the speakers of the greenhouse. That’s at least what Yolani thought as she swung her hips to the beat, writing quickly on her clipboard. Her newest pet project had just grown an identical twin out of its stem and they were now not only growing in tandem, they seemed to be locked in a competition. Whenever one would grow an inch, the other would grow two. When one began to sprout a new leaf, the other would change ...

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“The Secret of Doctor Thatcher” by Jennifer Bukowiec

Submitted to Contest #137

]Dr. Thatcher clutched her medical bag to her chest and surveyed the scene in front of her. They were all dead, of that she had not doubt, but one question swirled in her mind. Was there anything here she could use? When she first saw the abandoned warehouse, she thought she struck gold. It was the perfect placed to hide from the medical board and the marshals until she caught a train to the west coast and found a more open-minded city to continue her research. The people here were too feeble minded and unimaginative to understand and apprec...

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“How to build a time machine” by Nemira Alexis

Submitted to Contest #137

Ordinary people who lack imagination can't understand what a great idea is. They don't only can't think outside the box, they are trapped in a small, dusty box. And they expect the others to stay trapped as well. That's why geniuses were always considered crazy because no one believes something world-changing can be invented until that actually happens. I can't blame them though, some things seem so difficult to achieve you can only dream about it unless someone like me enters the game and prove fantasy can become our reality. But it's painf...

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“In The Clouds” by Kelly Porter

Submitted to Contest #137

Strange and unusual. My father once used those words to describe his career as a meteorologist. Some people are surprised to discover meteorology is regarded as a science, and for that, I blame The Weather Channel. Because, hey. Do smart scientific-minded people willingly go into places others have been told to evacuate? Crazy people perhaps, but scientists? Dad wasn’t a television personality broadcasting from a fancy studio or one of those aforementioned “crazies,” the ones who smile-talk while being hammered by hurricane-force wi...

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“The Perfect Candidate” by Helen Webster

Submitted to Contest #137

The Perfect Candidate It was only a smile, but even the most insignificant of gesture was everything to Alma Blackmore. She had never known kindness and quite often mistook simple polite interactions as being signs of keen interest from a possible suitor. Brazen as always, Alma wouldn’t waste a chance that he might be the one. She had nothing to lose, since her conception, life had been against her, a newborn dumped in the streets like trash. Her early years spent being mistreated at orphanages and then she found herself back on the ...

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“ Name: Tokyo Michelle "Einstein" Johnson-Tanaka” by Jonathan Tam

Submitted to Contest #137

Tokyo was her father’s idea. It was where her parents met. Her father was a tailor in the city and her mother was a pilot at the Yokota Airbase. At a party of mutual acquaintances, their eyes met from across the room and couldn’t stay off each other ever since. The words that they wanted to say to each other didn’t always exist in their tongues, but they could always find them in each other’s eyes. Pain. Doubt. Joy. And truth. It was how he knew long before she told him that she would eventually be leaving Tokyo. Her eyes showed how much it ...

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“We're Going to Get Out of This Alive” by S.M. Brown

Submitted to Contest #137

“You know, I’ve always wanted to die in a literal dump with some random people I just met. Lucky me,” Lovett drawls from where he’s sprawled over a tire twice his size. He’s lazily tossing an empty plastic bottle in his hands and looking up past the endless mounds of trash to the darkening sky above.“I mean, what’re the odds? I’d play the lottery if I wasn’t going to get brutally devoured by a giant, mutant cockroach-rat-thing in a few hours.”“Could you please stop complaining and maybe get back up?" Theia says exasperated, brows pinched. "W...

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“A Love Lost” by Rebecca Stack

Submitted to Contest #137

Life is a struggle, especially with this Simon shaped hole in her heart. `God, how she misses him’, she dreams of him often and wakes all upset realizing she has to let him go all over again. They’re dreams she doesn’t want to wake from as she never wanted to let him go in the first place. They were pulled apart before she was ready to leave; they have unfinished business. Her heart constantly feels as though it’s weeping. It’s yearned for him ever since that last day they said goodbye to each other at the train station. ...

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“Regrets” by Jacob Herndon

Submitted to Contest #137

“Do you have any regrets?” I glanced away from the TV and down at Abigail, who was currently wrapped around my body. She was staring at me intently, tracing her finger along my chest and making obscure shapes. Memories came rushing to the forefront of my thoughts, but I shook them away. “Nope. None I can think of.” She smiled and rolled her eyes before pulling herself on top of me, and spoke with a flirtatious tone, “Not one?” I stared at her and the memories that had come before returned and I let them play. It was a thousand miles away, y...

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“Is It Really Never Too Late?” by Ron Merkin

Submitted to Contest #137

Is It Really Never Too Late? By Ron Merkin Sexual attraction was out of the question. She was old enough to be his grandmother. But at some point during his fourth or fifth singing lesson a lump formed in Mike’s throat. Struggling by the seventh week to convince himself that the impulse he felt couldn't be romantic- it must only be fondness, admiration, even gratitude for the progress her lessons were bringing him - the need to unburden himself while running through vocal exercises and tackling operatic arias became so intense that the ...

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$250

Prize money

217

Contest entries

116

Stories

Ended on 00:59 - Mar 19, 2022 EST

Won by Story Time 🏆

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.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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