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#138 Days in the Sun

If you live in the Northern hemisphere, now’s that time of the year when the days begin to feel a little longer. The start of Spring means you can look forward to afternoon picnics in the park, long walks while the sun is still up, and days that feel endless — like you have more time on your hands, even though that’s not technically true.

Celebrating this turn of the season, this week’s prompts take inspiration from these longer and sunnier days.

🥇 Winner

After the Rock

Christopher Kelley

Winner of Contest #138 🏆

Humans can transform from solid to spirit in about half a second. I just found this out. Just a half-second ago. I might be shocked if I weren’t so dead. “Huh,” is all I have to say about it. “Yep,” my wife agrees, equally shockless. She is standing beside me along the sun-baked shoulder of a two-lane country highway, and we are both staring down into the drainage ditch. At the bottom are scattered piles of junk — a nasty trail of breadcrumbs — all leading to a battered tomb. The tomb used to be a car. For a while, it was our car...

269 likes

163 comments 163

⭐️ Shortlisted

Homewrecker

Deidra Whitt Lovegren

Shortlisted for Contest #138 ⭐️

“No, she isn’t my daughter,” he corrects a colleague. “She’s my wife.”On cue, I beam at my husband, innocent and doe-eyed—like I did in my 20’s when he was in his 40’s. His friend invariably elbows him, making comments about cradle robbing and spring chickens. We laugh. I say something clever in reply. His companion looks surprised. And she’s witty, too?My cheeks hurt in an attempt to hold a smile. They continue to talk like I’m not there, but my husband reaches out for my hand. Above all, we are the dearest of friends. But in publ...

123 likes

130 comments 130

Where Light Has No Purchase

Glen Gabel

Shortlisted for Contest #138 ⭐️

CW: substance abuse, abuse“Dad taught me some sign language at five, but I learned to fear my father when I was seven. Tangled blonde hair pressed to my arm, covering my face. My hand retreating from my backside, the welt of a belt mark stained red across my knuckles. Begging, screaming for my mother to come out of the bathroom, to rescue me. But she was hiding in the shower, he had already educated her on when to get involved. Now, it was my turn. I had encouraged Ziggy, our cocker-spaniel with one blind eye, to race through the room, acros...

40 likes

Latitude Sixty-Nine

Shortlisted for Contest #138 ⭐️

On March 5, 2022, a research expedition’s remote submersible spotted the wreck of HMS Endurance, sitting intact ten thousand feet below the surface of the Weddell Sea. The ship has rested there since November 21, 1915, when, after months of being trapped in pack ice, she crumpled from the pressure and sank. The history of the ship and the failed attempt of Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew to make the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent are well known, as all twenty-eight members of the expedition overcame improbable odds and sur...

29 likes

This week's prompts

Set your story on a day when the sun never sets.

Dark – 26 stories

Write a story about an afternoon picnic gone wrong.

Fluff – 37 stories

Write about a character who doesn’t want to go to sleep.

Horror – 51 stories

End your story with someone saying: “What a day.”

Summer – 40 stories

Write about light returning to a place that has been deprived of it for a long time, literally or figuratively.

Christmas – 89 stories

Stories

After the Rock

Christopher Kelley

Winner of Contest #138 🏆

Humans can transform from solid to spirit in about half a second. I just found this out. Just a half-second ago. I might be shocked if I weren’t so dead. “Huh,” is all I have to say about it. “Yep,” my wife agrees, equally shockless. She is standing beside me along the sun-baked shoulder of a two-lane country highway, and we are both staring down into the drainage ditch. At the bottom are scattered piles of junk — a nasty trail of breadcrumbs — all leading to a battered tomb. The tomb used to be a car. For a while, it was our car...

269 likes

163 comments 163

Homewrecker

Deidra Whitt Lovegren

Shortlisted for Contest #138 ⭐️

“No, she isn’t my daughter,” he corrects a colleague. “She’s my wife.”On cue, I beam at my husband, innocent and doe-eyed—like I did in my 20’s when he was in his 40’s. His friend invariably elbows him, making comments about cradle robbing and spring chickens. We laugh. I say something clever in reply. His companion looks surprised. And she’s witty, too?My cheeks hurt in an attempt to hold a smile. They continue to talk like I’m not there, but my husband reaches out for my hand. Above all, we are the dearest of friends. But in publ...

123 likes

130 comments 130

The Midnight Swimmers

Submitted to Contest #138

It was midafternoon when the local police patrol found me shivering in my swimwear on the shoreline. My weary carcass was covered with abrasions; I had dried blood matted in my hair and fingers wrinkled like anaemic prunes. “He looks rougher than road kill,” the first officer joked, wrapping a heat reflective blanket around me, as if he was covering burnt barbecue scraps in tinfoil.The second officer offers me a plastic bottle. “This’ll help you, sir.”“No, it’s too late...” I whisper.“Suit yourself, sir,” he says, “I was—-““She was with...

55 likes

The Pest Cowboy

Submitted to Contest #138

“Here kitty, kitty, kitty,” Norman breathed to the wide-eyed racoon gaping at him from across the crawl space. “Daddy’s not gonna hurt ya,” he muttered calmly as he army-crawled towards the creature, hoping it was not rabid. He’d had one rabies scare in his nineteen years of pest management. He didn’t want to have to go to the ER today to deal with a coon bite; it was 75-degrees out and he wanted to go fishing when he got off work. The racoon rubbed its paws over its eyes anxiously, darting its little beady orbs back and forth. “Don’t hu...

46 likes

Potato Salad

Story Time

Submitted to Contest #138

They didn’t even bring potato salad. A picnic with no potato salad. I mean, what is the point, Grace? I ask you-- What is the point? I know, I know-- Take what you can get. When you’re an ant-- Mark says we’re bugs, but I disagree. There is a difference between an ant and a bug, and if you’ve ever spent time with a ladybug, you understand the difference. The point is, we take what we can get. That being said, there are certain expectations you have when you’re at a picnic. Nobody tries anymore. That’s the difficulty...

44 likes

The Best Years of Our Lives

Zack Powell

Submitted to Contest #138

Friends, faculty, alumni, and fellow classmates, good afternoon and thank you all for coming to my TED talk. Only kidding. Just a little valedictorian's joke to kick things off before we all disperse into the world to work at high-paying prestigious institutions like McDonald's, or, if we're lucky, Starbucks. That's also a joke, mostly. Peter Springer, if you're listening, I'll have two Big Macs and a venti cold brew.But seriously, thanks for coming out today. It means a lot to me. You all, of course, had no choice in the matter if you want ...

43 likes

Where Light Has No Purchase

Glen Gabel

Shortlisted for Contest #138 ⭐️

CW: substance abuse, abuse“Dad taught me some sign language at five, but I learned to fear my father when I was seven. Tangled blonde hair pressed to my arm, covering my face. My hand retreating from my backside, the welt of a belt mark stained red across my knuckles. Begging, screaming for my mother to come out of the bathroom, to rescue me. But she was hiding in the shower, he had already educated her on when to get involved. Now, it was my turn. I had encouraged Ziggy, our cocker-spaniel with one blind eye, to race through the room, acros...

40 likes

Perseverance

Palak Shah

Submitted to Contest #138

“What a sunny day! Let’s go on a walk.” The hairs on Mike’s neck stood up, delighted by this thought. His soft contentment radiated into the surroundings, making his dog’s bright eyes light upon a full-beam tail in a propeller spin. Bouncer had been with Mike for a decade. Having each other made them determined to add meaning to their lives. They knew each other like the back of their hand; they were family. Bouncer kept Mike going in his challenging times, as she was his anchor for innocence and kept him persevering during his many hard...

37 likes

116 comments 116

Say Goodbye at Sunrise

Alexandra Rodriguez

Submitted to Contest #138

I have never seen the sun. When I say that, I mean it literally. Not as some dramatic statement about how depressed I am or a metaphor for how I’ve never had a good day in my life. I mean I have literally never seen the sun. You’d think it’s a miserable existence. Never feeling the warmth of a warm summer's day, never laying down on a beach to get gorgeously tan, never being blinded by pure light. At least that’s what I’ve been told it’s like. Light and warmth and tan mean nothing to me. After all, I’ve never experienced them. I’ve heard...

31 likes

Matchstick

Submitted to Contest #138

“Piss off Jeffrey,” Machi yelled, half laughing, as he slammed the front door to his villa behind him. He felt hot and sweaty. A vein throbbed in his neck to the tune of his racing pulse. “A cold drink,” he thought, as he used his phone to set the thermostat for his zone to 66 degrees. The lighting shifted to a Caribbean blue tone with another couple taps. Mars, by Holst, builded quietly in the background as his heels clicked across black, glossy tiles. He hummed the drum beat as he rushed to his black and gold, Rococo style, bar. Machi fe...

30 likes

Last Light

Michał Przywara

Submitted to Contest #138

Melancholia never saw Hex coming as she ran down the community centre hallway. He slammed into her with enough force to send her bodily into the peeling brick wall, a blow strong enough to break a normal person’s bones. She bounced off the wall and recovered almost immediately, drawing herself up with a snarl. “What the hell, Hex–” “–shhh!–” Hex hissed at her. His wide eyes darted left and right. “–I swear I’m going to tear you in half–” “–please, Mel! Just shut up and listen for a moment!” She bared her teeth, but her features softened when...

29 likes

Latitude Sixty-Nine

Shortlisted for Contest #138 ⭐️

On March 5, 2022, a research expedition’s remote submersible spotted the wreck of HMS Endurance, sitting intact ten thousand feet below the surface of the Weddell Sea. The ship has rested there since November 21, 1915, when, after months of being trapped in pack ice, she crumpled from the pressure and sank. The history of the ship and the failed attempt of Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew to make the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent are well known, as all twenty-eight members of the expedition overcame improbable odds and sur...

29 likes

The Lost Light

Brendan Sanders

Submitted to Contest #138

The smell of ash riddled the cave, lights fading as the torches were snuffed out. This world is not my own, I don’t know how long it’s been since I ended up here, but I’m beginning to lose hope of ever returning to my own world. The sun is bright today, the streets are busy and full of people shopping, running late to work, delivering food. Of course Japan is always busy, no matter which part of the country you go to, everyone is either working or planning to...

24 likes

Sunrise in the East

Ari Jackson

Submitted to Contest #138

Daddy said the sun stopped burning when the baby died. Momma said it rises in the East. Daddy says when a boy sees death for the first time, it makes them a man, no matter what. He said words like heartache and pain, and explained they’re devils who come to collect the best of you when you meet loss, and you’ve gotta fight them till forever to get just a little bit of the good back. He said most people lose, while others pretend to have won, when really they just changed convincingly enough to make believe they’re back to normal, when real...

23 likes

The Warrior

Marcus N

Submitted to Contest #138

NOTE: This story and the characters in it are fictional. As are their thoughts, and their findings. HOWEVER, the threats to indigenous land by the Brazilian government are very much real. As is the suffering of the Awá people and the suffering of other indigenous peoples of the Amazon at the hands of illegal loggers.Night had fallen on the Amazon Rainforest.In a small clearing two days away from the nearest city, a seventeen-year old boy lay awake, staring up at the starry sky above. The other inhabitants of the clearing - sixty of them, the...

23 likes

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Contest #139

This contest has ended. Thank you for your submissions.

$250

Prize money

243

Entries

152

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Mar 25, 2022 EST

Won by Christopher Kelley 🏆

Title: After the Rock

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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