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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#140: Down Memory Lane

It’s no secret that many writers draw inspiration for their writing from real life, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. In fact, when you’re searching for things to write about, taking a memory of your own and altering it is a reliable way to get out of a bout of writer’s block. 


Memory is an important concept when writing fiction, as it helps connect the past to the present — so this week, let’s take a trip down memory lane.

🥇 Winner

“Old Soul” by Cecilia L. Maddison

Can you hear me?I remember being reborn a thousand times.In the between-times, and at the very start and end of a life, the memories are strong. I remember the warmth of the sun on my crumpled wings as they unfold for one brilliant bright day of flight. I relive the elation of the chase and the sinking of my teeth into the throat of my prey- what a joy it is to satisfy physical hunger. I recall the agony of being prey, because of course, all things must balance out in the end. My heart has pumped cold b...

151 comments 151 WINNER 🏆
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⭐️ Shortlisted

“Moonjars” by Shea West

My horse Echo, idled at the hitching post with her reins looped loosely around it, as she wasn’t the kind of horse that I needed to tie down to keep near. Shotguns were pulled at high noon around these parts and her tail whipped away at pesky flies completely unbothered by the reverberations of the occasional bullet whizzing by her head. Echo was steady and ready the way a marshal’s horse should be.I’d mount the saddle on Echo’s back every nightfall and ride her through the canyon past the giggles that evaporated into th...

55 comments 55 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Two Sides Of The Same Coin” by Dora Acosta

I remember my childhood in bits and pieces, like framed pictures of specific events that exist independently of all the other memories. There was the time I challenged my brother to a foot race down the steps of the rocky hill on the side of my grandfather’s house. My mother warned us to never run down the hill lest we injure ourselves. But that did not thwart us at all. We waited for her to go to work and proceeded with...

35 comments 35 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“The Namesake” by Bek West

I remember the station wagon. The one with the wood paneling on the sides that you used to see a lot back then in the early seventies. It was clunky, always smelled damp, and if you sat in there with shorts on you’d regret it because having three kids (four kids, I mean) means you simply can not avoid the sharp crumbs from stale crackers that get stuck in the upholstery and ultimately return to haunt the back of your ...

7 comments 7 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“How You Remember” by Emory Paine

“I remember…”I scrub harder under the faucet, the metal sponge stinging into my palm. A black something flies into the sink. Char from an old meal? A piece of the electric stove coil?“What do you remember, Mama?”“I remember…”The television lights the person who was my Mama in changing technicolor as ads flow one into another. In the dusklight, all I can see in the frame of the door is her in that chair. She rocks, rocks, watches, and calls out a thing that hits me in my heart every few cycles.I shut the ...

5 comments 5 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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This week's prompts

Start your story with the narrator or a character saying “I remember…”

Angst – 103 stories

Write about a character with an unreliable memory.

Character – 46 stories

End your story with total oblivion.

Horror – 24 stories

Write a story that involves a flashback.

Fiction – 74 stories

Write a story inspired by a memory of yours.

Nonfiction – 94 stories

Stories

“Old Soul” by Cecilia L. Maddison

Can you hear me?I remember being reborn a thousand times.In the between-times, and at the very start and end of a life, the memories are strong. I remember the warmth of the sun on my crumpled wings as they unfold for one brilliant bright day of flight. I relive the elation of the chase and the sinking of my teeth into the throat of my prey- what a joy it is to satisfy physical hunger. I recall the agony of being prey, because of course, all things must balance out in the end. My heart has pumped cold b...

151 comments 151 WINNER 🏆
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“How To Slash A Tire” by Deidra Whitt Lovegren

Step One: Let some air out.“You have to depressurize the tire,” the older boy explains, pulling out his switchblade. With a flick of a button, a two-inch blade appears. My eyes grow wide—I have never seen anything like it. With a vulpine grin, he hands the knife to me to hold. I shake my head. His hair is long, blonde, feathered. He’s wearing a black AC/DC concert t-shirt. I don’t know him very well since he goes to another school, but he’s a friend of Susy Watts. “Why do yo...

73 comments 73
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“Abbott, Costello, and the Island of Cancer Sticks” by Heather Winslow

I remember sitting in the smallest room of Wal-Mart. “Why wouldn’t he look at me?” I growled in my head. Oh well. I guessed I deserved it. I peeled the skin around my thumbnail and a dribble of blood started to pool in the corner of my finger. I had nothing to wipe it with, so I quickly wiped it on my pants. My twelve-year-old stepbrother Will had barely made a sound since we got there. He just looked d...

8 comments 8
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“Cartographer” by Alex Sultan

What is the sky, but dying stars? One step and the next—Valianne moved her feet, keeping in line with the others. A hundred prisoners of war. She breathed heavily as she worked, the hot sun weighing her down. Until nightfall, it’d be labour until exhaustion. Stone after stone until collapse. The fort would be paved on top of corpses. And do burdens not sleep best in their graves? A hand tapped her shoulder. Scrawny fingers and a desperate touch. Valianne ignored it. She continued the work of laying stone, bare feet bu...

30 comments 30
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“Moonjars” by Shea West

My horse Echo, idled at the hitching post with her reins looped loosely around it, as she wasn’t the kind of horse that I needed to tie down to keep near. Shotguns were pulled at high noon around these parts and her tail whipped away at pesky flies completely unbothered by the reverberations of the occasional bullet whizzing by her head. Echo was steady and ready the way a marshal’s horse should be.I’d mount the saddle on Echo’s back every nightfall and ride her through the canyon past the giggles that evaporated into th...

55 comments 55 SHORTLIST ⭐️
Read story

“Two Sides Of The Same Coin” by Dora Acosta

I remember my childhood in bits and pieces, like framed pictures of specific events that exist independently of all the other memories. There was the time I challenged my brother to a foot race down the steps of the rocky hill on the side of my grandfather’s house. My mother warned us to never run down the hill lest we injure ourselves. But that did not thwart us at all. We waited for her to go to work and proceeded with...

35 comments 35 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Flotsam & Jetsam & Lagan & Derelict & The Pets” by Stevie B

I remember his death as if it had occurred only yesterday. Everything pretty much changed in my life the day after my dog killed himself.Months before it happened, and the warning signs were clearly visible, we could see he was not his old tail wagging, tongue lolling, happy-go-lucky self. He was so unhappy. So what did we do? All we did was say things like “Good dog! Good dog! Who’s a good dog?” to him and completely ignored, or just really didn’t want to see, all the obvious symptoms that accompany extreme canine depre...

28 comments 28
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“The Hijacking of Instagram KBJR0719” by Kevin B

When the Bitcoin pirates abducted my Instagram, I was watching a movie on whales. Something about how whales are worse than sharks. A documentary. I found it to be unreliable. A shark is a shark. This must be the work of the shark lobbyists, I thought. As I was creating oceanic conspiracies in my mind, I received a text message from a friend-- “Hey, I think you...

47 comments 47
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“A Wrinkled Heart in Leather” by Christopher Kelley

I remember thinking, Am I being mugged by someone’s great-great-grandmother?She was ancient. Her hands looked so brittle and frail, but they hooked me with the weight of an anchor. I stumbled to catch myself, terrified that I might crash-land and crush this geriatric street pirate. I said, “Whoaaaaaa there, little lady!” like some cartoon cowboy trying to calm a wild horse. “Whoa-ho! Ho! Ho-o-o-o!”Twenty people went by. Some on foot, others in cars. They gawked or laughed or accused me—“Hey, leave...

36 comments 36
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“For Pete's Sake” by Thom Brodkin

I’ll never forget the day I realized my dad was going to die.Young boys know nothing of mortality, certainly not when it comes to their fathers. To most sons, dads are giants among men, strong and fearless. It’s why we rely on them to fight our playground proxy wars. “My dad can beat up your dad!” is often the last salvo of scared boys who don't want to fight—but act as if they do. I had often made the proclamation because if my dad were indestructible then maybe I was too.Most of the life lessons my da...

15 comments 15
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“Egg Casserole for Christmas” by Kathleen Fine

“This was one of the best Christmases I’ve ever had,” Hope said, leaning down to give her mother, Alice, a kiss on her furrowed cheek. Clara smiled and held up her glass of fizzy citrus to cheers her sister. “Merry Christmas,” Clara said as she swallowed a mouthful of her mimosa, spilling a dribble on her fleece, snowflake patterned pajamas. “This was second to the Christmas when we got that amazing Bar...

23 comments 23
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“My Dear Doctor Mortem” by Hannah P. Simmons

“in vita et in mortem… in life as in death” My Dear Doctor Mortem,  I am writing to you on behalf of one of my most difficult cases. I thought perhaps you could help me. Yes, I realize this is highly irregular, given the nature of our individual practices, but I find myself at a loss. My patient is one Leanna Richards, and before you start...

14 comments 14
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“Poor Unfortunate Souls” by Zack Powell

I remember other things about that year too. That was the year I stopped getting an allowance. The year I turned ten and my mother signed me up for Girl Scouts to teach me a lesson. It was the year I had my first kiss. But that's never what people want to talk about. Whenever one of us mentions that year, 1990, twenty-five years ago, we're really talking about Freddie.***Kayla's tenth birthday party came during the middle of May, a day so hot you could taste the promise of the upcoming summer vacation. ...

36 comments 36
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“The Damning Wish” by Riel Rosehill

The early summer sunshine fills our studio flat, brightening the white walls and caressing my arm with its gentle warmth through the velux windows as we sit at the table. Crumpet purrs, sunbathing on the wooden floor and pawing the air behind her favourite person. I remember when he picked her up from the street as a skinny black kitten a couple years ago, despite our landlady’s “no pets” policy. She’d let us keep her, he said. Now, I have to share him with the cat, but it is all I’d ever ask for.The air is swee...

37 comments 37
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“Moses and the Sparrows” by Mary Sheehan

I remember when we were young, we would sneak up to your attic to watch the fields turn to gold. Do you remember that, Marian? The ladder was spiky with splinters, and we had to be careful of our hands. When we got up there, in between inhaling clouds of dust, we would unlatch the window and look out at the setting sun. You could see the end of the world from your attic window, Marian. We were like two little sparrows looking out from the eaves, me and you.Do you remember, when we were young, Marian? We would ...

11 comments 11
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$250

Prize money

341

Contest entries

172

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Apr 08, 2022 EST

Won by Cecilia L. Maddison 🏆

Title: Old Soul

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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