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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#152: Miracles and Oracles

We have little control over what happens to us, though there’s nothing more human than trying to micro-manage what will come next. This week, I want us to think about both the expected, and the unexpected; times when life throws positive twists at us — miracles, some might call them — or times when we try to predict those turns, for better or worse.

This week's prompts

Write a story in which a miracle happens — or everyone thinks it did.

Middle School – 45 stories

Start your story with a character saying “I can see it now.”

Middle School – 37 stories

Write about a character whose life changes for the better.

Middle School – 47 stories

Set your story in an oracle or a fortune teller’s parlor.

Fantasy – 66 stories

Write a story about someone whose job is to make miracles happen, literally or figuratively.

Middle School – 42 stories

Stories

“Sea Comedies” by Lashun Williams

Submitted to Contest #152

Seas. Escapades. Journeys. These are things one lives for. These are the things that Melissa Jennings’s mother wanted her to strive for. When she did, she found herself in the middle of a rowboat, abandoned by her crewmen for being a woman that wouldn’t “put out.” The sun beamed down at her clothed form, and she wondered how and why life decided to put her in a Shakespearean comedy. According to the map that she supervised, there should have been an island close to where her ex-friends dropped her off. Instead, there was nothing but th...

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“Blood on Her Hands” by Reed Ide

Submitted to Contest #152

Blood on Her Hands By Reed Ide “Bonjour, monsieur.” The voice interrupted my concentration. I was in the kitchen, struggling to bring order to an array of herbs and spices, their jars strewn across my sturdy chestnut table. I turned toward the screen door. There she stood, slightly bent, shawl wrapped tightly about her, a faded housedress partly visible, her hair muddled carelessly in a hairnet. “Madame Boucher,” she said, extending a veined hand. In 1999, I bought an 18th century farm in the mountainous Ardeche region of sout...

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“The day I walked on Water” by Michelle Castillo

Submitted to Contest #152

The Day I Walked on Water It was a sunny weekend in 1968, and I was the precious age of Thirteen, and took the bus with my two brothers to the San Francisco Ocean beach. When we arrived, we walk down the steps onto the sand and pick a spot to lay down our towels, threw off our shoes and socks, and strip down to our bathing suits. I walked toward the water and waded in up to my thighs. I stood there ...

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“Forty Days” by Malcolm Todd

Submitted to Contest #152

When God came back to earth, His message was simple. Surprisingly simple. It was: “Move. Anywhere you like so long as it’s 500 metres above present sea level. You’ve got until the sixth of April.” People had questions, of course. Like, Why? And, Where have you been? Or, What about world hunger and brotherly love? Not to mention, Why 6th of April? Answers came there none, except, allegedly, to the last. Someone in Austin, Texas claimed that when she asked that one, God shrugged and said it was His mother’s birthday. In Britain, most peopl...

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“Miracle Man” by Kevin Alphatooni

Submitted to Contest #152

“You are not fit to live among us!” My feet dangled above the marble floor as Father held me by the throat like a weed plucked from his favorite garden bed. There was no point in resisting his grip. He was Enki, god of creation; maker of man and keeper of the divine wisdom. Here in heaven, he held a sacred position among the gods that could not be challenged. “No! I…” He lifted me higher and the floor beneath me cracked, split, and fell away, revealing a dark pit with flecks of swirling starlight within. “Tamm...

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“Save the Stain!” by Lauren B

Submitted to Contest #152

A hundred years ago, Big Timber was a busy logging town. Then a pest moved in, the forest died, and the people moved out. I’m one of three employees at the Big Timber Tribune and I can probably name every member of our subscriber list. Most of the stories I cover are like this one: boring. It’s either human interest or something about our local economy, which has been on life support for over a decade. Lately there had been talk of a tech company called Perseus moving in to revive us. Unlike so many other plans to bring back in...

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“Autumn Hues” by Thanja Van Der Horst

Submitted to Contest #152

September 14th, 2019 She trailed her hands on the light carried by the wind; at times it caught the dark streaks of her hair, mimicking iridescence. Today she held earthly colors in her being: shades of burnt coffee and fallen leaves made up the blush in her cheeks, the wisps of her dress. By habit I had the urge to call out to her, to lay her down and bury myself in the softness of her honey eyes, letting them feed my soul with their sweetness – instead I remained against the rough edges of the doorframe, not letting the little pricks of sp...

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“The Old Year's First Refrain” by SJ Latrice

Submitted to Contest #152

Kendra had been a ghost for twelve months, but this was the first time someone had walked through her. She dug red nails into her dark brown hands, shaping crescents as she watched the man who had done it. His back faced her as he thanked the owner of the newspaper stall and moved further into the open-air market, whistling all the way. He was light skinned, of middling height with a bald head, and wore a tan suit, shoes, and hat. The man was nothing special, and why would he be? It was Kendra’s fault.She bit her lip and turned back to the p...

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“Overlooking Miracles ” by Jobinho 11

Submitted to Contest #152

He who builds me doesn’t want me. He who buys me doesn’t need me. And he who needs me doesn’t know me. He who builds me doesn’t want me. He who buys me doesn’t need me. And he who needs me doesn’t know me. He who builds me doesn’t want me. He who buys me doesn’t need me. And he who needs me doesn’t know me. He who-- ok we get it, that's the only thing you and you're kind always say or can say I replied. The same phrase was being said repetitively and I just shook my head. My name is Mortem and what I do is encounter people halfway when they ...

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“The Night to Remember” by Hailea Drummond

Submitted to Contest #152

‘I can see it now!’ Lana declared, her words slurring as she stumbled into the table and a chair drunkenly. Her dark brown hair is everywhere, covering half her face and sticking up in strange places. Lana could never hold her liquor. Laughing, I gestured with my glass for her to continue. Jordan is giggling next to me, his own glass half-empty before him. This is better than going out to a bar, with loud people shoving and pushing against us. Where one of us has to be sober to drive home, or we face the wrath of Uber costs.&nbs...

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“The Miracle of Survival” by Jocelyn Yeomans

Submitted to Contest #152

THE MIRACLE OF SURVIVAL by Jocelyn Yeomans “I can see it now.” Although it is over 50 years ago, the image is still as fresh to me as it was then. Smoke billowing through the roof of the aviary. My brother had a passion for breeding budgies, or excuse me – budgerigars. No breeder worth his salt would ever refer to the common abbreviated name. Bob started this when he was 16 and with the help my Da...

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“Colors” by Dawn Locklear

Submitted to Contest #152

Colors (A beginning by Dawn Locklear that finishes with an ending by Redzuan Abdul Rahim) ElizaMay exclaims while dancing, “I can see it now! Thank you!” As the first rainbow explodes onto the sky. The colors are bright and alive in the meadow of the forest where her folks had decided to camp for the night. The rainstorm comes on quick, drenching her and the rainbow of flowers that surround her. And as fast as the rain came it stopped, leaving the sky alit with arches of vibrancy. Dancing with joy and...

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“Oh Lord, I fear, Love is Violence.” by Eman Latif Khan

Submitted to Contest #152

“I can see it now,” were her last words.I feel me shaking, shivering; clutching my heart in a grip that will surely bruise. I feel my breath coming out in ragged, pained and broken whispers gasping as the agony threatens to cut out my already uneven breathing completely. I double over, cold sweat falling from my scrunched forehead. The last thing I remember is her numb, defeated face, her last words zeroing in on me from all directions, as the world blacks out for what I hope is eternal.“Why, why did you?” She shouts, grasping my collar with...

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“Sojourn of a pollyanna” by Rachael Mungai

Submitted to Contest #152

I can see it now; my life since she became a part of it flashing before my eyes. That part of my life is all that comes to mind. It is all that matters. 27.02.1999 The end of one journey initiated her into another. A sojourner she came to be in the new world, where her feet could feel the earth and air she could breathe. Like all the others before her, she cried at the feel of what had become her new home. She wrapped her warm, tiny, palm around her bearer’s finger; the first thing she touched and felt. She had been welcomed to join others...

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“This Is Why People Elope” by Madeline Honig

Submitted to Contest #152

“I can see it now,” Antonio's fore fingers and thumbs on both hands framed the view from the lawn to the ocean. “We will put an archway here.” His arms make a wide sweeping motion as he starts to walk. The small entourage follows slowly behind. Antonio waves his arms around to gesture at his vision. “We’ll do a simple runner with white petals with one thousand filled seats with twenty foot ribbons flowing in the wind. And doves of course doves. Everything will be white. Flowers and bows and flowers a...

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$250

Prize money

237

Contest entries

101

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jul 01, 2022 EST

Won by Aeris Walker 🏆

Title: Foretold in Smoke

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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