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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#155: Swings and Roundabouts

One of my favorite British expressions is “swings and roundabouts”. It’s a tricky phrase to define, but it basically means a situation where good and bad, pro and con, ultimately cancel each other out. You might be up at one point, and down at another, but you’ll always end up somewhere in the middle. For example: “It rained on Friday. The laundry I hung out to dry got wet, but the flowerbeds needed watering, so, you know — swings and roundabouts.”

Much of life is a case of swings and roundabouts; accepting the good with the bad, and going along for the ride. This week’s prompts are all about this sense of balance, and the imperfect situations that we still make work.

🥇 Winner

“Someone Has Died” by Lonnie Russo

🏆 Winner of Contest #155

TW: This story contains several depictions and descriptions of death. Someone has died. Of this, I am certain. I know it because I always know it. As I lie here alone in this big, empty bed and listen to the rain, I remember it as it returns to me, this feeling, this dread, skittering up and down my throat with a thousand little legs. It settles in my stomach like a great stone, a solid, sickening weight. It is rancid in its heaviness and unmistakable in its familiarity. Someone has died. I do not know who.I sit up, and I take a long breath,...

110 comments 110

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⭐️ Shortlisted

“The Student's Struggle” by Michał Przywara

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #155

Harvey Deenwaller really shit the bed when he tried out for the basketball team, because he forgot what we all knew: junior high school was bullshit. Trying leads to judging, judging leads to failing, and failing leads to being a loser. Of course we only heard about him, but it was all anyone talked about all day, and when we got into seventh period English we found out that Stacey McCain had seen it. She was always creeping on Carlos Messerschmidt – although she’d never admit it, except she was always admitting it – and Carlos was already o...

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“Cash Cow” by Katharine Widdows

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #155

TW - death.The front door swung open and Barbara cooed through it. Of course, I would help with the effing shopping. I wouldn’t mind at all if my lovely wife would ever buy own brand anything. But, in spite of prices creeping up, Barbara was still bringing home the Heinz, the Lurpak, the Kellogg’s. And way more than the two of us could ever eat in seven days. We were throwing out enough to feed the children we never had, on a weekly basis. But then, we, or should I say she, could afford it.“Do you want the good news or the bad news, Darling?...

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“The Curious Predicament of the Man in the Mashed Potatoes” by Alexandra Mertes

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #155

Robert Mayweather has a predicament. It’s not a terrible predicament, as some predicaments can be, but nonetheless an odd set of circumstances. Robert Mayweather has a job. He’s the editor of the town paper. Everyone in town knows him, and he knows everyone in town. Robert Mayweather owns a house. A two-story yellow colonial with an immaculately trimmed green grass yard and towering oak trees framing the house in a canopy of pleasant shade. Robert Mayweather has a wife, Deborah Mayweather, who makes the most lovely meals for Robert an...

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“This Friday Morning” by Molly Barlow

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #155

The porch swing extends effortlessly and smooth, her feet just reaching over the withering edge of the deck boards, only to make its way backward with a crackling, obnoxious squeak. Her love, her very own Mr. Fix It, long since gone, spent many evenings oiling, adjusting, replacing rusted pieces, but the swing never recovered, the squealing never ceased. As with so many things that annoy the young, she had learned over time not to mind the sound. It took on a nostalgic quality. With each squeal, with each backward swing, she can see hi...

Read story

“The True Meaning” by Brian Bywater

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #155

The True Meaning “You interrupt everything. You cannot help yourself can you? A simple story I am telling about watching one of the most famous Baseball players ever, and you have to interrupt. You know somewhere between little and nothing about the sport. Have you ever watched a game? Answer no. So when I tell you that I think Joe DiMaggio’s sweetest swing was around about two years before he retired, I do not need you to tell me the phrase I should use is ‘swings and roundabouts’ One has nothing to do with the other.” “Touchy...

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This week's prompts

Start your story with a character facing a situation that isn't awful, but isn't great.

Middle School – 34 stories

Write a story that includes a character using the phrase “swings and roundabouts.”

Thanksgiving – 37 stories

Write about a character who gets good and bad news in quick succession — not necessarily in that order.

Angst – 46 stories

Write about a character who is pathologically ambivalent, until something shakes them up.

Narrative – 33 stories

Set your story in a kids’ playground, or at a roundabout.

Kids – 44 stories

Stories

“Someone Has Died” by Lonnie Russo

🏆 Winner of Contest #155

TW: This story contains several depictions and descriptions of death. Someone has died. Of this, I am certain. I know it because I always know it. As I lie here alone in this big, empty bed and listen to the rain, I remember it as it returns to me, this feeling, this dread, skittering up and down my throat with a thousand little legs. It settles in my stomach like a great stone, a solid, sickening weight. It is rancid in its heaviness and unmistakable in its familiarity. Someone has died. I do not know who.I sit up, and I take a long breath,...

110 comments 110

Read story

“The Student's Struggle” by Michał Przywara

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #155

Harvey Deenwaller really shit the bed when he tried out for the basketball team, because he forgot what we all knew: junior high school was bullshit. Trying leads to judging, judging leads to failing, and failing leads to being a loser. Of course we only heard about him, but it was all anyone talked about all day, and when we got into seventh period English we found out that Stacey McCain had seen it. She was always creeping on Carlos Messerschmidt – although she’d never admit it, except she was always admitting it – and Carlos was already o...

Read story

“Desire Deprived Destroyed” by Pranav Nalam

Submitted to Contest #155

The power of routine is often underappreciated. The influence of predictability on one's life can be mighty. I found myself a victim to the overlord named habit that particular day when I woke up, got dressed in my business best, and sat in my car scratching my head as flashes of forgetfulness made me immobile. As I placed my hands on the steering wheel in repose, I finally remembered - I was unemployed. I hadn’t fully digested yet the impact my firing from my place of employment would have on my life. Suddenly I was the useless one aro...

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“Percy Alexander’s Eighty-Third Birthday” by Kathleen Fine

Submitted to Contest #155

Percy Alexander awoke on his eighty-third birthday and looked at the time on his bedside clock: 5:55 am. A good sign. A particularly good sign. He reached behind him and felt the sheets. Dry. Another good sign. Lately, he’d had more night accidents than he cared to admit. But today was his birthday. And although he didn’t have the best history of luck on his past eighty-two birthdays, (a heart attack on his sixtieth birthday, his sister’s death on his fifty-second birthday, getting fired from his job on his forty-ninth birthday) he was deter...

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“as She watches” by Brynn Helena

Submitted to Contest #155

The neon city bustled softly that evening, treading the water of the torrential downpour on Her tip toes. Some nights the city was restless and deafening, and others were so quiet and still it was frankly unnerving. As children splashed their rain boots into puddles, and people rushed out of taxis toward storefront awnings for shelter, two miscreants met in the shadows. And She watched. They looked as unsuspecting as any other person. You wouldn’t have picked them out in a crowd. Yet, they held the city in their hands, and had for longer tha...

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“Tightrope of the Heart” by Zack Powell

Submitted to Contest #155

It doesn't take much to lose your job as a clown. I know that now.For the record, I take full responsibility for what happened. We were stationed in Utah at the time, with its too-blue sky and overripe air. We'd been there four days when I decided to switch up my routine. Our ringmaster, Horatio Longbottom, advised against it, said it wasn't worth fixing something that wasn't broken. But when you give your best slapstick—rubber chickens and cream pies and squirting flowers—and all you get are a few lousy sympathy chuckles, I'd say that quali...

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“There's Something Under Our Bed!” by Daniel R. Hayes

Submitted to Contest #155

(Content Warning: Violence, blood, Gore, Murder, Language, and Crude humor.) In Chesterfield, Oklahoma, Big Jimbo had just finished his shift at the puppy mill and was eager to get home. He put his yellow raincoat on and tucked his curly tail into the convenient waterproof pouch, which he greatly appreciated. Having a wet tail always puts a damper on your evening. Before leaving work, Big Jimbo pranced into the doggie room, cocked his leg on the urinal, and took a whiz. The sweet feeling of an empty bladder filled his senses with...

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“Cash Cow” by Katharine Widdows

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #155

TW - death.The front door swung open and Barbara cooed through it. Of course, I would help with the effing shopping. I wouldn’t mind at all if my lovely wife would ever buy own brand anything. But, in spite of prices creeping up, Barbara was still bringing home the Heinz, the Lurpak, the Kellogg’s. And way more than the two of us could ever eat in seven days. We were throwing out enough to feed the children we never had, on a weekly basis. But then, we, or should I say she, could afford it.“Do you want the good news or the bad news, Darling?...

Read story

“Why Is The Answer” by Thom With An H

Submitted to Contest #155

“Are you coming to bed?”The voice startled Jay, and instinctively he placed his phone in his pocket before answering. “I’ll be there in a second, what are you doing up?” Jay’s question was more of a defense mechanism than a quest for knowledge. He was less concerned as to why Pam was up than that she was up.“Do you have a minute?” She asked, sitting down before Jay had a chance to answer. “I’ve been thinking.”In the decade Jay had been married—I’ve been thinking—was second to only—we have to talk—in his list of things he didn’t want to hear,...

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“I Hope I Did the Right Thing” by Graham Kinross

Submitted to Contest #155

TW: Swearing and hints of abuse. It is my curse to spend most of my time with people I despise. Tonight is no different. I’m following a rumour. There’s a man who goes to the playground near my house. He offers children cigarettes and alcohol. All they must do is go to his house. It’s just a rumour. Let it just be a rumour. I don’t have a job. I have a calling. I rid the world of terrible people....

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“All His Fingers and Toes” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #155

Greetings Family and Friends!When last you heard from my little part of the world, Robert and I were on the verge of taking on the hardest job known to man or woman. We were just a few weeks away from welcoming a beautiful new life into this vast Universe that we all call home. Before I forget, thank you to everyone who had such nice things to say about the sculpture I made of what I believed my bouncing baby boy would look like. Though I am no artist, I was inspired by the life within me to create, create, create! I used nothing but re...

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“Kindred Souls” by Aeris Walker

Submitted to Contest #155

Content Warning: Mild foul language, gore, death.Skin sagged on his bones like melting wax. A chunk of flesh had pulled away from his bicep and hung like a red tongue. Deep lacerations on his shoulder revealed gashes of congealed blood and tissue. Fitzgerald Nicholas Bartleby, Jerry, as he was known in life, sat on a bench, watching children laugh and squeal as they chased each other across the unnaturally verdant Astroturf of the local playground. Jerry came each morning and chose the same wrought-iron bench in the center of the park; it wa...

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“The Wrong Leg” by Chris Campbell

Submitted to Contest #155

Padmanhab Singh drew the short straw. That meant it was his responsibility to tell Mr. Ramden about the unforgiveable cock-up during a recent surgery. The dyslexic error from the junior doctor unintentionally marked the wrong leg for amputation in the surgery notes, resulting in the non-gangrenous leg of Mr. Harry Ramden being sawn off. Several days of whispered clandestine meetings in the hospital’s basement boiler room, resulted in the decision to finally tell the misfortunate patient about the error. Fearful of retribution from the man no...

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“The Curious Predicament of the Man in the Mashed Potatoes” by Alexandra Mertes

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #155

Robert Mayweather has a predicament. It’s not a terrible predicament, as some predicaments can be, but nonetheless an odd set of circumstances. Robert Mayweather has a job. He’s the editor of the town paper. Everyone in town knows him, and he knows everyone in town. Robert Mayweather owns a house. A two-story yellow colonial with an immaculately trimmed green grass yard and towering oak trees framing the house in a canopy of pleasant shade. Robert Mayweather has a wife, Deborah Mayweather, who makes the most lovely meals for Robert an...

Read story

“This Friday Morning” by Molly Barlow

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #155

The porch swing extends effortlessly and smooth, her feet just reaching over the withering edge of the deck boards, only to make its way backward with a crackling, obnoxious squeak. Her love, her very own Mr. Fix It, long since gone, spent many evenings oiling, adjusting, replacing rusted pieces, but the swing never recovered, the squealing never ceased. As with so many things that annoy the young, she had learned over time not to mind the sound. It took on a nostalgic quality. With each squeal, with each backward swing, she can see hi...

Read story

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$250

Prize money

194

Contest entries

78

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jul 22, 2022 EST

Won by Lonnie Russo 🏆

Title: Someone Has Died

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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