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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.

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

“The Notes we Passed” by J.P. Lorenz

Submitted to Contest #155

September 2008 - Senior Year Hey, Why did they choose this year to NOT assign parking spots? Funny how you always manage to grab the one next to me. This year will be so much fun, I can’t wait. See you, Megan Oh hi, I know, school starts too early as it is. Do you sleep? Chase and I think that you and Nicole sleep in the parking lot, it looks like you’re already working on homework by the time we get here at 6:45. I don’t see why this year should be any different than the rest. How are your college applications looking? Anthony Anthony...

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“Last Flight” by Janet Change Balda

Submitted to Contest #155

Content warning: mental health; substance abuse; physical violence, gore, abuse; suicide, self harm. Maria was having a nice, quiet morning when she heard the car in the driveway. She had been enjoying the way the early sunlight filtered in through the eyelet lace curtains. Even upstairs, she always kept the windows covered so that no one could see in. She put down her cup of tea and opened a sliver in the curtains to look below. There was a black car, and two men were getting out of it. They wore dark uniforms with bright pins on the coll...

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“Premonition ” by Sarah Wolfe

Submitted to Contest #155

“Come in,” Scott said in response to a knock on his office door. He had been staring out the window of his corner office at downtown Chicago watching people go about their day. Coming in and out of shops, carrying coffee or shopping bags, sometimes both, some people were staring at their phones, some were holding hands. He wondered what their lives were like, what they did for a living, which people were tourists and which were locals. “Your lunch meeting just called to cancel.” Marie Pederson stood in his doorway filling the frame...

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“Spoiled Meats” by Ashley Ulery

Submitted to Contest #155

Warning: Contains strong language. “Hey, Lauren called off. You’re working a double.” A statement, not a question. I turn my face toward Tacky Tie Guy, also known as the deli and produce manager, to say something, but before I can lift my eyes, I see the heel of a creased pleather shoe stepping around the corner. I smile, close-lipped, and turn back to slicing deli ham, on sale, for $4.99 a pound. Well, at least that’s more money to put in my savings. Ten hours later, I limp through the automatic double doors of the grocery store, stiff-le...

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“Marble and Verve” by Kris Hawkins

Submitted to Contest #155

“Let’s get married.” The statement rolled off his tongue like a marble. Miranda lay beside him, languid strands of hair trailing across one cheek, their tips pinned to the wet crease of her lips. Bed springs creaked as she sat upright to look into his eyes: lids lowered, pure as opals, resolute. A dark heaviness slithered into Miranda’s chest. She half-smiled and said, “Okay, but are you sure? You really mean it?” “More than anything I’ve ever meant in my entire life,” he promised. He popped his eyebrows as though surprised, and his ...

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“Urgently Going Back to Work” by Becca Yurok

Submitted to Contest #155

The venti latte had been a mistake. Maybe not as much as picking drive thru, as opposed to using that time to use the coffee shop’s washroom. If anything, the coffee was fine. In fact, it was exactly what I had needed to prepare for the day. Even the drive thru had been prompter than I had remembered. However, now I desperately needed to go pee. Earlier, when I had rushed out of my condo, I could feel the slight tingle of my bladder. However, I knew was on a tight time line ...

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“The Summer We Lived in a Tent” by Laura Costea

Submitted to Contest #155

The Summer We Lived in a Tent By Laura Costea Kelly Baker didn’t know that when she said “Yes” to the house, she was also saying yes to being homeless that summer. Well, not homeless in the truest sense of the word. But when you couldn’t sleep, shower or cook in your house, what were you supposed to call it? When Jake had gone to the house inspection, he’d donned his ball cap and faded jeans, looking every bit the HGTV-professional. When he’d come home and said, “It’s great,” Kelly had believed him. “The kids will lo...

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“Two goodbye's” by Matilda Sundqvist

Submitted to Contest #155

2013"Mom, please don't leave me"Clara looked into her mothers ocean blue eyes which were shining in the sun. Her mother was the most beautiful person Clara knew. They had the same big, blue eyes and brown, shiny hair, but Clara still thought that her mother were way more beautiful than she was. They had gotten a lot of comments about how similar they looked, but Clara didn't really see it."I don't want to start at this new school" Clara said with a voice that sounded both sad and scared at the same time to her mother."Clara, please give this...

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“Flip, Flop, Flip” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #155

George really did not like where he was working. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy the kind of work he had to do. He was an accountant and had since his early school days enjoyed playing with and learning about numbers. George had the gift, and knew how to use itThe problem was his boss Ralph. He was very condescending towards the people he openly referred to in the office as his ‘underlings.” That, of course, included George, whom he regularly addressed as “number nerd” rather than using his name. “Hey, number ner...

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“The Battle for Rosewood” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #155

The good news for Hector Bestwick was he was in line to inherit Rosewood. The sad news was his father would have to die for him to get it. Rosewood was his grandparent’s cozy two-story colonial home, so called because of the prodigious rose bushes that grew on both sides of the house. His grandfather, Priam (known as Billy), had planted the rose bushes. A former shipyard welder, Billy was a little under five and a half feet tall, but he was James Cagney tough - quiet, and hard, with a talent for keeping his emotions in check. Matti...

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“Highs and Lows ” by ER Castaneda

Submitted to Contest #155

Trigger warning: alcoholism; eating disorders In the brief period of time she could stand, she looked in the mirror at herself, naked and shivering, taking in her protruding collarbone, her thin thighs that could no longer support her standing body for more than 60 seconds, her concave stomach, her eerily defined ribs, grayish and yet still red and splotchy, angular face, her skeleton-like arms. No longer would she have to use seat belt extenders or bear the stares of those who looked at her in disgust when she waddled through the groce...

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“Delayed” by Madeleine Cary

Submitted to Contest #155

Selena Myers knew that today was going to be a nightmare as soon as she got out of bed. Truth be told, she hated traveling because of stuff like this, and today only added fuel to the fire. First, she burned the ever-loving sweet Jesus out of the blueberry muffin she’d been saving, next the Uber was late, and now the train was, well, somewhere in maintenance limbo. It was supposed to only take 30 minutes, give or take, to get from Boston’s South Station to Providence, Rhode Island. Now, thanks to the traffic and train gods, it was going to t...

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“Delilah ” by Meredith Malin

Submitted to Contest #155

“We’re in the car. And I’m wearing long sleeves and jeans. I don’t need sunscreen.” “Your face is getting all the UV damage and none of the vitamin D right now. That’s why they say to wear sunscreen every day, even if you’re just getting sunlight through windows.” He says, speeding up when he sees the light turn yellow. “I’m not paying for your Botox in ten years, that’s all I’m saying. A symphony of car ...

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“Our Park ” by Sophia Nwachukwu

Submitted to Contest #155

TW: Death, implied animal crueltyThat day it rained in the park we hid from it in the little hut at the top of the slide. I had never seen rain before, only heard about it in Jamie’s stories, his stories never told of the noise rain could make falling on a surface – like the pounding steps of protestors as they run from law enforcement – or the wailing wind it sets loose on the world that makes everything tremble. I had always thought that I wouldn’t like rain much, Jamie described it as something that made your skin wet and slippery like th...

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$250

Prize money

194

Contest entries

77

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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