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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

“For All Her Hard Work” by Kaitlyn Wadsworth

Submitted to Contest #155

Saphron crashed another tray of chickens into the oven of the Supermarket Deli, then turned to put the newly roasted ones into the heated-display-cabinet, for sale. Her coworker Meg manned the slicer, shaving the smokey fragranced ham for the display counter. “Meg, how did you get on with your hours, now that you are on contract?” asked Saphron. “I’m so happy. They gave me all the days and times I asked for and ...

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“DO NOT RESUSCITATE” by R. J. Garron

Submitted to Contest #155

The endocardiograph chirped away, then grew in rapidity. Evan Hardsfeld saw through a thinning tunnel of light while all else was enveloped in blackness. Bound by the stupor of methadone, he knew his world was slipping away. At seventy-five, he had too many regrets that spontaneously stormed into his fading psyche. Images of his past life, loved ones, coworkers and neighbors flashed by in a desultory montage, but remained coherent. The tension was grave. Doctors scrambled around, struggling to resuscitate ...

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“Making Friends With Nature And God ” by Peyton Gold

Submitted to Contest #155

Golden sunlight freckled the clay-reddened earth, filtering through a thick wilderness of pines so green that they were nearly black. Miri was scratching at the back of her knee, bending so that her short-cropped hair fell across her flushed nut-brown cheek. Her legs were long and thin. The chino shorts she wore were loose around her thighs. They looked like olive green bells with her legs protruding from the hollows like knockers. When she bent to scratch her knee, her black tank top dipped open, revealing small breasts held close by a lace...

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“The Ups and Downs of Life” by Charlotte Morse

Submitted to Contest #155

The mask made the room unreal and my eyes roll upwards into my head - although it removed no pain, it did help me to forget it in-between.“Just a couple more big pushes now, then it’ll all be over.”“I can’t.” It was eleven hours since I’d entered that hospital.The knifing pain began its build up yet again, I breathed in more forgetting gas, panting through my pain and fear and, as the pain intensified from a turning knife to tight, crippling cramps, enveloping and savage, I pushed - I had no choice.“It’s a boy!” The midwife cheerily declared...

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“Premonitions ” by Kevin Alphatooni

Submitted to Contest #155

A scream. A shout. Gunfire. The slight clicking of a shutting door, followed by heavy breathing. My eyes fluttered open as they fought against the ambient light. The first thing I noticed was that I was not at my house. I was in a plain hospital room. "What the…" My body ached as if recovering from a brutal workout. Struggling through the pain, I laid my back against the white plastic headboard. A sudden gasp caught my attention. Braced against the heavy wooden door of the room was a man dressed in blood-spattered green scrubs. His...

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“Where the Flame Passes” by Dhruv Srivastava

Submitted to Contest #155

“In the case of Victor Daniels, we the jury find the defendant… not guilty.” There was a moment of damning silence after these words, in which not even a gasp was dared, though everyone in the courtroom was in utter shock. Hell, as detective George Alvarez watched the defense attorney, he could’ve sworn even that man had an expression of horror on his face for half a second. Of course, the lawyers recovered first, with the defense smiling and shaking hands, and the prosecutors grimacing with viper-like eyes. George recovered just afte...

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“Pied Piper of Palm Springs ” by George Georgerfrost@gmail.com

Submitted to Contest #155

Little known fact, the mayor of Hamelin reneged on his contract Meave Maddox aka, the Pied Piper when he rid the small village of a rat infestation. The legend states he then turned his magical flute on the children and marched them out of town much to the chagrin of the town's folk. Taking place in the thirteenth century in Lower Saxony, his action did not cause an Amber Alert as it would have today. After the betrayal, Meave moved to Palm Springs. The gossip manuscript written and published by hand at the Therpopulo...

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“Come home” by Angelia Grey

Submitted to Contest #155

I laugh as I watch you play. I get so much joy out of watching you running around playing with your brothers and sisters and your friends, watching you interacting and communicating with those who surround you. You love to make people laugh, you love to make people happy, you are filled with love and are yourself very much loved. You are only seven but yet you seem to have walked this world before. You defiantly are an old soul. For such a young person you are quite wise and knowledgeable. Having an older sister and older brothers has taught...

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“The Delusions of a Middling Alchemist ” by SJ Latrice

Submitted to Contest #155

It was muggy in the factory. Illow licked her dry dark brown lips and inhaled deeply. As she concentrated, she tasted the thick air, wet earth and rusting iron resting heavy on her tongue. Transmuting dirt into muslin was a mindless process, the hard part was keeping up with everyone else. Illow’s hands cramped from the repetitive motions and she briefly flexed them under her padded gloves. She grabbed five handfuls of red dirt from the bucket on the far edge of the table and placed them onto the thick cast iron tray in front of her, sp...

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“Climbing Frame” by Treasure Chisom-Nwosu

Submitted to Contest #155

TW: This story alludes to the theme of child abduction.Ade needed help being pushed on the swings.He had been taught how to propel himself before. Chika spoke about how he needed to push his legs forwards or backwards depending on how the swing moved, but now, as he sat on the rubber seat, he only flailed his pudgy legs above the ground, to no avail.He sighed as he surveyed the playground. Chika was far away, on the other side with a friend of hers. He knew she wouldn't be interested in humouring her younger brother when she could be playing...

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“Some Things Never Change” by Howard Seeley

Submitted to Contest #155

November 2001. After retiring from twenty years in the military, I returned home to find little, but everything had changed. Though the houses in West Eaton still exist, the town was now little more than a ghost town. The store had closed years ago, and the last gas station had boarded up its windows. The few inhabitants left accepted this fact and decided to adhere to the town’s withering lifeline until they’re called from this world. Fortunately, or not for me, I wasn’t one who desired this fate.Being a true upstate New Yorker, I pulled up...

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“Northbound” by Jer Long

Submitted to Contest #155

NORTHBOUND By Jer Long/mrmarch1@live.com “Hey!” I bellowed. The exasperated man on the step behind shoved me aside as he shot off the escalator, jolting me. My nose inches from the polished granite floor of 30th Street Station, someone grabbed my arm and set me right on my feet. “Are you okay?” The tall god with scintillating silver eyes adjusted my disheveled coat. “You sat across from me.” “Come,” he said and guided me away from the crowd of petulant pedestrians. From nearly every track, a steady flow of frustrated travelers filed into...

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“Stranger At The Playground” by M. M.

Submitted to Contest #155

I dont remember exactly how old I was at that time, five, maybe six with not a care in the world during the summer of '62 when life was supposed to be simple compared to these days. Post-war times, mom's stayed at home raising their kids while the dad's went off to work diligently expecting supper on the table every night at six sharp. Growing up in the small town of Morris, Minnesota everyone knew everybody that was inevitable. Of course we lived right across from the school's playground where swings sat waiting for children to come. School...

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“Anastasia's locket” by F.O. Morier

Submitted to Contest #155

Some people seem to be born with vital energy that never seems to die. Not only does it enable them to keep up with the times, but it also qualifies them to provide quite a bit of momentum through their personalities. Even crossing borders into the insane. Those are blissful beings who do not feel compelled to understand the meaning of things. They never tire, do not miss a step, don't fall out of rank, only to be left by the roadside and watch the procession as it moves on without them. Fred was such a man. And yet Anastasia found that the ...

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“Twins” by Lindsey B

Submitted to Contest #155

I saw the sister first. It was midsummer, and I didn't know what I was doing in the town park. I was probably twelve years older than the average visitor of the park, and my legs were two feet too long to actually use the swing I was sitting on. A woman was with a toddler across the playground on the smaller, plastic play set. I watched the little boy giggle as he went down the slide over and over again. The woman waited for him at the end of the slide every time, beckoning him down. Every time, he'd squeal as...

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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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