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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

“Unfinished Business” by Sandra Meyers

Submitted to Contest #155

Unfinished Businessby Sandra L. Meyers               No place on earth is more peaceful than Crescent Beach during an Indian summer.  Reminiscing about how I hadn’t been on the beach since I was a boy, I sat quietly as a warm breeze rolled in from the Atlantic Ocean, and the waves crashed against the black rocks jutting out into the secluded cove. Nearly every glorious summer of my childhood had been spent here with my grandpa. He lived in an old shanty about fif...

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“At Our Round Glass Table” by Honey Bates

Submitted to Contest #155

I am having a hard time writing as I sit here at the kitchen table. I am not in a writing mood.Sometimes, here at the kitchen table, I have been in a spectacular writing mood. I sat here with my Dell computer on middle school summer vacations and seventh-grade half-days, typing away as I ran my hands over the rhinestoned computer back, tapped my fingers on the tabletop. I stayed up until the house was dark and still and my eyes were sore and dry, immersed in the swings and roundabouts of imagination. I was going to write a famous book that s...

6 comments 6
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“Dancing in Drizaloo” by Hamzah Malik

Submitted to Contest #155

I take a deep breath and stare at the small pill in my hand. It's a gift from my friend Ade, who says it'll turn me invisible for 3 hours. I've been instructed to only use it on Ascension day, to slip in unnoticed. Oh wait, I can see you're frowning, reader. Don't you know what Ascension day is? I apologise, I didn't know things are done differently where you're from. Ascension day is the day after children finish their education. They all convene at Ascension Tower, where they are given careers to secure their livelihoods with. Se...

4 comments 4
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“Time To Go” by Amy Jayne Conley

Submitted to Contest #155

A suitcase by the front door. A quiet set of footsteps creeping down the stairs. A battered pair of Converse, and the soft ticking of a clock... silence in the house, dawn barely breaking. Time to leave. Sarah pushed her phone into her pocket and reached for her coat, which was draped across the top of the case. She pulled it on, hands shaking. Upstairs, a floorboard creaked. Time to leave. Sarah picked up the car keys from the little bowl on the table near the door, wincing at the sound. She placed a hand on the doorhandle ...

6 comments 6
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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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“Oblivious” by Orwell King

Submitted to Contest #155

(Sensitive topics and foul language)Once again, I sit here on the same worn-out leather sofa. The same dreary repetitive words fall from her mouth.Again, and again, and again.It causes me to grind my teeth. Her words, her voice, it is like rubbing two pieces of styrofoam together. I can’t stand it. I can’t stand her. The self-absorbed bitch.She is supposedly being paid to help me, not to tell me I’m depressed. Not to say I suffer from a myriad of psychological disorders or to tell me I need to ‘understand my emotions and the behaviours and c...

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“Unbecoming” by Krysta Anderson

Submitted to Contest #155

“We are running out of time. My ribs are killing me. I can’t hold it back for much longer. We need to leave. Now.”          Ishua looked around the pub with hesitation, his hands balling up into fists trying to take his mind from the ever-growing issue at hand. Kelsey threw back the rest of her beer and stood, linking one of her arms with his.“C’mon, I'll help you. My father has an old cellar not far from here. It’s hidden in the woods and no longer in use so we will be safe there. No one wil...

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“Mission report” by Wayne Steele

Submitted to Contest #155

Trigger warning: contains blood and violence “He’s bleeding out,” A man named Jason yelled over the sirens.  He put down his gun and ran past the other bodies and towards the bleeding man. Almost slipping on the marble floor slick with blood. The man’s lab coat was drenched in blood with it also soaking his red curly hair making it matted. His blue eyes were moving rapidly trying to figure out whether he was going to survive or not. Flex of it mixed in with his freckles. Jason knelt and started to put pressure on his thigh. You’re not ...

1 comment 1
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“That Kid” by Trinity Womack

Submitted to Contest #155

Thomas scraped his foot against the ground in an effort to push the swing. He only rose a few inches from the ground before stopping. He sighed. "Mommy! Can you push me?" Thomas' mother looked up from where she was talking with other moms and waved a hand. "Thomas, I am talking right now." Thomas rolled his eyes and hopped off the swing. He was unaware, however; that his shoe was unlaced. His left foot tripped on the lace and he fell to the ground, scraping his hands and knees on the wood chips below. "Ouch, Mommy. I felled." "Thomas, I a...

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“It All Comes Back” by Ash Tenebris

Submitted to Contest #155

Robin kicked his legs, determined to swing higher than his friend. He started to sway side-to-side, the chains twisting as he struggled. Jasper was already soaring through the air. If he just reached out his hand, he could touch the sky. Then he was falling back down. “How do you swing so high?” Robin squealed. “I just… put my legs out… when I’m going forward,” he said as he went by. “And pull them in… when I go back.” “That’s what I do!” “Then just keep going.” When they got bored of swinging, they jumped off into the sawdust, and rac...

3 comments 3
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“Meet-cute” by Leina Broughton

Submitted to Contest #155

Lexi fell back on the roundabout and looked up at the wispy grey clouds that streaked behind the trees. The playground equipment was rust filled and the shade sail over top was ripped and banging against the poles. Positioned in a dark wet corner of the main park in Anderlee, Lexi was pretty sure no-one had ever come there.With absolutely nothing to do except lie in silence, Lexi’s inner thoughts screamed even more intensely at her. She hated being in this shitty town. It was hard enough feeling out of control but without any distractions it...

1 comment 1
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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...

5 comments 5
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“Oceanview” by Lauren Puffenberger

Submitted to Contest #155

AnaBeep.“Mommy I want popsicles AND lollipops!” The small, sticky child whines.Beep.“Ok sweetie get both,” the snobby woman says as she pulls out her matching purse and wallet that would cost me more than a few paychecks.  Beep.“Will that be all ma’am?” I hear myself ask in my customer service voice.“Actually we will be adding the lollipops as well.”Of course you will be.“No problem, thanks for shopping at Surf N Shop.”Well, there you have it, the soundtrack of my life. Don’t get me wrong, I am happy to have a job be...

4 comments 4
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“Chain Reactions” by Mary Dix

Submitted to Contest #155

Just as I am walking out of the grocery store, the bag in my right-hand rips. This starts a chain reaction that sends a bottle of Dr. Pepper skidding across the parking lot. An elderly woman blows through the stop sign in the pedestrian crossing and swerves to miss me. She drives right over the bottle. The pressure creates a mini-explosion which sends the soda shooting out of the bottle and right into my face. I’m standing there, one intact back in my other hand and a pile of groceries at my feet. Dr. Pepper all over me. I have to pick up Gr...

1 comment 1
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“Empty Nest” by Caroline Smith

Submitted to Contest #155

Content warning: Brief mentions of animals being harmed. Stone Scalari lived alone. It was certainly more peaceful than living with his wife and children had been. He was 62. A lifetime of sharing space with loved ones had left him nothing but debt, headaches, and agony. Stone sat on the chaise lounge on his back patio one Saturday morning about a year after Carrie had left. He was holding a mug of coffee to his lips when he heard a dull thunk behind him. He ignored it, took a sip, cursed out loud. Too hot. A bird started chirping weak...

2 comments 2
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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!

Prompts | Big Blue Hand | 2024-11

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