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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#156: The Mandela Effect

Nelson Mandela was an enormously influential figure in world history: the first president of a new democratic government, South Africa’s first Black head of state, and a global icon of democracy and activism.

This week, our prompts delve into a lesser-known phenomenon that his legacy also sparked. Despite the iconic leader dying in 2013 at the age of 95, many people worldwide vividly recall news coverage announcing Mandela’s death in the 1980s. This mystery led to the coining of the term “the Mandela Effect”, or a memory that is falsely shared by multiple people.

From famous quotes that were never spoken (Vader never actually said “Luke, I am your father”), to facts we swear have changed over time (many recall being taught there were 52 US states, not 50), there are countless examples of the Mandela Effect out there. This week’s prompts explore this weird world of false memories, alternate universes, and all things strange.

This week's prompts

Write about two characters arguing over how a past event happened.

Sad – 34 stories

Write a story where a character is experiencing parallel realities.

Science Fiction – 65 stories

Write about false news coverage of an important event.

Nonfiction – 17 stories

Start your story with a character or a narrator saying, “Don’t you remember?”

Middle School – 59 stories

Write a story about a pathological liar.

Dark – 37 stories

Stories

“Yearning Cadence” by Jeremy Renbarger

Submitted to Contest #156

Don’t you remember how we first met? All the shaky apprehensive feelings we would get How could I forget? Your friends carrying you out at school lunch I think I had seen you before and I had a hunch That maybe, just maybe you felt something towards me To tease an accord for me You were a cheerleader, I was a square But you didn’t know any better to be fair You gave me your number The weight of the idea I felt over encumbered Took over two weeks passed Valentine’s Day for me to call Think you could tell I was shy behind my wall...

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“Consumed” by Mike Sette

Submitted to Contest #156

“Don’t you remember?” I ask myself in the broken mirror. I am in the bathroom. Alone in a house. The former occupants have been consumed. The horde has moved on.My cheek is slashed open from a previous encounter. I can see my teeth and gums through the hole. I move my tongue over my teeth and touch the hanging skin.“Worse and worse,” I thought. Regardless, I considered myself lucky. I had made it out of the first wave relatively unscathed. Most of the horde suffered broken bones, gouged eyes, bullet holes, burned skin, missing limbs and all ...

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“Stormy with a chance” by FIONA DUNNE

Submitted to Contest #156

‘Don’t you remember? I do. It was a day for dreamers. I stood at the Belfast sink and watched the late spring sun shimmer across the field of rapeseed. The field sat in front of this pretty 2 bed cottage, turning the white washed walls yellow when the light hit it right. It was the thing I loved most about it. Yellow ruffled and danced with the breeze that day. You danced too. A tighter squeeze for you, inside my cramped belly. Hardly any room left for you now. The faded red A on the mug I was rinsing caught my eye. A for Adam. I scrubbed it...

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“What Have we Become?” by Nic Silvestris

Submitted to Contest #156

What Have we Become? “Don’t you remember?”, Michelle asked as she prodded my ribs with her freshly painted toenails. In all honesty I don’t even recall a single minute of that night, well not after entering the bar. I had entered “Loco Lobos” hoping to escape any thoughts of my recent breakup and figured some $3 “Happy Hour” margaritas would suffice as my sedation. I suppose a cliché like “life works in mysteri...

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“The Events of Earth” by Emily Westcott

Submitted to Contest #156

“Don’t you remember?” They all stared at Freddie, as he silently slurped the last of his coffee. He knew they’d ask him some day. But he hoped it wasn’t today, or any other day. Before he knew it, he was left scrabbling round his empty mind in search of a missing memory he’d hoped never to repeat itself again. Hopefully, he had left it in the last place he visited; the far corner of his mind. “Oh, you must have remembered it, Fred, it was bigger than last Christmas.” Bernadette had always had a strong memory. It was almost impossible...

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“Hannibal's Barn” by Gloria Bartone

Submitted to Contest #156

My Uncle John was a pathological storyteller. He loved to tell tales, sing, entertain people, and just have fun. He played banjo and guitar, called for square dances, and in general did all he could to make people happy. He had a terrific sense of humor,too. The nameplate on his office door read "John Brown and body," which should give some clue as to his humor. His most severe critics would call him a pathological liar, which might be partially true. But he never told tales for monetary or political gain, to scare people or make them do any...

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“Liar Liar” by Jim Hirtle

Submitted to Contest #156

Liar Liar Jimmy Quinn sits on the back porch looking past the cornfields, painted gold by the hot sun, past the blacktop highway absent of cars on this Sunday before school starts back up, past the river he knows is on the other side of the road, separated by a hundred yards of thorny thistle and broke down cedar. Past it all and into nothing. He had walked across the field, over the road and down the prickly hill more times than he could count, carrying a fishing pole in one hand and a cooler in the other. Shifting his dark green eyes, ...

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“Pins” by Madison Scruggs

Submitted to Contest #156

She collected friends in the summertime like butterflies pinned to a sheet. They were locked under her glass frame, and her claw-like fingernails drove each one into the white canvas behind them so that they spread their wings but only to look pretty, never to fly away. She told them things she thought they’d want to hear. Pretended to be interested in their everyday affairs. Asked about their parents, but looked down when they started to explain their father’s visit to the hospital or their mother’s stint in rehab.&nb...

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“Mental Arithmetic Error ” by River Horn

Submitted to Contest #156

Dr. Sheng is a world-renowned expert in grain planting. Once I was with her to the south for an academic conference, and I had a casual chat with her on the way. She confided to me a little secret from her childhood. She said that she had been troubled by one thing she did when she was a child, and the more she achieved in her career, the more she felt that she was a big liar, and she couldn’t forgive herself. That was in the 1960s when her pet name was Ayee. Ayee’s parents were far away from home. They gave birth to five children in a row. ...

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“Downward-facing Dog” by Dempsey Hyatt

Submitted to Contest #156

“Girl, you gotta get back on your horse and mount someone,” my friend, Andrea, said as we sipped our Mai Tais in a tiki bar that was equidistant between our respective apartments in Brooklyn. I gasped and said, “Andrea! That’s a bit crude. I’m not looking for sex, I—” “Not looking just for sex,” she corrected. &nbs...

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“The Adventures of Discernment” by Jenna Irving

Submitted to Contest #156

“We were flying just past the island of Upolu with efforts to land in Pago Pago when our turbine engine suddenly burst into flames. We had one chute—there were three of us. We glanced at each other. As the pilot, they all knew what I’d do. I threw the chute at T, put two fingers to my heart—our code—and jumped out the copter at 15,000 feet. I knew how to summersault in the air and maneuver in a way that would allow me to slow the velocity. I landed just past mi...

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“The Serpent's Favor” by Jarrel Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #156

“Plant the snake eggs, slave” Molly demands. She makes a whipping motion at me, along with the sound effect with her mouth. “This fucking kid, I swear to God,” I murmur to myself as I bury my tennis balls in the backyard. Now I can’t play tennis because my crazy little niece thinks they’re eggs that will hatch into snakes to do her bidding. As I smooth out the dirt over my tennis balls with my shovel, she rubs her hands together like a maniacal villain. I take out my phone to text my sister, Nicole, who’s in the middle of her two-week romant...

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“The Hot Waitress” by Eliza B

Submitted to Contest #156

“Should we go to that brunch place where we both wanted to fuck the waitress?” she said to her lover with a smirk, as she finger-brushed her wet hair and fastened her towel tight over chest. “What? We both wanted to…?” He sat on her bed, looking back at her with confusion. She laughed. “I mean, not actually. We just both thought she had a cool style, and we were afraid to order anything that wasn’t up to her approval.” Simon was still quiet. Scanning his brain. He seemed to become overcome with a peaceful wave of remembrance, and smi...

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“The Second Chance of Love” by Liz Molloy

Submitted to Contest #156

It was never supposed to end this way. It was never supposed to end at all. But even soulmates can have a moment of doubt. A moment that slips into the cracks. A moment that fueled their subconscious fear that maybe their love was never the fairytale they thought it was. All it took was just one singular moment, less than ten minutes, to change everything for them. Daisy took that moment as a blessing. They were only together for two years, if that moment didn’t happen sooner then she could have been with Ava for much longer, wast...

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“The Performance” by Kevin Quin

Submitted to Contest #156

The Performance There were a number of day chairs, leather, yet covered in those brownish throw rugs from IKEA. Several older people sat on them, chatting, reading, knitting, doing crosswords, watching the mute television, or sleeping. Some were dying. Two of the men looked a little different from the others. One, in brown corduroy trousers and a beige silk shirt with an old-fashioned wine-coloured cravat around his neck was standing, laughing and quite animated; the other, slightly scruffy, but clean shaven in grey trousers, w...

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$250

Prize money

212

Contest entries

93

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jul 29, 2022 EST

Won by Sjan Evardsson 🏆

Title: We/I

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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