#164: Where I Come From

Elizabeth Brewster wrote a beautiful poem titled ‘Where I Come From’ — this is how it begins:

“People are made of places. They carry with them

hints of jungles or mountains, a tropic grace

or the cool eyes of sea gazers.”

I’ve always loved this poem’s abstracted sense of local identity, so this week I invite you to consider how your characters’ backgrounds affect their personalities and choices.

This week's prompts

Start your story with a character saying “Where I come from, …”

Middle School – 85 stories

Write a story in which someone returns to their hometown.

Adults – 81 stories

Write a story about coming of age in a big city.

High School – 14 stories

Write a story where a local takes a newcomer under their wing.

Adults – 24 stories

Think of someone who stood on the periphery of your childhood memories (a classmate, a teacher, a neighbor) and cast them as the main character of your story.

Middle School – 31 stories

Stories

“Ramona” by Keith Maynard

Submitted to Contest #164

We lived in a small, historically insignificant town snuggled up next to Elmira, New York. We lived in the Town of Southport, New York. The last touchstone on the way south to the Keystone State, several miles away. We lived across from each other on a tree-lined street dead ending at the railroad yard. A quiet neighborhood occupied with, I always assumed, normal, middle-class families. Stay at home moms. Dad’s working somewhere, Monday through Friday, with weekends free to mow the yard or, like my dad, wash and wax their pride and joy und...

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“Whatever Gets You Through” by Reagan Emmerling

Submitted to Contest #164

Every Thursday after school, three sisters, Reagan, Ellie, and Mya, came with their mother to my office. Each appointment started much the same way. Beginning with my standing at the end of the drab grey hallway, just out of view, watching them. Psychology was as much watching as it was listening, and each girl gave you the tiniest glimpse into their heads if you were so inclined to pay attention. Mya, the youngest, clung to her mother’s hip. In fact, some days, she had to be pried away from her mother just to go into her session. Most days...

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“The Man I Never Knew ” by Jeneane Vanderhoof

Submitted to Contest #164

"Your grandfather was always the silent type", people said, many times, throughout my life. Most of all saying this, his wife. I always thought it was an understatement, he went well beyond this description. Silent about everything in his life; past, present and future. Everyone in the family knew very little about him and I always felt that I never really knew him as a man, a grandfather, not even as a person. That he had been ever present in my life until he died, when I was in my early twenties, made the lack of knowing him hurt even...

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“Out of Ft. Worth” by Dustin Brewer

Submitted to Contest #164

“Where I come from,” Norma said, “doing something like that is liable to get you poisoned.”For a moment, Larry stopped chewing the steak she had made for him. It was rare. The steak and to have a pretty, younger woman interested in him. Norma’s short hair was dyed bright red and her dark eyes were as sharp as razor blades while she stared at him from across the kitchen table.“Well, honey,” he said, after swallowing. “I didn’t mean anything by it. I just thought it would be funny. And where are you from, anyway?”Norma stood, left the table, a...

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“Where do I come from? You tell me!” by Rolade Berthier

Submitted to Contest #164

Where do I come from? You tell me!“Where I come from” is a phrase that gives me goose pimples. I have answered the question “Where do you really come from” more than a hundred times, and I expect to encounter the same query any moment. Do they mean where I was born, where I have studied, worked and lived, where I have immigrated, or where I feel I belong? The local midwife, armed only with scissors, hot water in a plastic basin and a fluffy purple towel, cut my umbilical cord at three in the afternoon in soaring heat inside a 70-square ...

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“HAZY DAZE” by Susan Catucci

Submitted to Contest #164

"Where I come from."These are four words I never want to hear, and I wish I could tell you why. I become physically ill. I know something happened, I just can't say exactly what it was.I was completely on my own for the first time. Classes had begun and I already had a ton of assignments. I didn't mind. I was anxious to get started and do well, as I had assured my parents I would.The one course I'd signed up for that wasn't academics was theater club. I had enjoyed acting in school plays back home and I thought it would be a fun and effectiv...

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“1942” by Howard Seeley

Submitted to Contest #164

Where I come from, men and women become afraid as soon as they saw me. You may think my face is grotesque or has a frightening appearance, but nothing could be farther from the truth. My name is Franz Heinz, and I am a Nazi soldier stationed at Dachau, Germany. It was the spring of 1942, when I received my orders stationing me here, and I couldn’t have been happier. Like most of my comrades, I sighed a breath of relief when the scourge of duty assignment was absent from my orders: Auschwitz. Though I personally didn’t know anyone stationed...

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“The Truth About Home” by Yvonne Kanoff

Submitted to Contest #164

Where I come from does not exist anymore. The people are gone, the buildings are gone, the pain is gone. It's a good thing, where I come from, has no bearing on my life anymore. Where I come from, is a very small town in rural Arizona in the 1970’s and 80’s. I was five when we moved there, and my mother said I hated it from day one. She always said children adapt, they learn to love new places, new people, new adventures. Not this child, not me. It was hot, it was dirty, and it was scary. I did not like it. Where I come from, was filled ...

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“Redemption in Pine Grove” by Dhruv Srivastava

Submitted to Contest #164

There hadn’t been many long drives in the life of Marcus Bourne. In fact, prior to this day, he’d driven over an hour just once in his life. That one time had been to steal away in the middle of the night from his home. Then, there was no destination. Away was the operative word in his head. He’d stayed at four motels, witnessed a dozen drug deals at truck stops, and eaten over twenty meals and roadside fast food shops before feeling as though he had covered enough distance, five days and thousands of miles later. Now, Marcus was driving bac...

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“Who Said You Can’t Go Home? Part 2” by Laura Eliz

Submitted to Contest #164

“So, you are my mom’s fiancé”, What is that like?”.“I love your mom. She is bright, she is funny, she doesn’ttake crap from anyone including me. She makes my life better”“That sounds like my mom”. “I am going to guess her, and I don’t stay together though,because I don’t think I want kids”.“I’m not going to spoil the future for you”.“Thanks. Each day is an adventure and I want to continue with itas just that”.“So, it is getting late. Should we go back to the HOJO?”.“Yes. Let’s see what happens”. When we got back to thehotel, I...

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“Hermit Crabs and Goldfish” by Monica Patterson

Submitted to Contest #164

When Auntie Sheila died, we all gathered together again. Most of us didn't have far to travel. I was the closest: I only had to walk down the sidewalk to her two-story brick house. My steps, enlivened by the crunching leaves underfoot, did not seem as sorrowful as they felt inside me. I felt a little like I was walking toward a catastrophe, and my heart grew heavier with each step. The squirrels didn't mind me, and continued their chittering and scurrying. They weren't fit company for my mournful heart, but I assumed my cousins and my uncle ...

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“March, Before Dawn” by Cassie Gibson

Submitted to Contest #164

I returned home like a fox running to earth, retreating to a place of unexpected safety. It was before dawn and the sky was turning blue at its seams. I took a breath of the night air; it was cool and clean and made me feel intensely awake. When had I last been here, six months or more, last Christmas, before? I could feel the debris of the city sloughing off me, streaming from my pores to be neutralised by the salt air. The hospital stink losing its grip and seeping away in the pre-dawn light. The door of the house was unlocked, whic...

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“The Photo Album” by R. Hann

Submitted to Contest #164

TW: Death Mention, Brief Mentions of Implied Gambling/Debt Accrual---Lady Ophelia was regarded as a prim woman, dressed in modest attire, and her hair pulled neatly into a bun at the base of her neck. Gold spectacles rested on a hawk-like nose while her lips remained in a disapproving sneer like she smelled a rotting corpse throughout each day. The town’s children played daring games, challenging one another to see who could get closest to the Lady’s gated mansion. Iron-wrought fence lined the exterior, extending some twenty feet in the air,...

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“The Military Brat” by M B

Submitted to Contest #164

1986 A spitball narrowly missed Emile, who was sitting peacefully at his desk. Target practice again for the kid two desks down who hated him for no discernable reason. The teacher - of course - never seemed to notice the exchange. Today, she seemed a bit nervous. A new student was just outside the door where she’d been told to wait. Introductions had to be made. A day ago, Emile’s teacher didn’t even know such people existed. Clearing her throat, the teacher called for silence. “Class, we have a new student joi...

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“For the Sake of the Weather” by Ayanna Beckles

Submitted to Contest #164

The driest part of the year had come. Every individual ray from the sun was felt fully by the townsfolk, leaving their faces pink and their hair slick with sweat. Those who had lived in Brenton for some time had learned to adjust when the dry season came. During cooler months, it wasn't easy to tell who was who, but when the kid in black leggings and a sweatshirt clamored into the store, it was clear he wasn't a local. Krissi jumped at the ruckus, looking up from her book to find a boy clutching onto the chip rack and swaying horri...

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$250

Prize money

235

Contest entries

91

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Sep 23, 2022 EST

Won by Lindsay Flo 🏆

Title: Mothering

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.

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#164: Where I Come From

This week's prompts

Start your story with a character saying “Where I come from, …”

Write a story in which someone returns to their hometown.

Write a story about coming of age in a big city.

Write a story where a local takes a newcomer under their wing.

Think of someone who stood on the periphery of your childhood memories (a classmate, a teacher, a neighbor) and cast them as the main character of your story.