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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#168: Choo Choo!

The concept of train travel has always been a powerful motif in story telling. Train wagons can be a great setting for serendipitous love encounters, like for Jesse and Céline in Before Sunrise, or mysterious murders, like in Agatha Christie's classic Orient Express.

On a train, the mind wanders, time shifts, and life… unfolds. We hope that these train-inspired prompts will put you on the right track to writing some great stories.

This week's prompts

Start your story with someone looking out a train window.

Middle School – 98 stories

Write a story about a character who is moving on, literally or figuratively.

Narrative – 58 stories

Make a train station an important part of your story.

Narrative – 74 stories

Write a story about a character who misses a train, for better or worse.

Adults – 33 stories

Write a story that includes someone saying, “Bon voyage.”

Adults – 17 stories

Stories

“Encounter on a Train” by Kelly Johnson

Submitted to Contest #168

*This story contains multiple sensitive themes: Mental heath/PTSD, and graphic details of an auto accident*Pitch black night; that's all I can see through the glass. I can hear bullets of rain hammering against the window, but all I can see is dark, endless nothing. I close my eyes, and try to focus on the subtle click-clack of train tracks. At first, all I hear is the assaulting rain. A man with a gray beard snoring in the seat in front of mine, gray hat with a silvery white feather tipped precariously over his face. A distant conversation ...

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“Back” by Milena Todorova

Submitted to Contest #168

Rails, buildings, smaller buildings, trees, grass, fences, dots, longer dots, dragging lines, all moving faster and faster into a blurry running-away foxtrot. Leaving Vienna Central Station. Mel closed her eyes to lose the dizzy image and laid her head back into the cosy seatback. Coffee. She hoped the smell was more than a false brain trigger to her nose. She had slept enough and still felt sleepy. And hey, eighteen hours on a stinky bus crossing stinky borders in a stinky fog that smelled like despair. She had left her Plovdiv apar...

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“Happily devastated” by Miro Lippoldt

Submitted to Contest #168

Linus' suicide attempt was unsessful. And he was devastated because of it. He sighed as his mother blocked his way and snatched the house keys from him. Her eyes were bloodshot, her hair resembled a bird's nest. She had been crying again. "I'm just going for a walk, Mom." She frowned and closed the front door. "I thought going for a walk would help,” he said as if he asked a question. “You want me to feel better, don't you?" His shoulder bounced against the doorframe. Waiting, he eyed her and when she turned, shaking her head, he grabbed her...

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“Seven Days to Know You” by Caroline Conner

Submitted to Contest #168

Staring out the window of the train, Sammie observed the scenery as it rushed by. It was early fall, the ideal time to be traveling through North Carolina. Though she had not been many places in the world, she doubted anything was as beautiful as the fiery shades of red and orange draped over the trees outside. Try as she might to enjoy it, a glumness now clung to her. Only a couple hours into her trip on her way to meet her six-month-old goddaughter and visit her best friend after a long year away, she received a phone call that they were ...

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“The Passenger Train to Love” by Greg Gillis

Submitted to Contest #168

Steven gazed spellbound out the window at the blurs of trees, hydro poles, and rail markers as they raced past his window while he sat in the dining car of the Amtrak train from Chicago to St. Louis. When he left Union Station in Chicago at 7:15am, the sun was just beginning to rise over the eastern horizon. Steven had one thing on his mind, to locate the one person in the world who he couldn’t stop thinking of…...

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“Dead Air” by Amanda Lieser

Submitted to Contest #168

Story’s first line came from The First Line MagazineCW: allusions to war and deathRayna sat in front of the mirror removing her makeup and wondered who she would discover underneath. She reached over and flicked on the alarm clock radio on her husband’s nightstand. The soft whooshing sound of dead air began to echo in the empty bedroom. “I saw Tinny today. Had lunch,” Rayna mused while she began to wipe the darkened brows from her face. “She isn’t doing well. That boyfriend of hers always runnin’ around. But will she admit it?” queried Rayna...

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“Naked People” by Kendall Defoe

Submitted to Contest #168

The last cars of the train rolled quickly ahead him as he stood on the platform for the last time. Jimmy Erasmus felt the train leave before he actually saw the caboose and thought about how the world was laughing at him. What a pathetic way for this to end, he thought. This is really the last one for me… He rolled his suitcase to an empty bench and sat for a moment. There was no other announcement on the PA. The day was over for his plans.But was it over for the rest of the them? Jimmy was a part of a particular sect that had no sense of hu...

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“Flawless Fasting” by Marty B

Submitted to Contest #168

Some artists sang, some danced, some performed magic for the fawning crowds, the man in the cage starved.Behind thin metal bars, tall enough for him to stand up, and just wide enough for him to lay down, a man sat cross-legged on a folded mat. He was in conversation with several of the spectators, quietly talking, and then after a comment was made, laughed, along with many of the people. A clock was in the corner, with an extra hand, tracking along with minutes and hours, the days. It read 14 days, 12 hours and 57 minutes. The smal...

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“Orphan Train” by Brenda Wilson

Submitted to Contest #168

Two little eyes and a frown. I draw these onto the fogged-up window as the train chugs into the tunnel. My four-year-old sister, Kate, is asleep on my leg, drooling all over my only clean dress. I want to wake her up. I want to be mad at her for soiling the last thing Mama gave me—the last thing she ever will. But I don’t have the strength. Papa said everything will be alright now. We’d be safe now. This train will take us somewhere we can stay healthy and happy until we can be a family again. But we can never be a whole family aga...

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“Passengers Will Please Refrain” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #168

That song kept going through my mind, over and over again, “Passengers will please refrain from flushing toilets while the train is in the station.” I really had to go, and the train was just pulling into the station, and I would have to wait too long before I could go, do my bladderly duty and flush the toilet. If I refrained from passing water then it would unquestionably pass through both underwear and pants. I definitely could not let that happen. The meeting I w...

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“No Second Chances” by Dawn Kaltenbaugh

Submitted to Contest #168

I ran after the damn train, yelling, hey mister, can’t you see me? It was a hopeless endeavor, as no engineer or conductor is even going to slow down for a 60 something geezer who got to the station a couple of minutes late. If they only knew how important that day, that train ride was to me. I was on my way to an interview for what could have been the opportunity of a lifetime. I threw both my hat and my art case down in frustration. No use crying over missed connections. I sat down on the nearest bench, mopping m...

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“Wrong Track - Right Track” by Murray Burns

Submitted to Contest #168

Wrong Track – Right TrackI’m not sure this is what Mr. Zamzow had in mind when he told the class, “For very action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”; I got on the train- she didn’t.The pressure to excel, to succeed, to someday arrive at the Promised Land of wealth, power and position. Surely this could not be vanquished by a high school romance. It seemed like love, but my Dad warned me all about “puppy love”. In this day and age, the odds of a teenage romance making it to the alter, followed by a big house in the country with cute l...

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“Another Chance” by Taylor Hairston

Submitted to Contest #168

“Hey Siri, could you set a timer for 3 minutes?” Gracie asked her phone. The phone obliged her request as she made her way to the kitchen. In the grand scheme of things, 3 minutes isn’t remarkable. It comes and goes, usually without thought. For Gracie, thought could not escape her today. “Get a hold of yourself for goodness’ sake! You need to learn to relax and besides, Chance doesn’t even know. There’s no pressure.” She sat down in the bay window overlooking the yard, sippin...

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“The Gods of Alkebulan” by Jim Stroud

Submitted to Contest #168

When the world began, who can say? No one living now was alive then. There are many legends on how we came to be; this is the most accepted one. When the sun was reborn and life began anew, gods fell from the sky, their impact made rivers and valleys and mountains. This was of itself, not a strange thing, what was unusual (for gods) was how young they made themselves appear. When they stood up on the ground they landed on, or laid across the air they floated on, or danced atop the waters, they were all children. Some were skinny and others...

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“Our Train” by Kyle Bennett

Submitted to Contest #168

"I rode our train for the last time today. I'm going to miss it."Jake looked out at dozens of confused faces. His walker stood to one side, the podium itself enough to support his frail body. His eldest son, Joseph, himself an old man, stood at his side to steady him, to support him if necessary. God, give me the strength to say what I have to say, he thought to himself. Just these last few minutes before I rest. They need to know it. They need to know Mary as I knew her. Especially the young ones.He continued his eulogy. "I rode that t...

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$250

Prize money

280

Contest entries

105

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Oct 21, 2022 EST

Won by David Sweet 🏆

Title: SOUTHBOUND

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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