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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#18: Pocketful of Sunshine

Pockets are where we keep items of importance: our keys, cellphone, wallet, or, if you're Bilbo Baggins, the One Ring. (And if you're Natasha Bedingfield, the sun.)

Losing or finding such items can be a strong starting point for a story. Which is why this week, we're challenging you to write a pocket-sized (aka "short") story based on a pocket-themed prompt.

This week's prompts

Write a story about a character who buys a secondhand coat and then discovers something in the pocket.

Thriller and Suspense – 99 stories

Your fingers tensed around the object in your pocket, ready to pull it out at a moment's notice.

Science Fiction – 44 stories

Write a story about someone cleaning out their attic. They find an old piece of clothing, and inside of its pocket is an old keepsake.

Adults – 52 stories

"It was just here!" you shout, frantically searching your pockets for the missing thing.

Funny – 31 stories

Write a story about a very skilled pickpocket.

Character – 65 stories

Stories

“The Lunch Card” by Sharron LaJean

Submitted to Contest #18

The line is moving too slowly. The smell of food causes me to salivate and swallow. The kids around me must be less hungry than me, because they are talking and laughing together, seemingly unaware of the smell of pizza enveloping us. I am new to this school. Being new to school isn’t new to me. I went to a different school every year. Some years, we moved during the school year, leaving me with two sets of classmates to meet. I was new, the lunch routine was new, the current topic of conversation was new. I clutched the object in pocket. It...

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“The Note Which Purged Darkness ” by Dominique Caston

Submitted to Contest #18

The wildernesses was pitch black according to the time of night; The way by which to go could no man find, and a light that could them was no where in sight. This is the circumstance in which I, Josh, found myself in as i awoke to the dreadful atmosphere of the hostile wasteland which had no name, and filled to the brim with man-eating entities was unto us a trial of survival of the fittest, or so it did seem initially. Yet, by a reason outside of me was I caused to remember an item which I possessed in my pocket, which by feel, was flimsy l...

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“Ms. Periwinkle” by Ira Wahlmeier

Submitted to Contest #18

The sweat dripped down my temples, and beaded in the small of my back. I must have looked high, with my eyes darting left and right, anxious to react to an aggressor.This morning was a rough one – my boyfriend of three years had broken up with me after another fight about money. I had left the office downtown and walked straight past my bus stop. I zigged and zagged around high rises and low rises, down main roads and through alleyways.Sometimes the sound of the trucks filled my senses, and other times I relied on the smell of 20-stories of ...

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“Protection” by Sandra Ramos

Submitted to Contest #18

When you grow up in a place like I did survival of fittest was the name of the game. When I was 9, my grandfather called me over to him he said he had something to give me but that it had to be done in private. I was to meet him in his bedroom at six because that's where he had my gift hidden. I kept thinking of what it could be after all he was a veteran. It would be pretty cool to have one of his metals to hang up in my room. The day seemed to drag I was counting the hours, minutes, and seconds, I was waiting for six o'clock. When the tim...

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“My secret weapon” by Alice Guile

Submitted to Contest #18

I met him at the office Christmas party, such an awful cliché. He worked in another department and a friend of mine at work knew his manager, so we went over to chat to her, and he was there next to her, looking sophisticated. It was love at first sight really. I started talking to me and we found out that we had everything in common, even down to the same obscure taste in music. We’d both kept a pet snake before, so many weird coincidences. I was smarting from a very bad break up from my son’s father a year previously and I’d not had the re...

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“The Kill Switch” by Jack Walters

Submitted to Contest #18

Monday 4th September, 2001They only really tell you about the things they can predict. Petty theft, street muggings, even hostage negotiation. They sit you down in the big white room, show you the slideshow and talk you through the fifteen year old presentation. But everything works on paper. That's what paper's for. We have control; we only write what we want to write. But the real world isn't like that, and they can't prepare you for the real world. Nobody can.The first thing I remember from that day is the blistering cold as I made my wa...

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“Support Player” by David Weaver

Submitted to Contest #18

Mike heard the clunk-click of the door then Janey threw herself into the backseat of the car. He could tell she was angry. The air bristled with an explosive cocktail of annoyance and frustration. She was a little drunk as well as she banged a petulant hand on the headrest in front.“Let’s go then!”“Where’s Karen?” He asked.“She’s not coming, okay? Let’s just go.”He bit back a reply and started the engine.The wipers slapped away enough water for him to make out the narrow country lane he’d hesitantly navigated a few minutes earlier. Finding t...

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“Deep and dangerous pockets” by Fran Tracey

Submitted to Contest #18

Boldness. That was one crime she had been accused of. She stood in front of her mistress as still as she could manage, well aware that any excuse for punishment would be found. Her hands, tucked behind her back, itched to reach under her apron which was stained with blood fresh from the rabbits she had skinned early that morning, and into the forbidden pockets that lurked beneath. There was an object there. An object she could almost feel in her hands: smooth cool metal, long and thin. But women didn’t possess pockets, not like these, attach...

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“Down with The Monarchy” by Sylvia Hurley

Submitted to Contest #18

My fingers tense around the lipstick tube in my pocket as the bathroom door opens.Not the target.I loose a small breath and appear to be washing my hands and applying makeup.I hum under my breath as I do inspect my face, looking for any area I can fix.I know Jack is our guy in the van, and Ben has to intercept and direct the target but did I really have to get stuck in the bathroom?'Of course stupid you're the only girl, besides it's all for the cause. It's worth it.' The logical part of my brain argues.The woman who had entered the bathroom...

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“What a Beautiful Night...” by Virginia Steffen

Submitted to Contest #18

My boots clopped along the pavement as I travelled down the tired street. No one else was in sight, but that was how I preferred it. My walks were my time to be alone, away from the babbling mouths of my two children and husband. I needed the quiet sometimes, and I found that quiet under the night sky. I had walked every day for two years, taking the same route almost every time. That day I had decided to go down a side street and explore somewhere new. The frosty wind tickled the trees and their leaves whispered in reply. The full power of ...

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“Absolution Tuesday” by Stacy Conley

Submitted to Contest #18

I walked along the busy sidewalk, my fingers tensing around the small object in my right pocket, ready to pull it out at a moment’s notice. Being right-handed, that was the safest place to keep it. Hidden deep in my jacket pocket, my ungloved fingers traced along its rounded tip and along its smooth sides. It was a reassuring weight in my hand. Its cool smoothness had a calming effect. It had been raining for three days, but the skies had finally cle...

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“Friendship” by Anie Doe

Submitted to Contest #18

John was walking along the street, feeling that he was right where he was supposed to be. His belonging to the time and situation was almost tangible. He had left work about an hour ago and was walking in his half elegant, half sportive shirt enjoying the sun rays falling lightly onto his arms and face. It was a cool summer when the temperature didn't get over 25 degrees and you could walk rather briskly without sweating or feeling uncomfortable. He noticed the green trees and pigeons flying in the air. Normally, he didn't like pigeons ...

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“My Back Pocket” by Jane Kelley

Submitted to Contest #18

The school bell rang twice. That meant it was time for the second graders, like me, to go to recess. My classmates dropped their pencils and an excited buzz filled the room. Recess was meant to be a time for running off steam, playing with friends, and clearing our minds in the fresh air. Not for me! For me, those two bells meant twenty minutes of terror. Twenty whole minutes of feeling totally alone in the world. Twenty whole minutes of runn...

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““The letter you left behind” ” by Victoria Zataray

Submitted to Contest #18

He was spitting out words as if he meant them, repeating them to me knowing he may not like them later. I stood there questioning my dignity and wondering if what I was going to say would hurt me in the long run. “See you don’t know because your too young to understand. I know your mother better than you I’m sorry but there are things you don’t know.” My tongue rolled around in my mouth choosing what to say back to him. My hand in a tight grip in my pocket was the letter from her.“Look it was her that left the hotel, she didn’t sta...

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“At least I tried” by Amanda Averell

Submitted to Contest #18

I’ve been here before. I’ve played this game. With gusto, my feet hit the pavement, it feels slippery. It’s a gray, misty November day. Not cold enough to frost the windows of my car, but cold enough to make those horizontal wires on my back windshield remind me of latitudinal lines. Oh, how I yearn for a warm beach near the equator, instead of being forced into this hellscape. I grab my supplies from the trunk. For this job, you need the right tools. I have my favorites I love to use, they’ve seen better days; blood-stained, barely han...

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$50

Prize money

291

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Dec 06, 2019 EST

Won by Sam Lauren 🏆

Title: The Price of a Nice Guy

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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