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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

“A Ticket to Burton-Upon-Trent” by Alyse Morrell

Submitted to Contest #18

The day felt sickeningly long to David. He sorted through his fifth box of donations for his shift, and he still had about 10 more to go. “How are there so many drop offs today?” David asked. “It’s almost spring,” his manager told him, “most people feel like getting rid of the old this time of year. Of course they don’t realize that by Christmas, they’ve bought back almost the same amount that they’ve just dumped off. And so the cycle repeats itself.” David had only worke...

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“A Genie's Trick” by Calvin Friedlander

Submitted to Contest #18

My mind shook like an earthquake, I was tired, alone and afraid. A voice kept whispering in the back of my mind. 'Should I buy it?’ I shook away the thought and looked around. My mind drifted away again. For a second, I forgot where I was and where I'd been. I reached inside my coat pocket and, brushing past my wallet, pulled out my silver pocket watch. The time on the gears read 4:15 PM. Then it all came back to me, as I gazed at my surroundings. I was in a store, an off-hand store; a place where people t...

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““Butterflies”” by Dawn Mandzik

Submitted to Contest #18

The well dressed elderly gentleman sat looking towards the west as the last moments of sunlight filtered through the Venetian blinds. Soon the clattering of dinner carts was heard as uniformed aides rolled them down the hallway. Right on time, Henry thought. Henry was glad he was already in the dining hall. Avoid the rush he always thought. If he could think. Butterflies in my head he reminded himself. Sometimes good days sometimes blurry days. Today was one of those blu...

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“A Child's Scribble” by Linda Herskovic

Submitted to Contest #18

My niece was waiting anxiously and impatiently for me to give her the folded note. She remembered the paper; she was about 4 when she gave it to him but she remembered. I was surprised that she did. I didn’t remember it although I was there too.“Goddamn it. It was just here!” I shouted, frantically searching my pockets for the missing thing. I couldn’t imagine where it was. I was a chronic checker and had felt the small paper about a hundred times on the bus. But maybe that one time, that last time, it fell out of my pocket and it was on the...

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“Isabella is Gone” by Daniel Brown

Submitted to Contest #18

“It was just here!” I must have scrounged around in my coat, pants, and jacket pockets for two minutes pulling out my: keys, stray border collie hairs from my the last house I hit for the day, a packet of unused gum, tiny phone book/agenda book, broken sports watch I need to get fixed and a random ballpoint pen. “It has to be here somewhere.” The sole picture I have with Isabella is the one I’m turning the house upside down to find. It’s the one where we’re as high as paper lanterns on a Ferris wheel in a theme park that closed down fiv...

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“Hidden Truths” by Alaina Logan

Submitted to Contest #18

Piper sank slowly onto an old pillow. Shaking, she lay her head in-between her knees."Piper, c'mon. You know it isn't what it could have been," I pleaded."But it was terrible." Her voice trembled with emotion. I hardly recognized her. A few months ago we had been living the life in an apartment. Then like a magic trick-POOF! Done. Kicked out to live on the streets with the rats."Piper, it was better than our last run," I tried again, crouching down beside her and wrapping my arms around my knees, as if making myself into a tight ball would f...

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“The Old Man's Friend” by Deborah Mercer

Submitted to Contest #18

Most people agreed that the Hospice Shop got it just right. It wasn’t one of those charity shops that made the average jumble sale look like Harrods, but it hadn’t been colour-coordinated to within an inch of its life with prices to match. Betty Chambers, the manager, was one of those Good Eggs that every town needs to function properly, though there were occasionally unkind whispers that if she saw a committee, she’d apply to join it on principle before she even knew what it was for or against. But one thing – well, two, real...

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“Second Hands” by Elizabeth Donohue

Submitted to Contest #18

Bing Matherson grunted and rolled over on the flattened cardboard box he lay on, beneath the continuous roar of the cars and trucks on the overpass above. He shivered violently in the frigid air and pulled his threadbare blanket tighter about him.“Winter coming early this year, Bing.”“Yeah, Bob. I reckon you might be right.”“Swig?” Bob proffered the whiskey bottle but Bing shook his head.“Not about to start that now.” Bing rubbed his face, then his arms, massaging his bony limbs to create some kind of heat.“It will warm you up from the insid...

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“Secret Message” by Camill Hawkins

Submitted to Contest #18

Southern Living is about more than home-cooked Sunday dinners, church and being raised with good strong traditional morals. It's about tradition, family, bonds, holding on to the memories of our past and keeping the memories of our ancestors alive. No matter if you're southern-born or have just moved into the south the heritage and our simple southern ways just seem to take a deep root inside everyone it touches. A warm feeling of being at home fills them to their core after they have experienced our small town hospitality first hand. Among ...

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“Tenerife Sea” by Renée Chatelain

Submitted to Contest #18

“I know it’s in here somewhere,” I mumbled, digging around old, unmarked boxes. I was in the process of purging my attic, but I had taken a break to decorate the Christmas tree. “Honey! Do you know where we put the Christmas lights last year? The purple ones?” “No,” Jake hollered back. “I’ll look down in the basement!” I sighed and plopped down on what I thought was a bench. I found to my dismay that my seat was not a bench, but a crinkly old cardboard box that promptly collapsed when I sat. The hard object in the box hit my tail...

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“Tiny Steps” by Alaina Logan

Submitted to Contest #18

I dug around, searching for what Grams could have been looking for. The storage room was like a second-hand attic, a place for things that didn’t have a place in the attic. She used to organize it, and make it look like an office, rather than a storage room. But when she grew older and began to have back problems, she eventually found it as too much work and quit. “What was it again?” I asked Grams, who was standing in the doorway. “It’s a green trunk, pretty small, but big enough to fit two cats in it. There’s also a purple one. Keep a...

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“The Memory Ticket” by Mary Waters

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #18

It was no good, I’d wallowed enough. Time to sort myself out. Since long before Matt died, I promised myself I’d one day reach the attic. Today was to be the day. I paused before placing my foot on the bottom rung of the ladder. The last time I’d been up there was ten years ago, when we moved here. Matt laughed at my fear of the attic and I tried to join in, but I felt terrified. ‘My big sisters told me there were bats in out attic when I was a kid,’ I told him. ‘I think it scared me so much that I’ve never built up the nerve to go an...

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“Crossed Lines” by Deborah Mercer

Submitted to Contest #18

Look, I’m a thief. I’m not going to pretend otherwise or give it any fancy name or make out that I’m some kind of latter day Robin or Robina Hood. Though come to that, Robin can be a woman’s name, too. But it’s not mine. My Mum landed me with the name Verity. You couldn’t make it up. I do it because I’m good at it and it beats working in a call centre or a kitchen and it beats signing on benefits hands down. I have certain principles. I generally leave old ladies alone, though how m...

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“Pocketful of Happiness” by Rosie Greenwood

Submitted to Contest #18

I examined the coat in the mirror. It was beautiful, the kind of thing a princess would wear. My hands slipped into the, thankfully, very large pockets, where I felt something hard. I pulled it out—it was a leather-bound book, beautiful and old It was a thick book, and the pages were worn. I opened it and read the first paragraph. September 7, 1538Today was boring, just like always. Mama tells me to keep a diary, and it will make life seem more interesting. I don’t believe her. But I’m going to try. But I don’t believe anything can make...

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“The Second-Chance Coat” by Dallas Spires

Submitted to Contest #18

Winter set in early. As the sun fell below the horizon and the temperature dipped with it, an icy wind whipped around the corners of the old brick buildings downtown. Passers-by huddled in their coats on the way to their destinations in the coming night. Well, all save for one, it seemed. Caught off guard by the sudden chill in the air, Billy Fletcher stood in front of the brightly lit window of a shop he’d never noticed before, and he’d walked this block to and fro every day for years, coming and going, heading into work and then heading ho...

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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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