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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#191: Sakura

Spring is finally here! In Japan, the season is famously marked by the mass blooming of cherry blossoms, also known as sakura, an event so beautiful it attracts tourists from all over the world. Due to its impressive yet short-lived blooming, the flower symbolizes the fascinatingly transient nature of life — but it’s also associated with a message of renewal, and hope for the future.

To celebrate the new season, this week’s prompts are inspired by cherry blossoms and the feelings they evoke year after year 一 we hope they’ll bloom into great stories!

This week's prompts

Start your story with your character(s) going to buy some flowers.

Spring – 78 stories

Write about a character who is starting to open up to life again.

Character – 68 stories

Write a story about a character who’s late to witness a special event.

Funny – 25 stories

Make Japan (or Japanese culture) an element of your story.

Narrative – 37 stories

Write a story that includes someone saying, “I feel alive.”

Dialogue – 68 stories

Stories

“The Closing of a Door, The Opening of a Window” by Molly Layne

Submitted to Contest #191

Her father’s voice sounded hollow. He glanced around the room as if looking for someone or something else besides the small maid before them. “Professor Alvin Trewella. And this is my daughter. May I see the...Madam?” “Right this way, sir.” The corridor was long and narrow. Cobwebs hung along the ceiling like so many little hammocks and the smell of moth balls was overpowering. The place gave the impression of a giant storage tote. At the end of the corridor, there was a plain brown door. The employee tu...

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“Waking Up” by Joe Sweeney

Submitted to Contest #191

I stare wistfully out the small window and across the tarmac. I’m going to miss the desert. A typical early winter day in Tucson. The sun shines brightly from clear blue skies onto the tan desert sand, generously sprinkled with the cactus greens of saguaro, cholla, hedgehog, and barrel. Not a single Palo Verde tree in site, though. There are a handful of them decorating the main entrance side of the airport. The plane rolls backward and is turned. The pilot guides it to the runway. After a few minutes to wait, the engines whine and the...

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“A Flower Blooms in Springtime ” by A. D. Kramer

Submitted to Contest #191

“Roses – a classic man!” The cashier at the flower shop flicks his wrist with a flourish that gives Walter whiplash. He grunts and hands the man a crisp twenty dollar bill. “Oh! So sorry, that’ll actually be forty-four ninety-nine for the bouquet.” The cashier wrinkles his nose and gestures towards a fluorescent yellow price tag next to the rose display. Sure enough. Christ, all that for a couple of flowers that are wilting as they speak? Whatever. Prices have gone up in the last quarter-century, Walter supposes. He rifles through hi...

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“Snow on a Cherry Blossom” by Lie Moreira

Submitted to Contest #191

The world has become quieter, in a way, so to speak. From all those colorful noises that stay in our mind all the time. A deafening breath in the mind. What do I do with all this mental space I have left now? Since I gave up filling it with self-pity, I've had to get used to the silence of the mind. There are times when I get closer to his breathing just to feel the clearer presence of another life here in the apartment and fill that void. Yes, because there was only him and me left in the apartment since the plants weren't noticeable enough...

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“What Moves Us Forward” by Laurie .Bahlke

Submitted to Contest #191

Maggie was twenty-one and often woke in the night to dreams of chocolate cake, tapioca pudding, doughnuts with heavy, vanilla icing, cotton candy, and her mother’s raspberry cream-filled macaroons. She didn’t wake with energy or a happy disposition. Instead, she felt disoriented, alone, and sad. Her neighbor, Mrs. Carter told her once that dreams like this weren’t about sweet cravings but rather about conflict and sometimes, grief. Other nights, after Maggie went to check on her three-year-old daughter and rock her back to ...

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“Welcome To 2023” by Abner Perez

Submitted to Contest #191

An eye scanned the area through a slightly creaked door. Ninety-Three-year-old Adam opened the door wider as his heart felt like a speedbag, slowly moving at a decreasing speed before stopping. Adam put one shaking toe on his welcome mat. He had to shut his eyes and let his foot settle for balance before lifting the other. As his body crossed over, the rising sun met his face like an old friend saying hello. For a brief second, he had a flashback of himself standing on the grass in his backyard barefoot with his baby brother while feeling t...

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“Aurelia Aurita” by Alex Fischer

Submitted to Contest #191

The sound of woodland creatures fills the night air. Situated at the edge of a dark, remote lake is a young astronomer, Rentaro Harukaze. He has been camping out in the area for days, waiting in anticipation to spot a comet that hasn’t been seen for centuries. He doesn’t sleep but instead spies through his telescope, gazing at the stars dotting the black sky with a big smile on his face. “Five days I’ve camped out here, five nights I’ve been looking up, but I’m sure tonight I’ll see that comet!” he spoke to himself, recording whatever he say...

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“The Wedding” by Katie Marx

Submitted to Contest #191

I looked down at my watch and realized it was almost 1:45. I was going to be late to my sister’s wedding. First, I’ll explain how I got into this mess. First, my name is Olivia, my sister’s name is Cassandra, and my boyfriend's name is Oliver. One week ago my sister invited my boyfriend and I to her wedding. I was so excited when I found out she was getting married. I had no idea she was even engaged. I had been in Florida when she got engaged (we live in New York) and she forgot to tell me. Anyway, I informed her that I would be honored to ...

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“The Traitor Emperor” by Nitya Nair

Submitted to Contest #191

It’s almost time. I will finally have my revenge. Akimitsu promised himself. He would kill the Emperor if it was the last thing he did. When the clock struck twelve, he would finally avenge his whole family. Tying his long black hair up with a piece of leather, Akimi prepared himself to go see the king. Every day, without fail, a different servant was to bring him tea in his chambers at exactly 11:55, after he finished his sword training and bathed. Today, it was finally his turn. He’d been in the palace for over four years, watchi...

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“The Beauty of Sakura” by Robert Radcliff

Submitted to Contest #191

The petals surround me. Falling from the sky in tickertape fashion. Pink, pale rose and white, mystic and mysterious.Strange but compelling and unforgettable.Cherry blossoms symbolize the ephemeral nature of life. Their loveliness although tinged with volatility represent mortality and destiny.An empathy towards things and the reality of life, yet at the same time it signifies hope, renewal and positive thought.The cherry blossom leaves swirl around and lift my existence as I float in a lightness of being.My memory is mostly gone with unknow...

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“Tokyo rain” by Shelby Bingham

Submitted to Contest #191

Kai Sato's life was in shambles. His girlfriend... well, ex-girlfriend now had just kicked him to the curb, all because she thought he was having an affair with a co-worker, when he was, in fact, not at all. Kai hated that co-worker if he was being completely honest. His mom was in the hospital with stage four lung cancer, and he could lose his job at the hardware shop at any moment."Get out! Get out, get out, get out!" She screamed so loud all of Japan probably heard and then grabbed him by the shoulders and attempted to push him out the fr...

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“Imo (potatoes)” by Susie Helme

Submitted to Contest #191

The rice crop failed that autumn for the third year running, the wailing of the starving peasants penetrated deep into the daimyō’s (lord’s) castle. At the gate Sumitada and his father sat upon their horses surveying the rotting fields of Saitama Province. Orphaned children clustered at their stirrups daring touches upon their greaves to beg for coins. Bodies of dead peasants, their parents perhaps, half covered in water, lay still on the ground where tall rice stalks once had swayed, their hands still stuck in the wet earth where they had d...

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“Ame no Nuhoko” by Christopher Reifsteck

Submitted to Contest #191

“Greetings friend! Sorry, but traveling East is foreordained with ill omens today. Best to wait until tomorrow, right?”The peasant slowed to a stop in the dusty dirt road. Wearing a patchy, worn tunic and a patchy, worn headband, he surveyed the man barring his path. As the bright white robes and tall black kanmuri hat, seeped into recognition, the peasant’s eye widened in panic before he plunged to the ground in a deep bow.“Th-thank you sir! I am deeply sorry for not showing you the proper respect at once!”“No, no,” the finely dressed...

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“Haro's Crush” by Hope Linter

Submitted to Contest #191

I have taken some artistic license with names and other aspects of the Japanese culture. The Ryōan-ji Temple with it’s famous Zen garden does exist in Kyoto. Eighteen-year-old Hiro Ito contemplated the perfectly raked white gravel in the karesansui or dry landscape of the famous Ryōan-ji Zen garden in his hometown of Kyoto. Wooden floor boards embued with the earthy scent of generations and smoothed down over the centuries felt soft under his socks, and comforting to his touch sitting on the veranda. An uncle who had become a Japanese monk,...

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“Camp Us” by Andrew Fruchtman

Submitted to Contest #191

When our daughter was born, we still hadn’t decided on a name. A name is a very important thing. stirring connotations of other liked named people, for good or for worse. We had been debating for months, making lists, and searching the internet, everything except asking friends and family. That rarely goes well. We thought we’d wait till she arrived and were quite sure, upon looking into her face, a name would be communicated. Nothing came. Now it was time to check out of the hospital and it was crunch time. The nurs...

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$250

Prize money

276

Contest entries

170

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Mar 31, 2023 EST

Won by Pari Ghodsi 🏆

Title: Lilies

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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