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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 Rituals of Grief” by Marta Eastover

Submitted to Contest #191

She played the notes again. This time with her eyes closed. Her right pinky extended, it hovers, then lightly taps the black F#. After a moment’s pause, her left thumb signals the rest of her slender fingers to cascade down on the keys. They rapidly unleash like gorgeously falling raindrops, one after the next.The piano radiates out the emotions she held in, as she strikes the keys harder and harder, faster and faster. Notes swirl and fall like a storm. She pauses a moment after the song has finished and takes a breath. Her wrists linger and...

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“Watering Hole” by Cole Marshall

Submitted to Contest #191

Desolate. Barren? Sterile… One by one, the words trickled through Otto’s mind each morning as he ambled through the rubble streets of his hometown. Twenty-six years he’d lived here, and he heard the same three words echoing behind the curtain of his subconscious every day of his short life thus far. Still, he could never decide which word most accurately captured the truth of this place. As always, the streets were empty, save the beggars huddled around the watering hole – hoping beyond hope that the long-obsolete building would magically re...

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“At Sea” by Janet Carl

Submitted to Contest #191

A cruise. If nothing else, she would get out of town, out of bleak mid-western winter, away from friends who meant well, but who could do nothing for her but stuff her full of comfort food: mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, pot roast and potatoes, and every so often a big, greasy slab of lasagna. She had gained ten pounds since Glen died six months previously; the only thing that still fit was her shoes. And so, because it was winter and the boys thought it would help and because she was sick to death of comfort food, she had signed up for a ...

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“Feeble Hope” by Caroline Eddy

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #191

Love was stored inside an egg. Charlie remembered his father saying that. Not once or twice, but many times in multiple ways, and always with a bright smile. Charlie liked remembering his father smiling. If someone cooks you an egg, they love you. Simple as that. That was the core of his father’s argument. That eggs could embody all love the way Paul described it to the Corinthians – patient and kind, giving away all it had without arrogance or resentment. Eggs were resourceful, unobtrusive, a tiny mass of potential. If there were eggs...

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“Wildflower” by Kristin Neubauer

Submitted to Contest #191

Jenny steadied herself with her left hand as she squatted among the rubble. With her right hand, she tried to push aside a slab of siding jammed against the remains of the patio table. She’d taken off her work gloves when the insurance agent stopped by, and then plunged back into the debris, forgetting where she’d set them. With shards of glass covering the ground, she moved cautiously. But she thought she’d seen a familiar bit of red ceramic among the jumble of splintered boards and branches. She kept pushing through bits and pieces. One ...

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“'The Luck'” by E.L. Lallak

Submitted to Contest #191

‘The Luck’ "Good luck." Momah's words echo down the street. “It’s Like finding a tack in a haystack.” We were on a mission to find that lucky one with the four leaves. My Momah told me it would bring me ‘The Luck.’ Whatever that means. Dadbob tells Momah she will get lucky every time she wears those short skirts and paints her mouth and eyes. My Momah knows what ‘The Luck’ is. Guess she is the smart one cause Dadbob told me I’ve only made it four times around the sun. I think he’s silly. I see the sun come up every mornin...

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“the flower/the bud” by Cambria Denim

Submitted to Contest #191

She wasn’t San Francisco’s Best Florist ten years in a row, she was only her daughter. But Clara wasn’t immune to the charm of the shop, to the jewel toned bouquets hanging in the windows, like heaving baskets of star-colored fruit; to the sweet perfume air, the smell of only good tomorrows. She did well enough, with her mother away - quotas were reached, sprinklers turned on at the right times; she could wrap the thick, soft paper around the selected bouquets and nestle them in a customer’s arms like a newborn baby. But Clara saw i...

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“Mums” by Eva Mundo

Submitted to Contest #191

I open my heavy dark oak door, and as I step outside the cool spring breeze wraps around me. I shiver, surprised by the frigid wind, but wrap my arms around myself and continue to the flower stand. I’m on my way to buy a bouquet for my friend Ana, who’s been having some trouble with family recently, when my body starts to steadily adjust to the weather. I notice the dark clouds forming above, rain I smile to myself. My favorite weather, sitting inside, covered up to my chin in blankets, drinking warm milk or coffee while reading or wa...

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“Hell is Planted With the Best Intentions” by Patricia Merewether

Submitted to Contest #191

I should have seen this one coming when I heard Sharron’s voice on the phone. “Maddy?”“Yes?”I need your help. I have a plan, but I cannot pull it off alone. I want to surprise the residents of that high-rise old folks’ apartment building with flowers.”“You mean to send them all flowers? Are you crazy? That will cost a fortune, even if we get them at Walmart and deliver them ourselves. There must be two-hundred people living there!”“No, I have a different kind of floral delivery plan.”“Uh oh.”“No, this is a great idea, but will you help me?“S...

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“The Apple Orchard” by Richard E. Gower

Submitted to Contest #191

Malcolm Philip Harkness III woke on a warm, early-May morning of his ninety-first year to the sweet, delicate fragrance of millions of apple blossoms. But even before he opened his eyes, besides counting his blessings, he also pondered a dilemma.This time of year, mornings were still dark at 5 a.m., but on this day a rare cosmic peculiarity caused a false dawn to light up the sky to the east. Nevertheless, Malcolm was not quick to leave his bed as he usually did.He had rested deeply and well and, as usual, he had woken before the alarm...

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“Mr Jangles” by Hamzah Malik

Submitted to Contest #191

Grown-ups seem to frown a lot, don't they reader? But contrary to popular belief, this isn't because they are angry or frustrated. It's because deep down, they're confused and keenly aware that they have lost something very precious. Something that they used to cherish, that means more to them than their own name. That something they have lost, is childhood innocence. You see, everyone is born with a brightly coloured marble in their heart, which contains all of their childhood innocence, joy and laughter. It gleams brightly as they gro...

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“The Good Old Days” by Beth Peterson

Submitted to Contest #191

A lifetime of adventuring had led Helga the Fang-Wielder all over the nine kingdoms. She’d climbed the mist-cloaked peaks of the Loathsome Mountains. She’d wandered through the verdant fields of the Eternal Valley. She’d even, on her most daring quest, explored the haunted ruins of Storm Rock.Yet no matter how far she traveled, she always ended up at Silverwood Hall.It was a cozy tavern in a small town. Quiet and unassuming, it was not the kind of place Helga had ever expected to grow so attached to. But her memories had tangled themselves t...

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“Artificial Paradise” by Travis O

Submitted to Contest #191

The flower shop looks out of place. Like it doesn’t belong—never belonged. It’s red-brick exterior and dingy windows have certainly seen better days. It’s once-black door now looks rusted and old, like it hasn’t been opened in years. But the neon lights hanging over the roof say otherwise. OPEN is spelled out in yellow letters that flash intermittently. I reach for the door handle and pause. Where are the other customers? Shouldn’t there be people lined up out the door, chatting with one another and admiring the sights and smells? Maybe I’...

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“Moving On” by Deborah Cabral

Submitted to Contest #191

The crisp autumn air sent a shiver down her spine as she stepped onto the dirt road. Emma had been walking for hours, her feet pounding the pavement with each step. She was trying to clear her head and forget the mess that her life had become.She had lost her job, broken off a long-term relationship, and was now living in her car. She didn't know where she was headed, but she was determined to keep walking until she found a place to call home.The sun began to set, Emma saw a small sign that read "Welcome to Whistle Ridge." The sign was ...

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“Flow” by Sav Lightwood

Submitted to Contest #191

A saturated grassy hillside against a soup of blue and white. Toru replaced his computer five years ago but hadn’t bothered to change it off its default wallpaper. He didn’t do very much with it anyway. Facebook. Reddit. Instagram. He was a frog dipped in daze, leaping back and forth with no destination. Travel blogs for countries he had no interest in visiting. Cooking channels with ingredients he could never access. Gaming forums for games he didn’t even play. There had to be something on his screen. Something for his fingers to ...

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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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