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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#195: Sidekicks and Second Strings

Growing up, I was never a huge fan of superheroes. Maybe because I didn’t really identify with the grand, brave acts and main-character energy of the likes of Spider-Man, Batman, or even Sherlock Holmes. Instead, I was partial to the less flashy, secondary characters: the Watsons working quietly behind the scenes, the bassist in the band, or the defenders who quietly keep the team from conceding points, while the quarterback gets most of the credit.

This week, I want your stories to be an ode to the unsung heroes, the underdogs of storytelling, and the small acts that, collectively, can be just as heroic as catching the bad guy or defeating evil in one grand swoop.

🥇 Winner

“Untold” by Geir Westrul

🏆 Winner of Contest #195

“Where are we?” the old man said.“In a dark wood.”“Who are you?” said the old man.“Just … a brother,” said the young man.“Stop,” the old man said. “Let me look at you.”“It is dark.”“And I am blind. For me it is always dark. I can see with my hands, if you will allow me.”“Yes.”The old man felt first the young man’s wavy hair.“Please, describe the color of your hair.”“Have you seen colors?”“I have never had sight.”“Then how can I describe colors?”“I know the cold on my skin of the black, moonless night,” the blind, old man said. “I know the co...

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⭐️ Shortlisted

“A Simple Act of Kindness” by Murray Burns

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #195

A Simple Act of Kindness“The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves.”-Amelia EarhartRule #1- Four downs to get the ball across the goal line (telephone pole); no first downs.Rule #2- Pass rusher must count three “Mississippies” before rushing the quarterback. (No cheating.)Rule #3- No catching the ball on a bounce off the side or roof of a garage.Rule #4- If football goes into Mr. Radtke’s yard, leave ball, run home, and the kid responsible for sending the ball into the forbidden zone shall endure th...

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“The Epiphanies of Jubu Djanx: A Speculative Book Review” by Mike Panasitti

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #195

The Epiphanies of Jubu Djanx is Michael Pizanti’s first novel. It recounts the life of the eponymous character who considers himself a perennial wanderer, a drop-out scholar, an aspiring, but luckless, singer, a dubious saint. Djanx’s adventures are frequent and often triggered by aberrant sensorial impressions: by something seen that feels like it has already been seen. By words heard that have a double, and usually troubling, meaning. Adding flavor to the novel's 27 chapters are a collection of colorful mental heal...

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“The Watch” by C. Charles

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #195

The faint buzz from the fluorescent lights overhead was vaguely grating, like when you’re about to drift into sleep on a hot summer night and you hear a mosquito fly by your head, not so close that you wake up fully, but close enough that it pulls you from the edge of sleep. The lights tinged the break room in a faint, stomach-churning green, made worse by how white the room was. The walls were white, the cupboards were white, the fridge, the tables, the chairs. White. The sickly green hue was made worse by the grey, shadowless light ...

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“AITA? or WWMD?” by Anne Shillingsburg

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #195

To Mr. R. Walton, St. Petersburgh, June 10, 17__My Dear Robert, It was with tremendous satisfaction that I received your copious packet of letters sent from St. Petersburgh. I am greatly relieved that you have returned to civilization intact. You were perhaps apprehensive that I would not credit your amazing tales, but you may rest assured that I do not imagine you could have made yourself out to be such a dolt in a story of your own invention. I have recounted the tale to several acquaintances, and they are of one mind with me: t...

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This week's prompts

Set your story in a staff room of an essential profession that is often undervalued — nurses, cafeteria staff, sanitation workers, etc.

Character – 51 stories

Write a story from the point of view of a sidekick, or someone who is happy to stay away from the limelight.

Character – 87 stories

Write a story about someone who receives — or makes — a life-changing, anonymous donation.

Dramatic – 23 stories

Write a story that includes the phrase “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

Dialogue – 27 stories

Write about someone who is learning to recognize and take credit for their own achievements.

Character – 18 stories

Stories

“Untold” by Geir Westrul

🏆 Winner of Contest #195

“Where are we?” the old man said.“In a dark wood.”“Who are you?” said the old man.“Just … a brother,” said the young man.“Stop,” the old man said. “Let me look at you.”“It is dark.”“And I am blind. For me it is always dark. I can see with my hands, if you will allow me.”“Yes.”The old man felt first the young man’s wavy hair.“Please, describe the color of your hair.”“Have you seen colors?”“I have never had sight.”“Then how can I describe colors?”“I know the cold on my skin of the black, moonless night,” the blind, old man said. “I know the co...

128 comments 128

Read story

“A Simple Act of Kindness” by Murray Burns

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #195

A Simple Act of Kindness“The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves.”-Amelia EarhartRule #1- Four downs to get the ball across the goal line (telephone pole); no first downs.Rule #2- Pass rusher must count three “Mississippies” before rushing the quarterback. (No cheating.)Rule #3- No catching the ball on a bounce off the side or roof of a garage.Rule #4- If football goes into Mr. Radtke’s yard, leave ball, run home, and the kid responsible for sending the ball into the forbidden zone shall endure th...

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“Pagmamano” by Laurel Hanson

Submitted to Contest #195

He wakes up in the heat. The moist air poaches him in his own skin. Water dripping off the canopy in a steady rhythm is punctuated by the distant cries of jungle birds. He feels spiders making their way under his fatigues but can’t move to brush them off. He must stay absolutely still or risk giving away their position.The dripping turns into a strange high-pitched beeping. Pain radiating up his legs is like battalions of fire ants swarming their way to his thighs. The darkness is swallowing him.He opened his eyes to hard white light and an ...

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“Birthday Ghost” by V. S. Rose

Submitted to Contest #195

In my country, the heroes aren’t like the American ones. All the heroes in American movies have big muscles, puffy hair, and teeth like those Colgate commercials. Maybe that’s what you need to get the girl in the end. If that’s what a hero looks like, I’m out of luck. It’s hard when you look like me. If I couldn’t be a hero, maybe I could be a sidekick. A sidekick would be easy. You don’t have to fight as many bad guys or train so hard. Sure, you don’t get the girl in the end, but I’m OK with that. Girls are icky. Well, Amir says they a...

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“The Epiphanies of Jubu Djanx: A Speculative Book Review” by Mike Panasitti

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #195

The Epiphanies of Jubu Djanx is Michael Pizanti’s first novel. It recounts the life of the eponymous character who considers himself a perennial wanderer, a drop-out scholar, an aspiring, but luckless, singer, a dubious saint. Djanx’s adventures are frequent and often triggered by aberrant sensorial impressions: by something seen that feels like it has already been seen. By words heard that have a double, and usually troubling, meaning. Adding flavor to the novel's 27 chapters are a collection of colorful mental heal...

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“Intern 17” by Michał Przywara

Submitted to Contest #195

Intern 17 got off the bus right as the Hypermetro City Authority triggered a blanket warning. At once, all streets were bathed with a bland yellow emergency light and all windows on every building self-shuttered with reinforced titanium plates. Every street corner had a sturdy municipal loudspeaker, and these now clicked to life – and then Emergency Enid spoke. “Attention all citizens.” Her voice was the pleasant kind of dull, ideally suited to inoffensive announcements. “An imminent Superhuman Disagreement Incident has been detected, above ...

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“A Doll's Funeral” by Brynn Helena

Submitted to Contest #195

Whenever he found one that looked serene... he tried to savor it. Though, admittedly, it was hard to really stay in such a state once he started moving the body. Particularly, carrying the bodies was always the worst part. He'd noticed over the years that it never got any easier, not mentally or physically. Often he'd heard people speculate: the lighter the body the easier the work. But lighter, usually just meant younger...He didn't agree with their sentiment but he usually just nodded along. This particular girl, maybe three days old—...

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“Trampled Dreams Part 2” by Mary Bendickson

Submitted to Contest #195

Trampled Dreams Part 2 (Second half of first chapter in my unpublished novel “A Brilliantly Scathing Life”) As he rode away from Kendra Potter's wagon party the trail leader mulled over who masterminded that outfit. Surely, not that greenhorn who got himself thrown from his horse this morning. He wondered why anyone who had obviously put so much forethought into travel accommodations had overlooked common sense things like foot and head wear. And why did her widow garb already look so tattered? He was pretty sure the shawl had been cut from...

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“One Single Moment ” by Michelle Oliver

Submitted to Contest #195

David closed his eyes and rested his head in his hands for just one moment. The midwife was doing her ‘thing’ and David preferred to know as little about the ‘thing’ as possible. It had been such a long time since he had slept, he thought wearily, as his brain presented visions of blankets and pillows invitingly on his closed lids. They had induced Rosie at 8pm and he dared not look again at the clock. The last time he checked, it was 6am, and he was almost sure that had been hours ago. But who was he to complain? Rosie was th...

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“A Little Story before I Die” by Delbert Griffith

Submitted to Contest #195

March 21, 1923Dr. Camp felt it. The years crushed down on him, leaving him with the unbearable loneliness that comes from losing one’s lifelong companions and the physical pain that an adventurous life gave him. The nurses would give him morphine, but never enough to eradicate the physical pain, never enough to ignore the loneliness.Truth be told, the good doctor was ready to die. Yet…yet he wouldn’t. Not yet. He had one more tale to write, one more story that had to be penned before he would let himself move on to whatever came next.“I don’...

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“WOOMBAA!” by Chris Campbell

Submitted to Contest #195

“It’s Woombaa!” The male Indian translator insisted, with hands cupping his abdomen. “No, It’s Womb!” The female interpreter from Zimbabwe stipulated, tapping her solar plexus as she pronounced the word. “It’s Woombaa!” “No, Womb!” Chloe Petersen had just entered the unusually crowded interpreter’s staffroom at the United Nations building in New York City. It was her first day in a new career that she had been studying and working hard for. However, she had inadvertently found herself in the middle of a war of words between several of the ot...

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“The SPON” by Scott Christenson

Submitted to Contest #195

Things turned from bad to worse for my roommate David, back in the 2020s. His problems began with the YouTube videos, then the TikTok and Instagram shorts, and finally, companies began to distribute information on how to ‘spot the narcissist’.“It’s not fair!” David moaned. “On every new project at work, the architecture team puts me on bathroom and storage design saying, "so my ego doesn’t grow any larger.’”I tried to look sympathetic. “It’s not their fault. Everyone has been receiving training on how to deal with Cat-7 narcissists.” “C...

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“Shipwreck” by Jack Kimball

Submitted to Contest #195

Tuesday, January 23rd, 190610:06 AMIf Joe was told the sea was not vengeful, did not take pleasure in, did not revel in, the murder of helpless souls, he wouldn’t believe it; for the sea at that moment was a howling rage, purposely dragging him from the rocks at Pachena Point, plunging him beneath the surging tide. He once again came to the surface, coughing, eschewing seawater, his bare feet scrambling on the slimed green ledge beneath the swell, fighting to gain a foothold.His head now barely above water, he gasped for breath in the freezi...

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“Rome Wasn’t Built…” by Helen A Smith

Submitted to Contest #195

More than twenty years ago, I trudged through a rain-lined street that led to a shop where I was about to start my new job. It was a day early in December, not quite cold enough to be comforted by a blanket of snow. A fog hung like a damp cloak in the air and the streams that ran through the town were full almost to the brim even before they spilled into the dark flowing river. Before I left home, I’d had a hard job deciding what to wear that first day as the new manager of the charity shop. In the end, I had opted for a smart pair of trouse...

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“The Spiritual Retreat” by Ashley Elizabeth

Submitted to Contest #195

Georgiana sat in the foyer in tears. She had made it all the way through the funeral without losing control. Now, alone in her aunt’s home, she let the tears fall. She cried for all the beautiful memories she had with her aunt. She cried for the loss of her closest relative, the person who understood her most in the world. The lawyer Aunt Eve had only half tolerated in life had handed Georgiana the keys to this house and a letter after the funeral. He said everything should be explained in the letter, though he had never read it. Eve ...

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$250

Prize money

206

Contest entries

92

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Apr 28, 2023 EST

Won by Geir Westrul 🏆

Title: Untold

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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