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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#214: The Fall of Summer

For both kids and adults, summer is a time for dreams, freedom, and a break from routine. The scorching summer months offer new beginnings, new experiences, vacations in exotic places (real or backyard imaginings), new friendships, and perhaps even new romance. It’s when memories are created, and when ‘growing up’ happens.


Except there’s never enough time. The days fly by, the memories stack up, and pretty soon Fall’s got a stranglehold. To celebrate the last throes of the season, this week’s prompts encourage you to delve into your memories of the summer we’ve just had, and of summers long past.

🥇 Winner

“Departed, Return” by Emily Holding

“And then there was another Mark,” Dad recalls, sending the table into an encore of laughter.  “Stop it!” Hannah pleads, tears rolling over sun-reddened cheeks. She perches opposite him, one leg hiked on the serrated bistro chair, a rum and coke bubbling in her left hand, the right clutching her stomach. She is 18, the spit of her mother – so she’s told – and will be off to university in two mont...

39 comments 39 WINNER 🏆
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⭐️ Shortlisted

“The Uninvited” by Karen Corr

The story begins with Jason tossing his camping gear down the steps. Then he kicks it. Then he hits the wall with his fist. His mother's boyfriend, Kyle, steps into the living room and gives him a look. His mother starts to say something, but Kyle silences her."Get ahold of yourself, boy. You know what to do. Just because life unravels doesn't mean you have the right to unravel along with it. At fourteen, you've come to the age where you're too old to act this way. We've talked about this before."Jason takes deep breaths, th...

26 comments 26 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Three Camels For Your Daughter” by Hannah Lynn

“Two camels for your daughter?”Lost in thought, or maybe just trying to stay alive in the sizzling heat, I didn’t pay much attention until my dad replied, “Two camels?”“Three camels for your daughter.” This time a statement rather than a question.What is going on here?“Hun, what do you think?” He asked and all eyes turned to his wife sitting coolly sipping an iced tea. “That’s my daughter,” she said, not missing a beat.&nbsp...

15 comments 15 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“The Escapist” by Dorian Edgerly

The sun was going down on the last official night of summer, and if I could have, I would have frozen that moment in time forever. I would have let the sun hang eternally over the horizon, painting the ocean and the earth in stunning gold and orange, warming my face and hers despite the breeze that said fall was coming. I would have let it sit there in that spot, unmoving, never giving way to night or coming back again t...

7 comments 7 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Discover the Fall” by Raquel Belury Rosenberg

“I’m so glad we’re doing this,” Mom says just as we hit the highway.  “Me too, Mom,” I say.  Good timing says the angel I’ve been ignoring since we got into the car. He leans between the driver's and passenger's seats so that his transparent head bobbles between us.  “We’re going to have such a good time. I have plans. Look at the binder!” Mom slides a hot pink binder that's been baking on h...

6 comments 6 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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This week's prompts

Set your story on the eve of the first day back at school.

Kids – 34 stories

What was meant to be a great bonding vacation turns sour when an uninvited guest tags along.

Summer – 43 stories

Now, as an adult, your character looks back on this summer as the summer when they grew up.

Character – 44 stories

Each year, your character's family goes on the most exotic vacations. Finally they discover why — their family are assassins.

Funny – 37 stories

It’s the last evening of your vacation and you’re watching the sunset with your friends/partner/family, wishing summer would never end. But just as the sun dips below the horizon, you notice it returning in reverse.

Science Fiction – 52 stories

Stories

“Now You See Me, Now You Don't ” by Oskar Reiss

White trash, my parents called themselves. White trash pretending to be rich trash. Forever imposters. Once riding a donkey down Fort Davis, and then a few years later, in a shocking twist of fate, buying a pony for their daughter’s sweet sixteenth. We’ll never be one of them, Mom repeated. Never. Which was strange because, despite their protestations, they still had the money to take me everywhere in the world; whether that be double-fisting margaritas on a divan in Phuket, or eating sushi off someone’...

27 comments 27
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“Departed, Return” by Emily Holding

“And then there was another Mark,” Dad recalls, sending the table into an encore of laughter.  “Stop it!” Hannah pleads, tears rolling over sun-reddened cheeks. She perches opposite him, one leg hiked on the serrated bistro chair, a rum and coke bubbling in her left hand, the right clutching her stomach. She is 18, the spit of her mother – so she’s told – and will be off to university in two mont...

39 comments 39 WINNER 🏆
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“Potion-making” by AnneMarie Miles

Jayce is sprinting across the yard towards me, waving his arm high, triumphantly. “I found a feather, Mom! Look, it’s blue! It must be from a blue jay.”I squat down to inspect it. “I think you’re right. Excellent job, sweetheart. Let’s put it in the jar.”Jayce wastes no time, uncorking the tiny plastic jar before jamming the feather into it.“Is that our last thing?” Jayce asks, still stuffing the feather with his index finger. Once it’s mostly in, a few stray strands of the feather are...

38 comments 38
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“Barbara ” by Kevin Logue

Ever had a friend that didn't deserve the title? You know, the kind that borrows your favourite stonewashed jeans and returns them stained, or worse, torn, then just shrugs. The type of bitch that would gut punch you at a party just to get everybody laughing. Yeah, I hear ya, bully suits better than friend, but sometimes there's no escaping either. That's Barbara. Fiery, mouthy, shows up when least expected, Barbara. <...

28 comments 28
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“The Rules for Crying” by Delbert Griffith

She walks through the room in silence, yet she’s never silent. There is a liveliness to her, a lightening of the room, a lifting of the spirit that stays long after she’s gone. Madison is almost perfect. Unfortunately, she has bad taste in men; she married me. She likes that joke less than I do but she smiles and kisses me anyway. “Why is there a bottle of champagne on the table?” I ask this me...

30 comments 30
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“The Village of the Stars” by Michał Przywara

William’s mother poured him a glass of water to help him calm down, so he picked it up and drank it, only it was actually vodka and he coughed and spewed it all over the tiny table in Room 05. The mash potatoes on the little metal plate were drenched. William gasped and clutched his throat, and she rolled her eyes and took a sip from her own glass. He kicked her under the table with his melodramatic spasming – the...

18 comments 18
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“School Refusal” by Michelle Oliver

“Ellie, come out from under there.”“No, I’m fine right here.”“Come on Ellie, it’s getting late.”“I’m staying here.”“In a pillow fort?”“Yep.”“All night?”“Yep.”“Don’t you think that’s a little… I don’t know… immature?”“Nope.”“Come on Ellie, your bed is much more comfortable.”“I’m perfectly fine here, thank you very much.”“How about I get you a nice tub of Ben and Jerry’s and you crawl up here next to me and we will talk about it? Come on. I’ve got Chunky Mon...

37 comments 37
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“Reserved Park” by Chris Campbell

“What’d I tell you, mate? Best fucking sunset in Straya!”“Too right, mate. Never seen anything like it. It’s magical.”“One hundred ninety-eight feet deep, mate. Do you know that down there in the middle of the crater, there’s acacia and eucalyptus trees twenty-six feet high?”“Crikey. That’s deep.”“Yeah, nah mate. Deep ain’t even the word. Three hundred thousand years old but wasn’t discovered until nineteen fucking forty-seven! That’s how remote this place is.”“Yeah, mate. You could die out here.”...

24 comments 24
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“Please Don’t Leave Me” by Jonathan Page

Selena and I were dancing hand-in-hand and singing at the top of our lungs out on our porch at the Presidential Suite of the Playa Del Carmen Resort, just feet away from the Caribbean Sea. There was a bottle of champagne in tow and a heap of menthol cigarette butts littered by the landing. After exhausting Pat Benatar and Rihanna, we were up to Pink: “da-da-dot-da-da… please… please… don’t leave me…” and the palm trees were two-stepping while the ocean was drumming a steady syncopated beat.The...

8 comments 8
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“Fimbulwinter's End” by Derrick M Domican

To you, who is reading this, wherever you are, it saddens me to say this will be the last of my personal scribings, which you have presumably been perusing for some time, possibly out of curiosity for a civilisation lost, as I assume it must be, following the events of this eve. I am writing these words by candlelight, wrapped in my wolf hide cloak, attempting to fend off the cold and unbearable darkness that has descended on my mother’s Hall and lands, not to mention the world, following the death of the sun.Yes. That ...

27 comments 27
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“The Flying Fazzinis” by Jonathan Page

“Don’t do this!! I’m begging you. It’s not too late!” The thing about a double homicide is that somebody has to die first, and whoever goes second is going to kill the buzz by begging pathetically for their life. Happens every time.The Ringmaster had recently contacted me about a special mission involving Bobby and Rene—and I felt a little inexperienced to be doing a double on my own—but after tonight I was feeling more comfortable with the assignment.Bobby nonchalantly put the silencer o...

7 comments 7
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“Fool's Company” by Sol Caine

Here he goes again, complaining about the food. “Oh, it’s not as good as back home,” or “Why can’t they speak our language?” He’s the most annoying person to take anywhere on vacation. You know the type. Has to speak slowly in English, thinking the locals will understand him. Even ends some of his words with the letter O, like that suffices as speaking their language. “Excuse me, can you-O tell me-O where the nearest bank-O is… O?” He’s so behind the times.  Refuses to use electronic payments – instead, o...

17 comments 17
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“Pinch the Sun from the Sky” by Tom Skye

The sun's final sliver hovered over the Ibiza horizon as James pinched Shauna's knee to his right. They watched from the roof of a 20-story hotel three blocks from the beach. The two of them sang together:"Oh, tell me why, do we build castles in the sky? Oh, tell me why…."."I would pinch the sun from the sky for you if I could," James whispered.Shauna began to laugh as James belted the female vocal with eyes closed to disastrous effect. The ecstasy pills from the previous night were st...

16 comments 16
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“First Day Back” by Jonathan Page

The rush of air smashed into John’s face as he balanced on the handlebars of the camp counselor’s bicycle, and with each bump on the hot asphalt, John’s bottom bounced into the air and lost contact with the thin handlebar that he clung to for dear life. Jim, the camp counselor, laughed. “Serves you right for not having a bike of your own—just one day of camp left—it isn’t too late to take a spill, weirdo.”John was looking forward to his first day of middle school the next day. It would be his first day at ...

14 comments 14
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“Whose Dwelling is the Light of Setting Suns” by Chris Miller

I was warned as a child that looking directly at the sun would result in the retinas being burned out of my skull. That they would be fried like onions, sizzling unfunnily in vitreous humour. Nobody ever identified the point at which it was not only safe, but positively medicinal to look directly at the sun. Rays robbed of retina sauteing power by virtue of travelling on an angled path through the atmosphere now painted me in the same milky peach as the few thin, gilt-edged clouds that teased over the horizon. She...

16 comments 16
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$250

Prize money

210

Contest entries

99

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Sep 08, 2023 EST

Won by Emily Holding 🏆

Title: Departed, Return

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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