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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.

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 – 40 stories

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

Funny – 36 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 – 49 stories

Stories

“A Wild Daisy” by Coralie Cowan

Submitted to Contest #214

A single drop of clear fluid slowly bulged from the tiny hole at the bottom of the bag of poison. It grew fatter and fatter, until it dropped silently into the tube that led to her arm. Another took its place. Life and death measured out in single droplets. Every time she swore she wouldn’t watch them. Every time her eyes dragged back to the clear globes of poison that were supposed to save her life. It was time in a bottle, counting backwards. The squeaks of soft soled sensible shoes passed by in all directions. Wheels bustled past. V...

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“Uncle Meats” by Marc Rothstein

Submitted to Contest #214

Shit, an accident. Of all places, why here? Morning rush hour traffic slowed to a crawl, and my anxiety rocketed. A poor section of suburban Philadelphia displayed a rundown corner bar, pawn shop, and vintage mom-and-pop grocery store to the disgust of angry commuters. Nicknamed West Conshy because Conshohocken was a mouthful, it glared at me through my driver-side window as my car came to a halt. This was precisely where my life took a detour almost two decades ago. Now, as I sat helplessly in traffic, the hazy details of my past re-crystal...

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“A Summer Awakening” by Todd Duddka

Submitted to Contest #214

“Hello Labor Day, I made it!” Saying these words out loud even though I was alone so no one heard them but it felt so good for me to hear. Usually, when the highly annoying iPhone alarm clock emits that terrible noise that signals it is time to rise, I am not such a cheery person. Most days, that sound would make me think, “oh gee, thanks God, another shitty day ahead.” Not today. Today IS a different day. I truly find it hard to believe it’s already Labor Day! Traditionally this is the end of summer e...

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“What Was It” by Lynne Boyd

Submitted to Contest #214

It was my first. I had just turned 19, and before this I thought I knew everything. Turns out I didn’t know a damn thing about life. Or death. It felt like someone had taken a baseball bat to my gut, everything about me felt bruised and battered. My thoughts were racing so quickly I couldn’t speak, unable to grab a single word from my tornado brain. I was frozen, unable to move. This would be the day, the moment that propelled me into growing up, because now we were dealing with events kids should not have had to experience. His name was Chr...

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“West Virginia Wild and Wonderful” by Brett Gordon

Submitted to Contest #214

The chirps in the mist bellowed under the summer’s sunrise. David, looked into the fields that he freshly mowed the day before. He could recall a time that tending to the fields from summers past was not worth his time. He neglected the farm he grew up on. It was filled with goats that from time to time got their heads stuck in the square fencing. It was a time of angst and pain. The angst seemed to be fading. A recent return to a open house for his teen nephew Bradley; opened that wound. It would be hours till the moon would set on this day...

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“Her Father's Secret” by Miriam Culy

Submitted to Contest #214

As the car pulled up to the three-storey chalet on the edge of The Lac de Serre-Ponçon in the South of France, the sun glistened on the water as if to invite them in. The two girls, Talia and Maya, had their noses pressed up against the windows, trying to capture every detail they drove past: mermaid-obsessed Talia because she was desperate to be by the water, and budding artist Maya for inspiration for her next painting. She already had her sketchbook grasped firmly against her chest. Between them sat their mother, Marianna, whose impeccabl...

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“What Librarians Do With their Summers” by Anthony Mansueto

Submitted to Contest #214

Every summer —and sometimes over Winter and Spring Break— it was the same story. Sonya’s mother and sister would pack their bags and head off to someplace no-one had ever heard of before. Least summer it had been Lahore. The summer before it had been Kodiak Island. This summer they were, quite literally, headed to Timbuktu. Like IRL. And every trip went more or less the same. They almost always stayed with “friends,” of which Sonya’s mother seemed to have an endless supply, though none of them were ever people she had heard her mom mention b...

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“Family Vacations” by Michael Robinson

Submitted to Contest #214

“Pack up your things,” my father said as he stuck his head in my room. “We’ve got tickets for the air galley tomorrow. We need to be at the aerodrome in Londinium by the third hour.” I groaned. We had just got back from Dalmatia just a week ago and the month before that, we were in Caledonia. We spend more time abroad than we do at home. “Can’t I stay at home this time,” I pleaded. “Briseis can keep an eye on me...

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“Cursed Culture” by Michelle Ang

Submitted to Contest #214

Marsha’s country is younger than the invention of sliced white bread. A tiny nation that embraced modernity with all its bones; bones that were once bleached in the sun of war and colonialisation. Her family carved a comfortable life with questionable work-life balance and plenty of holidays. It was the reign of boomers and working hard always got you somewhere. That’s exactly what Marsha thought her parents did. Mr Hong might have been small in stature, but every ounce of flesh on him was working muscle. His neatly combed side part jet bl...

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“Time Weirdness ” by Hannah Abrams

Submitted to Contest #214

Logan sat on the beach with her best friend, watching the sunset. She was thinking about the next day, it would be her first day of 11th grade. She was a little nervous, but pretty soon she'd have bigger things to worry about and it all started with that sunset. The sun sunk below the horizon, but just as Logan was gonna get up and tell Roxy she was ready to go, the darkness that should have followed never came, instead the sun rose in the same direction it had went down...

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“Second Chances” by Hayley Chau

Submitted to Contest #214

The sun is sinking into an endless beautiful blue abyss. On a spontaneous whim, I am visiting the same spot Peter and I went when he was sick. The beach wanes down with tourists and I am sitting on a bed of rocks, thinking about the last time I spent with my husband, Peter. All my regrets were starting to overwhelm my thoughts. I have so many and wish I could take them all back. I start to cry. It’s been a hard year. To be honest, I can’t remember the last time I was truly happy. From the side of my view, I see a stranger lingering around m...

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“Endless Summer” by Audrey Knox

Submitted to Contest #214

“Don’t you see it?” “See what?” “Right there. The sun. It was setting. And now it’s rising.” “It’s morning, already?” Violet sighed impatiently, exasperated...

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“Are we there yet?” by Vesta Bartholomew

Submitted to Contest #214

It was a little after 7 P.M. Eastern Standard Time Monday, September 4th as the five childhood friends relaxed on the dock on the shores of the Great Sacandaga Lake, in various states of intoxication. The group hadn't been all together in several years, as the demands and commitments of life that interfere with once-daily relationships took their toll. This was especially true in this case- ten years out from graduation. College, jobs, relationships, and the nightmare years of...

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“Nostalgia” by Jenni Bradshaw

Submitted to Contest #214

The sun sparkled across the ocean with each rippling wave as a whispering roar tumbled over tiny toes burrowing in the sand. Distant giggles from seagulls and our sweet grandchildren swam through the air as a golden glow engulfed us all. I have always loved the fresh scent of a salty breeze and cherished every detail of our annual family vacation to this exact spot, wishing summer would never end.Sixty-two years had passed in the blink of an eye. Sixty-two wonderful years since our first kiss on this beach, in this specific lifeguard stand. ...

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“Nutmeg” by Isabella Cook

Submitted to Contest #214

"But I don't wanna leave!" I heard my little sister Katie whine to my mom behind me. "I know honey, but you have school next week. We can't stay on the cruise forever." my mom replied. Katie continued to whine. "Okay kiddos, make sure you come inside before it gets too late." My mom said to me and Kai, my boyfriend. "Okay mom," "Okay Mrs. Graham," Kai responded. I turned back around, leaning my arms on the starboard railing and stared off into the horizon. "You know I really wish we didn't have to go back to scho...

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$250

Prize money

202

Contest entries

94

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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