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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#234: Time Out

Often, it feels like there aren’t enough hours in a day. We juggle dozens of warring obligations — work, home, friends, family — alongside our own wants and needs. At one time, you might back out of a friend’s birthday to visit an ailing family member. But at another, you’ll go to an important work conference rather than visiting your mother across the country. You never know how much time you have — to make your career, to follow your dreams, to spend with your family. It’s an uncertainty we all learn how to live with, one way or another.

In the spirit of this uncertainty, this week’s prompts focus on time. Who has it and who doesn’t, and who is trying to carve it out, minute by minute.

🥇 Winner

“6:47 PST” by David Pampu

🏆 Winner of Contest #234

What has four faces, eight arms, and can’t tell time? The clock tower at Union Station. Four clocks on the tower and none of them run? I mean, what’re the odds? I peer up at the time and shade my eyes. It’s 6:47 pm. Always is, always will be. And all anyone knows is that on a Monday the world was a loud, frantic place and Tuesday it wasn’t. Tuesday? Really? The world should’ve ended on a Saturday. Saturdays are fun. Used to be anyway. But no. We get eternal friggin Tuesday afternoon where nothing changes. Ever. Good news though— we’re ...

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⭐️ Shortlisted

“Two Buckets and a Rope ” by Thom With An H

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #234

Roy hadn’t picked a moonless night on purpose, but as he climbed under his blanket and lay his head on his saddle, he was glad for the happy accident. Out on the range—the only place he felt truly at home—no moon meant stars. Thousands, if not millions of them, stared back at him as he contemplated his life choices, especially the one that waited for him at dawn. A cowpuncher by trade, just as his father and grandfather before him, Roy had spent more nights than he could count far from the lights of the city. In fact, the quiet lowi...

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“Remember When Books Were On Paper?” by Allan Bernal

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #234

>> Okay Jayson, what brings you to therapy today? And remember, if you want a text transcript of our meeting today, you can upgrade to our Premium- Um, no. I’m good. >> That’s fine Jayson! Whenever you’re ready, your forty minutes has begun. Though you’d get sixty with our Premi- Okay, just give me a second. I… don’t really know where to begin… I signed up and completed all the forms to start therapy last week, so you’d think I’d have planned this better. But… I guess something came up with work yesterday I wasn’t expecting...

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“Vita Retro” by HC Edwards

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #234

12:01am The girl opened her eyes, the sound of a train whistle lingering in her ears. 12:00am The oncoming train blared at him, a bellowing trumpet like an angry elephant. He could see the conductor behind the glass, lit up from the instrument panels. There was a panicked expression on his face, and for that, Sarat was sorry. He tried to smil...

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“Not like anything on TV” by Ashley Quinn

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #234

It’s not like what we see on TV. There’s no abundance of family crying together as they watch their loved one die. Those words that have gone unspoken for years usually remain unspoken. There’s no glamour in dying, no glamour in caring for the dying. And that’s all I could think about as I watched my mom lay there, helpless, on her bed in the memory care unit. How she’d be alone when she finally passed, how she may not even be aware she’s dying. “Help!” she screamed, shaken out of a brief moment of rest that wasn’t really rest. Her rec...

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This week's prompts

Write a story about someone whose time is running out.

Angst – 112 stories

Write a story about someone who wishes they could turn back time.

Character – 68 stories

Write about someone taking advantage of some unexpected free time.

Fluff – 31 stories

Start or end your story with someone saying, “We have all the time in the world.”

Dialogue – 71 stories

Set your story in a place that’s frozen in time — literally or metaphorically.

Narrative – 56 stories

Stories

“6:47 PST” by David Pampu

🏆 Winner of Contest #234

What has four faces, eight arms, and can’t tell time? The clock tower at Union Station. Four clocks on the tower and none of them run? I mean, what’re the odds? I peer up at the time and shade my eyes. It’s 6:47 pm. Always is, always will be. And all anyone knows is that on a Monday the world was a loud, frantic place and Tuesday it wasn’t. Tuesday? Really? The world should’ve ended on a Saturday. Saturdays are fun. Used to be anyway. But no. We get eternal friggin Tuesday afternoon where nothing changes. Ever. Good news though— we’re ...

Read story

“Two Buckets and a Rope ” by Thom With An H

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #234

Roy hadn’t picked a moonless night on purpose, but as he climbed under his blanket and lay his head on his saddle, he was glad for the happy accident. Out on the range—the only place he felt truly at home—no moon meant stars. Thousands, if not millions of them, stared back at him as he contemplated his life choices, especially the one that waited for him at dawn. A cowpuncher by trade, just as his father and grandfather before him, Roy had spent more nights than he could count far from the lights of the city. In fact, the quiet lowi...

Read story

“The Last Time Machine” by Jonathan Page

Submitted to Contest #234

I knew better than most that kids in books are parentless. The day I transformed from Katya’s hero to the villain in her story was the day we faced each other across a glass partition when she was only six years old. “If you don’t come home with me today, Daddy, I will never forgive you,” she said. And she never did.There were two things that Katya loved. Traveling and animals. For her sixth birthday, we had a big “Wild Birthday Party” at the Central Park Petting Zoo. There were lemurs, crocodiles, sea lions, peacocks, goats, rabbits, and ev...

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“Glossing Over the Rough Spots” by Michał Przywara

Submitted to Contest #234

“Hello?” “Yeah, hey kiddo, it’s me.” “Dad? Where are you calling from? I don’t recognize this number.” “Yeah, it’s not my phone. I’m in jail. Listen son, I–” “–Wait, what!? What do you mean you’re in jail!?” “Oh, it’s this whole big stupid thing. Anyway, I need you to wire some money–” “–Dad! Why are you in jail?” “Because of my damn sunscreen, that’s why. I guess it was too American for the locals and didn’t meet their commie quota.” “What are you even talking about? Your sunscreen? You’re not making any sense!” “Yeah, apparently they have ...

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“All For Science” by Mary Bendickson

Submitted to Contest #234

All For ScienceIt's a jungle out here. I'd been warned. Predators and prey of every size and description around every corner. Anywhere can be breathtakingly beautiful and equally breathtakingly deadly. Stay alert to stay alive.Even with safeguards in place I find myself in terrifying peril. Time's running out. The end is near. I fear no help is in the offering. I am on my own...no hope left. It's getting more... and more difficult...to breathe. Humidity so thick it's like...sucking a wet sponge. But I can't give up... yet. I...I see my short...

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“Remember When Books Were On Paper?” by Allan Bernal

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #234

>> Okay Jayson, what brings you to therapy today? And remember, if you want a text transcript of our meeting today, you can upgrade to our Premium- Um, no. I’m good. >> That’s fine Jayson! Whenever you’re ready, your forty minutes has begun. Though you’d get sixty with our Premi- Okay, just give me a second. I… don’t really know where to begin… I signed up and completed all the forms to start therapy last week, so you’d think I’d have planned this better. But… I guess something came up with work yesterday I wasn’t expecting...

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“Gift of the Marge-i” by Chris Campbell

Submitted to Contest #234

“We have all the time in the world, Tom. Well, at least forty-five minutes. Anyways, we’ll be in and out before anyone even knows we were here.” “But why are we breaking into a cop shop, Eric?” “Coz, it’s between shift’s, Tom. It’s only been open a couple of weeks on the high street, and still understaffed.” “That don’t answer why we’re breaking into the cop shop.” “Tom, breaking-in infers smashing a window or kicking in a door. We are not breaking in. We are simply entering of our own volition.” “Volition?” “On our own accord, mate.” “But w...

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“The Assignment” by Alexis Araneta

Submitted to Contest #234

TW: Mention of death, suicide“Diana Sétte, please proceed to the Rose Hall your job interview.”Diana stood up and followed the instructions of the melodious voice coming out of the intercom system. With each step, she noticed how light she was on her feet; it was as if she floated on air. Back out there --- Earth, all she’d known was weight. The heavy sensation of a bullet piercing her heart and taking her to the grandiose hall she was now walking in was but the last in a series of crushing weights she felt throughout her life. Perhaps, the ...

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“Dreams of Seventeen ” by Michelle Oliver

Submitted to Contest #234

When Seventeen slipped and fell through the ice, Mumma was nearly hysterical. She begged the elders to send out a rescue team to save the girl, because Seventeen was the only other female of breeding age left in our clan. Mumma had been eagerly awaiting the reprieve from child bearing next year when Seventeen became Eighteen, and therefore old enough to procreate. Life had been hard on Mumma. Breeding every year for the last two decades had nearly broken her, but she, like the rest of us, knew her obligation to the c...

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“An Emissary from the Death Café” by Jonathan Page

Submitted to Contest #234

The Methuselah microbes buried in the Russian permafrost broke through the thawing soil like zombies rising from the dead. Only rather than arms reaching from earthen tombs and stretching bony fingers in a horrific gesture, they simply floated up into the dry Eurasian air off the shores of Lake Baikal on the Continental Ridge that divides Russia and Mongolia.And for the first time in a hundred thousand years, these apex predators were carried over the frozen plains to enjoy dominion over their world. The Baikal seals and the Mongolian gulls ...

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“No Good Options ” by Chelsey B

Submitted to Contest #234

The loneliness could strike at any time. More than once, it had caught her off guard while driving to work. It had snuck up on her in line at the grocery store, on a walk in the park, and while sitting in the dentist’s chair. No time, place, or activity was safe from from the sadness, but the worst was when it woke her in the middle of the night. Arden gasped, then sat up. Her room was pitch black, and cold, but she felt clammy. She tossed her comforter aside, and fumbled for her phone on the nightstand. Her fingers brushed the screen and ...

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“Cancellation” by K.A. Murray

Submitted to Contest #234

My 11:30 a.m. meeting was cancelled today, giving me a free hour in a crowded day. I’m an events planner at a communications and marketing agency, and my schedule is always tight. I was promoted two years ago, and now there are several young women working beneath me. They need my supervision and guidance, particularly one of them - she’s not the newest, but she sometimes seems overwhelmed by small tasks that should be automatic by now, after six months of work. I still run events myself, of course; my first meeting of the day was with a ...

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“For Emily Whenever I May Find Her ” by Wendy M

Submitted to Contest #234

A gift, they called it, but would I have returned it unopened if I had known? I like to think I am better than that. The gift I give to you is untied. # On the first day we met, you bought me coffee from a machine; so hot it scalded my fingers. My last coin had fallen from my aching, icy hand, rolled along the ground, and was under my supervisor's desk. She stared at me, daring me to crawl on my hands and knees, my skirt hitched up, to find it; tapping her pencil on the desk t...

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“Control Z” by Hannah Lynn

Submitted to Contest #234

She had barely made it through the day. The experience of training another new employee was still bitter in her throat, making it difficult to swallow. She procrastinated the start of dinner despite the growling hunger pains beginning to announce themselves. The girl was sweet, she couldn’t take out the mounting frustrations on her. Trying to keep herself detached from the situation, she had repeated the same instructions that she had over the years as the sea of new employees flowed past her. Would this one follo...

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“My Love Letter to Hiroshima” by Angela M

Submitted to Contest #234

Trigger warning: contains representations of sexual and physical violence Time seems to stand still at Hiroshima’s Atomic Bomb Dome. Every morning at 8:17, I pass it for just one second on the train, but it feels like a lifetime. The structure is eerily beautiful and tourists flock around it all year, but all I can imagine are the rotting flesh on living people and the gaping mouths of dying children — humanity at its lowest. There are times I feel guilty for caring so much about the people of Hiroshima. “They deserved it” is what ...

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$250

Prize money

338

Contest entries

131

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jan 26, 2024 EST

Won by David Pampu 🏆

Title: 6:47 PST

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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