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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.

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 – 70 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

“Forgotten Time” by Lauren Weeks

Submitted to Contest #234

Time doesn’t move here. Oh, we have days. But they’re like one long, giant yawn stretching over what you may call “weeks” on other planets. This means a lot can happen in a day. It also means you can clock 60 hours of work in a day – Fridays are not quite such a joyous thing around here. But oh, the weekend. A glorious stretch of frozen time, spanning hours and hours and just running along forever and ever. We relish in those here on our little green planet. We pack picnics that last an entire day, take extended trips to the beach when the d...

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“A Forever Stay” by Robert Obszanski

Submitted to Contest #234

The hotel’s presence swallowed them in its shadow even as the midday sun shone brightly above. They needed a place to stay while they took in the sights and sounds of the wilderness outside the city. Neither of them was the backpacking type but Mark was the more adventurous of the two, so willing to try new things and take some risks. They were both in their twenties. Mark worked in finance, which afforded him a comfortable lifestyle and frequent vacations. He was tall, confident and restless. Jill was very much the same except for the lack ...

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“The Quack in the Woods” by Calvin Patterson Walker

Submitted to Contest #234

Five years. Compared to the likes one or two years, five seemed too far and distant to spend away from the first home I was ever graced with, and not only had I refused the pleasure of exchanging amicable notes with its proprietor, I had also abandoned the idea of ever visiting in its entirety until I acquired a most sombre of misfortunes. It had come quietly, in the metaphorical sense, as no one would dare mistake the blaring horn or clopping hooves of a mail coach heralding the arrival of their delicate cargo. I had not expected to r...

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“A Blink of an Eye ” by Heather Koelle

Submitted to Contest #234

A Blink of an Eye Elise heard the lunch trays clattering down the hall on the food cart. She wasn’t looking forward to the institutional mush that passed for a meal at The Pines Care Center. Had she really been here five years since George died? She remembered coming home from Grocery shopping to find her husband dead on the living room floor. She immediately called 911 hoping there was a slim chance he would still be alive. But when the medics arrived they told Elise,We’re sorry, Mrs Collins, but your husband is dead.” Elise sank to the...

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“Borrowed Time” by Debra Demars

Submitted to Contest #234

No one was more shocked than I was. My mouth actually dropped open. I felt great. I looked good for my age. A little tired...yes...but that was it. How could this possibly be? How? I wanted to argue with the doctor. I wanted to point out why this could not possibly be true. But deep in my heart, this explained the tiredness. This explained a few things. Things I had noticed, but refused to think about. Things I kept to myself. I wanted to argue with my doctor, but I knew it would be useless. When the exhaustion reach...

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“The Symbiosis” by Lynn Lidstone

Submitted to Contest #234

In the dim light of pre-dawn, the air was chilly and wet. Tall evergreens rose into the brightening purple-gray sky while the mists swirled around the understory as if alive. Magdalene ran along the path, her long braid swinging, her footfalls quieted by moss and humus. There was no other sound besides her regular breathing and the call of an occasional bird. The woods were awakening. Magdalene came to a stop by a huge pine tree just before the path began to ascend a steep hill. This would be t...

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“Blow Behind Billy” by Séamus McNally

Submitted to Contest #234

Blow Behind Billy. Billy McSweeney enjoyed life again. The first fortnight after the diagnosis he stayed home, and wouldn't pretend now it hadn’t hit him hard. He didn’t care if people believed he had chosen a lifestyle that gave him an ironclad shot at an early jaunt in Grannerty’s hearse. ‘Doesn’t matter what you do or don’t do, it’s all decided the day you are born,’ He always said. ‘Written in indelible ink, sorted and filed, ready for delivery.’ He knew about sorting and delivering after forty years as a postman. Six months into...

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“Time to Decide” by Elle Green

Submitted to Contest #234

[This story deals with abortion] Willow bounced one leg and tapped her pen on her desk repeatedly. She was trying to focus on work, but it just wasn't possible. What should she do? She was running out of time, and she couldn't just rush this decision. This was life changing, she told herself, it deserved all her consideration. Less than 2 days ago, she had gone to a doctor's appointment, an annual checkup, and come home in shock. She was pregnant. She knew when it happened - her limited sex life left no doubts about that or about who the… ...

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“Only Fools and Horsemen” by Ted Collins

Submitted to Contest #234

Only Fools and Horsemen It was a damn fine day to be homeless. A terrible forty-eight hours to be anything else. Digby and I had walked for miles searching for a street that hadn’t been ravaged already. He was all umming and ahhing “I don’t think this is a good idea Lester”, “What if the coppers get us Lester?” But we hadn’t heard police sirens for days, just ambulances hurtling down the road to fix up some poor sod peppered in shrapnel. Everyone that wasn’t dead had filed out and gone somewhere picturesque to settl...

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“Let Me Be Young Again” by Camil Allal

Submitted to Contest #234

To my Baby PumpkinsThe war was hard on my parents who never truly expressed how much they loved us. As a result, when my relatives died, the news took ages to reach my ears, ears long dulled by the hairs and pride you collect the longer you live. Algeria became a country of its own, but my parents thought best to fly everybody in the U.K. For our future, much less for the comfort of the native who saw us as trash they would gladly throw on the floor to make sure how we reflect on their high class society. Yet times have changed, and my ...

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“New York Minute” by Laura Smith

Submitted to Contest #234

New York Minute Laura Smith The clock read 11:50 PM. Ten minutes left in the day. Ten minutes until a new day started. The unit lights were dimmed for rest, sporadically interrupted by the glow of computer monitors at the desk and on the mobile workstations in the hallway. The dayshift chorus of ringing phones, visitors, doctors, gurneys rolling down the hall, and visits from ancillary services replaced by more hushed tones, the rhythmic beeping of heart monitors, the occasional bed alarm when some unsteady patient attempted to make...

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“A mother's timeless love” by Srividya Gupta

Submitted to Contest #234

For me, you were born the moment two hearts were beating within me. One mine, and the other yours, in tandem. And from that day onwards, the rhythm of your heartbeat became the most melodious symphony of my life. My heart became an ardent lover of yours. I thoroughly enjoyed carrying your weight. Those were the only days in my life when I loved it when the weighing scale went up each time I stood on it to measure my weight. When you felt hungry, I sensed a craving for food. I felt your kicks when you felt like stretching your tiny legs. I kn...

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“Prognosis” by Jonathan Shiller

Submitted to Contest #234

This story is about a cancer patient who is planning his funeral. Prognosis by Jonathan Shiller Dr. Ruben took one look at my sunken face and said, “You need a break. Take a week off and get your strength back.” Months of chemo had worn me down, so I took his advice and slept in until 11 before heading to my appointment. I arrived early and sat in the plush reception area waiting for my name to be called. It ...

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“The Cowboy ” by Dria Caron

Submitted to Contest #234

Derek hated wearing costumes, even as a kid. Store-bought ones irritated his skin, and homemade ones required sewing skills that no one in his sports obsessed household had. Not to mention crippling social anxiety made him especially vulnerable. Like a giant, bright spotlight following him around. He could never shake the feeling that other kids were whispering, laughing behind his back. Wearing a costume exacerbated that. Funny enough, his sister nicknamed him the Ebenezer Scrooge of Halloween (funny for his sister not Derek). He...

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“Uncle George, A Veteran” by Gary Crawford

Submitted to Contest #234

(Contains flashback episodes and violent memories from war) October 1999 Here comes someone. Wonder who it is? Probably wants something. No one ever comes by unless they want something. I don’t know that car. Who is that? Oh, okay. That’s Steven, my sister’s grandson. Who’s that with him? Don’t know that guy. Hello, Steven. What brings you way up here? Who’s your friend? Hello, Barry. Nice to meet you too. What’s that? You’re a journalist? You mean a reporter, ...

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$250

Prize money

340

Contest entries

132

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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