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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

“Hanging Out with Gatsby and the Lost Generation” by David Marshall

Submitted to Contest #234

Since she was in high school, Alex always wanted to back in time. Specifically, she wants to go back to the 1920s when life was free and full of passion. Where did she get this fascination? It all started when she was a young teenager reading the “Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. She always imagined what it would be like to live out on Long Island, going around and visiting different places such as East Egg and the Hamptons and mingling with people such as Daisy, Tom, Gatsby, and even Nick. Also, it would be fun to go to the big bashes ...

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“Last Night” by Muru Walters

Submitted to Contest #234

The smell of freshly brewed coffee filled the small kitchen. Crusted food covered last nights dishes piled in the sink. Any students flat surely could have looked worse than this and in fact, Ben had been in worse before, hence his acceptance to live in what most would consider an unacceptable mess. Ben is sitting at the table with his head in his hands. Ben’s roommate Stephen walks into the room with an amused look on his face. “Good morning, how’s your head?” Ben looks back up at him annoyed. “It’s fine” “Why do you look like...

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“Too Hot to Handle” by Deloise Gambrell

Submitted to Contest #234

Too Hot to Handle She read the instructions over and over again, word for word to make sure she didn't miss anything. It explained where to find the book and it must be in her possession before five pm. It should be found at the Historical library, or the game would self-destruct. Once the game self-destructs, that would be the end, with no hope of ever discovering the fortune. Well, she wasn't going to let that happen. Unfortunately, the Historical Library was on the south side of town, and she was on the east side of town. It would take he...

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“"Nothing Worth Saying Aloud"” by Marlen Cardenas

Submitted to Contest #234

As a kid, I loved how fast time flew by, I so desperately wanted to grow up, and be like the older kids going out with their friends. I never thought I’d regret it; how much I’d wish for things to go back to the way they were. It’s senior year, it’s supposed to be memorable; I would’ve never guessed it was for the wrong reasons. It was pretty normal at first, looking forward to every senior event just like everyone else. I was working part-time at a restaurant. It was fun, taking orders felt like a game on the screen; it wasn’t hard at all...

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“If Only” by Lauren Halliday

Submitted to Contest #234

Stuck in her head, Lila pulled the church’s door open, going over in her mind which prayers to say and when. Her first Confession was a little awkward - staring at Father Brown, unable to hear him over the blood in her ears, though Father Brown was helpful in the later ones; Lila now sat behind the curtains. Scuffing her boots on the soaked mat, Lila felt as though this winter was worse than last. Heading towards the back pews, Lila wondered if she'd see Heidi or Lee. Her palms began to sweat. Reaching into her pocket she felt for her keys a...

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“Delays and Dangerous Ends” by Amanda Song

Submitted to Contest #234

Dear Rose, You and time have lots in common. Time spurns me, yet it is kind to the stars. It sends us their light across an infinite expanse of dark nothingness, mocking me with the possibility of seeing something that’s already long gone. Do you ever read these letters? Or are they also victims of time, left to fade and yellow until all that remains is a dusty silhouette of us?I am writing to you on the patio. None of our old stars are visible tonight. It was only when you came over and sat in the wicker chair beside me, bundled i...

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“Mother Nature Says” by TiffanyAnn Borton

Submitted to Contest #234

I often feel like a juggler on a unicycle. Our lives are always on the go and we love it. After school on Mondays we go to the gym. Then, when we get home, I have about fifteen to twenty minutes to get dinner on the table, before checking binders and doing homework. On Tuesdays we run home, right after school for tacos. Taco Tuesday, Baby Girl’s favorite dinner of the week. They take about five minutes to put together because I put the meat, vegetables and seasonings into my insta pot that morning. Then, we have about twenty-five minut...

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“The Mayor’s Jackets” by Toby Johnson

Submitted to Contest #234

The premier parade float had passed and so had the evisceration of twelve million bucks. Conducted and calculated by the state of New York to cause a stir of comradery whose volume of sound was matched only in deepest space, soon found itself the performers only to the remaining rodents loitering the sidewalks scavenging for deconstructed trolley food.While an assortment of barely conscious, coffee deprived, opinion makers conversed and shuffled their way to the cafes in the high rises like the workmen on their way to the docks, I instead fo...

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“Eli Wilks” by Joe Smallwood

Submitted to Contest #234

“I lerve you! I do!”“Say what?”Where can you be and still know that someone cares? Time stretches out, and everything is a joke. You think you know what everyone knows until you don’t. And it isn’t so hard. To know what I know…“Do you want that cigarette or not?”It’s all lerve, don’t you know? Sure, I’ll take that cigarette. And everything else I can. Because it doesn’t matter whether I smoke or not, I’ll smoke if you want me to.“Do you need a light?”I’m always in the light. It shines all over me. I hardly know anything different. People say...

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“Paying Attention” by Mason -

Submitted to Contest #234

Sheets of hail and barrages of lighting continued to hammer down with no end in sight for the little town. Alayna was furious, there was a meeting at 1:00 that she had to attend because of her contract, another at 4:00 where she hoped to meet some very affluent connections, and a flight out of this backwater town at 9:00. It was only 8:00 in the morning when she peered through her blinds and saw the havoc being caused by mother nature. One of her stupid children must have especially pissed her off today, Alayna thought as she got out of bed,...

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“When There is No Time Left” by Isobella Evans

Submitted to Contest #234

“We have all the time in the world.” Mrs Camp gripped the wheel of her beat up van tighter as she tried to calm her nagging teenaged son. The car steadily made its way through rolling Kansas fields and open blue skies. The radio in the background played a catchy country tune. Mrs Camp began to tap the wheel and nod her head to the beat, hoping to distract her young son from his desires. “But when will we ever be passing the world's largest ball of twine again, I need it for my weird things book,” her son said in a young whiney teenaged ...

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“Optimism” by Alexis Pemberton

Submitted to Contest #234

“What’s the point?” Jesse’s dull dark blue eyes wandered aimlessly— failing to find focus. Her unkempt, uneven, hand-cut, black short hair still somehow managed to knot itself just like the tangle of the conflict in her mind. “I am failing all my classes. I haven’t attended in almost a month!” Clothes lay scattered across the entirety of her dorm room matching the lack of decorations on the wall. The white wall was quite literally a blank canvas that conveniently mirrored the lack of identity within the struggling college student. Her unma...

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“The Silent Dream” by Grace Shook

Submitted to Contest #234

Once upon a time, I myself had the pleasure of making the acquaintance a very unique soul. It was in fact a miracle that he even wanted to acknowledge the existence of someone like me, for I was an uninvited guest to his wondrous pity party in those days. But I guess even condescending miserable men such as he sometimes need a sort of connection to the more wondrous world that exists outside of their own head. As a child, I hated being known as a nerd. But when that charming trait opened the doors for me to attend Oxford University in Engl...

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“Welcome Home, Anna!” by Aiden McConnell

Submitted to Contest #234

The clouds support me, my footsteps making delicate impressions that are soon erased; how water pours into an indent made by a skipping rock. My surroundings are milky in color, the landscape opaque and unclear. I reach out, running my hands through the billowing clouds. Their silky texture is soft between the webbing of my fingers and the moisture transfers onto me. The air is lighter and free of saturation, a foreign identity to my body. My nostrils take the air, and my lungs expand to full capacity. I close my eyes, feeling the mo...

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“time in the world” by Lara Deppe

Submitted to Contest #234

“We’ve got all the time in the world.” Eric said as he encouraged me forward in the line. The line slithered through the eighteen switchbacks of tiny posts. We were standing here in the preamble. The foreword. We hadn’t even gotten to Chapter 1: Security guard takes my ID and boarding pass and looks at it as if he is reading the directions to defusing a bomb. He looks at me and he looks at my ID again. There is no way this can be helpful because the ID is four years old. Four years of varying hair colors, on and off weightlifting, on and off...

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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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