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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#240: In the Wind

Wind is something of a contradiction. Powerful yet invisible, it’s nothing but air, but can influence the shape of landscapes, sway trees, and carry whispers across vast distances. This force of nature can be a calming breeze or a raging storm, offering comfort or unleashing destruction.

It’s always around us, whether you’re laying on a warm beach with a relaxing breeze cooling you down, or in awe as a storm passes by while carelessly throwing debris. With that in mind, this week we delve into the wonders of wind and bring attention to its influence within our stories.

This week's prompts

Begin your story with the sensation of a breeze brushing against a character's skin.

Narrative – 139 stories

A crumpled piece of paper holding an unexpected message is carried by the wind. Where did it come from, and where is it going?

Mystery – 63 stories

Set your story on a sailboat, large or small, and entirely at the mercy of the winds.

Adventure – 32 stories

Craft a story where a character finds themselves swept away by the wind, either physically or metaphorically.

Angst – 60 stories

Set your story in a lighthouse surrounded by powerful gale-force winds.

Dramatic – 37 stories

Stories

“Handsome Pete and the Cosmic Sailboat” by David Maxim Jr

Submitted to Contest #240

Handsome Pete and the Cosmic Sailboat We sailed high tides, just me and Handsome Pete. We were guided only by the eternal winds of change as we sailed across the cosmic sea. We glided down an ethereal wormhole, traveling through time and space. When our sails flapped against the oceanic pitter patter of starry magnificence, I would brush my hair back and bask in its primordial breeze. Handsome Pete rode beside me, a bashful Jack Russel Terrier, with black, wiry hair and pearly white teeth. He began each day, the same as the one before it—wit...

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“The Last Sail” by Esther Andrews

Submitted to Contest #240

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The earth was still. Tranquil. Diminutive waves gently grazed the shore. It was simply not possible to conjure a more perfect late summer afternoon, though you innately sensed the weather was about to turn. The deep green foliage along the coast would soon transform into fiery shades of orange, yellow, and red.We were young, kids really, my husband and me. Newlyweds. At times it felt like we were just play acting at being adults. We were broke, just trying to survive from day to day. We shared a tiny one-bedr...

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“The Sailor” by Barry Starcher

Submitted to Contest #240

The Sailor "Bob, a call just came in and it may be related to our missing poet. Some kid found a sailboat on the beach with a lot of blood in it. It's way the hell up the coast in a place called Lucia Beach. I think it's part of the Birch Point State Park in Maine." Robert Montgomery stirred behind his weathered mahogany desk. A lean northeasterner with a short-cropped beard. He spoke with a crisp Maine accent. "I'm not familiar with it. What makes you think it's our guy this time? There were seven ship wrecks from the last storm and ...

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“The Man Who Married the Wind” by Bradley Harris

Submitted to Contest #240

The Man Who Married The Wind The man lived alone in a tight little whiskey-riven house on county road 1407, the edge of town. A house neither town nor country, neither distinctively young nor impressively old. The man knew how to do all manner of things. Brake jobs. Reshape fenders. Spot-weld. Loosen rusted nuts. Saw lumber. Hammer, screw, and nail. Machine cold steel and figure how electrical devices and mechanical gadgets work. But he rarely did these things, save at Bernie’s Garage out on route 17, where he worked some days—whenever ...

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“Full Circle” by Carrie R

Submitted to Contest #240

Thunder rumbled in the distance. The wind was picking up. Bill turned on his lamp next to his easy chair, the room had darkened. He didn’t remember falling asleep. That happened often these days. Nod off in church, nod off watching tv… He used to tease his grandfather about his frequent snoozes, back when the idea of himself ever being that age was impossible. He stood slowly, his body stiff as he stepped out onto his back porch, gazing out onto the prairie.Dark blue clouds moved quickly across the expansive sky, flashing lightening, long an...

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“Breezeborne” by Helena D'Argento

Submitted to Contest #240

Red. All red, beneath that bright burning sky, pale sun and wisps of cloud, pink as the light of day began to slip beneath the horizon. Still and dead, scorched brick scrub in rusty sand, cracked copper ground which crumbled under aching feet, skin blistered and peeling as the traveler moved, kicking up dust with the toes of too-small sandals. The straps of the battered old army pack cut crimson stripes into narrow shoulders, and the thorns of bush plants swip...

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“It Was a Breeze” by John Van Winkle

Submitted to Contest #240

It Was a BreezeJade stood looking out her 37th floor east-facing office window. Her gaze moved past frozen snow flurries that were whipping against the windowpane to the beat of some silent frenzied tune, and then shifted her focus downward toward the white crags of ice lunging in furious play on the surface of the lake below.She loved her office… small, cozy, with her very own huge window that served-up, on her demand, the splendor of Lake Michigan. She was particularly mesmerized by days like this, the wind blowing the whitecaps ...

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“I Knew Better” by LAUREL HOWE

Submitted to Contest #240

I leaned forward, my body unconsciously fighting against the wind. I felt it tug my hat, pull my hair, untie the laces of my jacket but I didn’t realize the angle at which I leaned. I didn’t truly understand its force. Its determination. I didn’t see how hopeless my rebellion was. The morning had been the same as any other. “Get up,” he growled. He loomed over me. Large and angry. I didn’t open my eyes. I didn’t see him. I felt him. Malevolence. I cringed under the covers. I knew he would be angry and yet I’d hidden under closed eyes and wa...

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“Advice from the Clouds” by Shiloh Avery

Submitted to Contest #240

The first time I found myself face to face with a cloud, I tried to punch it. I figured that was the correct course of action after being plucked so unceremoniously, it seemed to me, from the platitude of normal life. It turns out though, as I discovered that first time, that clouds cannot be satisfactorily punched. Not that I would know precisely how it felt to satisfactorily punch a thing, having never previously punched anything, but still I expected some resistance on its part to being walloped. It wasn’t the cloud’s fault...

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“Near Death Experience” by Victoria MacDonald

Submitted to Contest #240

Near Death Experience On January 26, 1978, I set off for work as a Grade three teacher in the east end of Toronto. Waiting for the bus to the subway, I hopped back and forth as the frigid wind and swirling flakes took bites out of exposed flesh. My partner, Peter was sleeping. He worked a night shift and I seldom saw him. He had a day off, and I hoped he would choose to spend the evening with me, since it was his...

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“Drowning Yet Not Broken” by Lo Lace

Submitted to Contest #240

The night I first saw her, I knew she would be the end of me. I was down on my luck. One of those spirals that musicians sing about, and poets wrote about. The kind of depression where I was on autopilot. No one could move me away from my sorrows. Until I met her. I was drunk walking back to my apartment from the bar down the street. Tequila was coating my tongue with Hennessey already in my belly. I knew better not to mix. I just didn’t care anymore. A drink was a drink. It was obscenely windy; the orange...

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“The Tree” by Avril Armstrong

Submitted to Contest #240

The Tree 2647 words The wind raged through the winter-blackened branches of the great forest with the ferocity of the sea-wolves, from whose land it came. The oaks creaked and swayed with the blast, acknowledging the force, but holding fast against the attack - just as the humans, who lived on the forest fringes, held fast, trying to repel the warriors from over the water - warriors who came in dragon-ships to destroy, pillage, steal - and then retreat across the ...

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“Borne by Storms” by Drew Harrison

Submitted to Contest #240

The wind’s wail was a constant presence: it droned from the creaking window latches, from the thrumming stone walls, from the thrice-locked door that sagged and heaved with each squall as though the lighthouse itself drew breath. The wail settled into the kitchen and wrapped around Cade more tightly than the woolen blanket he wore—it draped over him as he slept, heavier than the patchy quilt he’d brought from home. Somewhere in his dilapidated chambers, there was surely a clock, but time and its precise, hour-long demarcations me...

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“Isolation Breeds Appreciation” by Kristina Lushey

Submitted to Contest #240

Rory couldn’t believe the spectacular view of the sea as he gazed downwards from the gantry at the top of the lighthouse. The different hues of blue and green of the sea crashing against the jagged rocks 161 feet below him were spectacular. From the towering height of the lighthouse, he marvelled at the untamed splendour of the rugged coastline.“God, I love nature,” he said to himself. He watched as a group of seagulls flew past, noisily squawking to each other as they dive bombed the lighthouse. They were huge! He breathed in the salty sea ...

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“Confederate Crypt Isle” by Valentine Tarango Jr.

Submitted to Contest #240

The Texas lighthouse, Hope Isle, has been a sentinel of protection from the dangerous shoals of the East Texas coastline since 1862 when the port of Bull Run Bay, Texas, was one of the leading cattle exporters to the Confederate states of Florida and Georgia. Now, it protected merchant vessels for the United States of America. On the tiny rock of an island surrounded by the meditative sound of steady waves washing on it, the three-man crew of lighthouse keepers were taking advantage of the sunny, brisk spring mor...

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$250

Prize money

331

Contest entries

134

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Mar 08, 2024 EST

Won by Jonathan Page 🏆

Title: Lost and Found

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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