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#31: The Ordinary

The very last line of the NBC sitcom The Office is spoken by former receptionist Pam Beasley. She says: "There’s a lot of beauty in ordinary things. Isn’t that kind of the point?"

This week's writing prompts embrace that sentiment, and challenge you to write stories that take ordinary, everyday tasks and turn them into meaningful pieces of short fiction.

🥇 Winner

“The Memory Garden” by Ariel Kalati

In sixteen years, she will leave the garden. She will tell the buyers of the house how to tend each patch and plant, carefully, and they’ll do it for a while and then the garden will fall apart, because they have other concerns. The soil remembers, though. The soil always remembers. In eleven years, her firstborn child will pick unripe blueberries in mid-spring, try to taste them and recoil from the sour. She will ...

71 comments 71 WINNER 🏆

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⭐️ Shortlisted

“The Practice of Half Memories” by Abigail Airuedomwinya

She puts a pot on the stove and watches as the flames burn their orange and blue flames through it. She has a half-empty cup of tea beside the kitchen table. Tea, already cold and tasteless as it struggles being caged in the unwashed cup. She puts it in her lips again and lets the brown liquid slip into her sore throat. The flames keep flaring up as the empty pot sits calmly on it. She stares at the smoke already rising up from the pot. In her mind, she tells herself she isn't ready to do this yet and then she pours water into...

7 comments 7 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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“The Laundry Room ” by Najwa Zandlo

Your mother is in there - in the laundry room - washing your clothes right now. She’s sorting out the darks from the lights, and she’s making neat piles on the floor of your dirty clothes. Let’s face it - they’re more than dirty,

11 comments 11 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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“ A PARTNERSHIP WITHIN THE GARDEN” by Shirley Medhurst

A modest little house stands alone, surrounded by a disorderly sea of green. Not that its garden is completely unkempt, but it is hardly a neatly regimented English garden, nor is it a beautifully manicured Mediterranean oasis. It is chaotic, colourful and cheerful. Behind the house, small square paving stones lead upwards past a pergola which leans over t...

16 comments 16 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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“Adelaide” by Jess Errington

The blouse in my hands is a fresh white. It’s simple, plain but for the flowers embroidered on the cuffs. It was strange to find it again, this shadow of my youth; it doesn’t fit me any more, which is hardly a surprise, but I can’t quite bring myself to throw it away. I remember buying it, in town with Adelaide. She said it was one of the most beautiful shirts she’d ever seen as I stood, side-on, before the changing room mirror.&...

2 comments 2 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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“Super Market” by Amy DeMatt

Chicken. That was the reason I’d had to stop. It seemed that there was always an item or two missing from the inventory we’d gathered from the good old Handi-Mart that weekend, and now, Thursday night after work, I thought I’d better pick up the chicken. To that list, I’d added shampoo, milk, cornmeal and two packages of gummy bears, a special request from the kids. The list always grew when we had one item to pick up. Joe’s...

1 comment 1 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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“The Errand” by Kay Santa Cruz

It takes all of her strength and might to push the obstinate door open wide enough to slip out of the faded, dingy apartment building. The heavy glass immediately thunks closed behind her, sealing the building’s interior and occupants away from the outside world. This had once been a grand entrance with a canopy and a doorman. Now the canopy is only rusting iron ribs and the doorman has been gone for decades. The glass window next to the door appears to be decoratively etched. Upon closer inspection though, it is a spiderweb of cracks rad...

2 comments 2 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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“Gift” by Kelsey Marlett

I saw an exorcism on T.V. once. I think I was seven or eight, sitting cross-legged on the carpet, and I was bathed in the shivery blue light of the television screen. The girl on the screen writhed and screamed. Her hands clawed at nothing, her spine arched and unlatched, and her eyes were black and draining, unspooling, emptying out as she screamed. I suppose this was like an exorcism.

1 comment 1 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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This week's prompts

Write a short story about someone doing laundry.

Adults – 95 stories

Write a short story about someone tending to their garden.

Spring – 77 stories

Write a short story about someone cooking dinner.

Nonfiction – 58 stories

Write a short story about someone going to the corner store to buy an everyday item.

Nonfiction – 65 stories

Write a short story about someone heading home from work.

Nonfiction – 81 stories

Stories

“The Memory Garden” by Ariel Kalati

In sixteen years, she will leave the garden. She will tell the buyers of the house how to tend each patch and plant, carefully, and they’ll do it for a while and then the garden will fall apart, because they have other concerns. The soil remembers, though. The soil always remembers. In eleven years, her firstborn child will pick unripe blueberries in mid-spring, try to taste them and recoil from the sour. She will ...

71 comments 71 WINNER 🏆

Read story

“The Practice of Half Memories” by Abigail Airuedomwinya

She puts a pot on the stove and watches as the flames burn their orange and blue flames through it. She has a half-empty cup of tea beside the kitchen table. Tea, already cold and tasteless as it struggles being caged in the unwashed cup. She puts it in her lips again and lets the brown liquid slip into her sore throat. The flames keep flaring up as the empty pot sits calmly on it. She stares at the smoke already rising up from the pot. In her mind, she tells herself she isn't ready to do this yet and then she pours water into...

7 comments 7 SHORTLIST ⭐️

Read story

“Choose your adventure” by Miles Gatling

"Hey buddy, got a light?":( "Shut up and let's do business!":) "Sorry, I don't smoke."

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“Use Cold Water” by Phoebe Barr

When my sister left, I thought my first text to her would be something sweet. Something like I miss you or the neighbors ask how you’re doing. Or at least something coherent like

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“The Laundry Room ” by Najwa Zandlo

Your mother is in there - in the laundry room - washing your clothes right now. She’s sorting out the darks from the lights, and she’s making neat piles on the floor of your dirty clothes. Let’s face it - they’re more than dirty,

11 comments 11 SHORTLIST ⭐️

Read story

“I, Chocolate” by Naveena Srinivas

I was neatly packaged and sent to this hideous supermarket in a very non-public atmosphere. I sat in the second row of the first column in the chocolate aisle. I was happy that I wasn’t placed in the back, along with the unfortunate few others, which was probably covered in cobwebs. Perhaps the deadly ants might even find a chance to creep through the neat packet we were covered in. The h...

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“Common Part of Life” by Lynn Penny

Nothing really seems to change when the days go on, one by one. But those days turn to weeks, then months, then years. That’s when the change comes out and slaps you right in the face. Eight months Convenience store addiction: Baby Bites. The teeth were coming in. Mother’s milk was no longer the sole substance; a suckling mouth was craving. The first taste of apples, bananas, strawberries and squash were branded as healthy baby food, located in the expensive baby ai...

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“All she needs is a bowl of steamed potatoes” by Derrick Kakooza

Life is meant to be beautiful. But at times, Life is ugly and sad. You, me, them and us can either make life beautiful or ugly.I’m not sure am ready for this. The fact that Aunt May is around on my first try makes me anxious. I have a few memories of how my mother did this ever since I was a nipper. But then, Life teaches us that those vague memories must be assembled if one is to survive perilous times. Unprepared for what awaits, I conjecture that it won't be an easy task to cook dinner for me and Aunt May.Aunt ...

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“Just another dinner on Earth” by Kari Hyp

In the year 3015, Arlen is living with his mother in Acushnet, Massachusetts and helps run their rose farm/nursery: Birkland’s farm. They live in the secluded part of Acushnet, in the town of Dartmouth in a small cabin near the farm. Arlen’s father left them when he was a newborn. Arlen’s mother, Aliah Birks, has depression, having still not gotten over her husband. It is dinner time, and Arlen is helping prepare lentil soup with his mother. It is ab...

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“ A PARTNERSHIP WITHIN THE GARDEN” by Shirley Medhurst

A modest little house stands alone, surrounded by a disorderly sea of green. Not that its garden is completely unkempt, but it is hardly a neatly regimented English garden, nor is it a beautifully manicured Mediterranean oasis. It is chaotic, colourful and cheerful. Behind the house, small square paving stones lead upwards past a pergola which leans over t...

16 comments 16 SHORTLIST ⭐️

Read story

“The Beauty In The Little Things” by Artemisia Pearl

Janessa hated the outdoors. She hated the smells, the sounds, and the sights. But she never had to worry about working outside in the garden, because they had a landscaper. She never had to do any work. But that was before her parents died. Janessa was to be thrown into a foster home like she wasn’t important. She had all of her things packed, and she was ready to move into her new home. Her caseworker, Amelia, brought her to the door of a quaint little cott...

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“Roast Beef and Antifreeze ” by Najwa Zandlo

I don’t even like roast - I feel the need to stress that. I hate it, actually. I hate the way it smells. I hate the way the meat tastes after cooking in its own juices for hours. I hate the vegetables - the carrots get soggy and the potatoes turn into mush. I hate that it takes all day to cook a good roast. I hate the way people turn...

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“Folding Memories” by Keri Dyck

The scent of a fresh dryer sheet fills my nostrils as I reach into the machine and wrestle out an armload of warm clothing. I plop it on the counter and start to fold. Those are Dad’s nice pants, they have to go on their separate pile because they get hung up. Here is Mom’s hoodie that she stole from Phil; which pile can I put it on and not be accused for favouritism? I deliberate for a minute, the go with Mom, because Phil can’t do anything to me. Mom can. And those— those are my brother’s work jeans t...

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“Where to Find Baking Soda at 2 AM” by Tori Routsong

The mattress itself is stained, but I suppose I’ll deal with that later. Taking care only to touch the dry parts of the sheet, I wrestle it and the pillowcases into a laundry basket and carefully pick my way out of the room—the police said it was okay to move stuff around now, they’ve got what they needed, but I still feel like I shouldn’t disturb anything. Except the sheets, I guess. The hallways are quiet. The usual parties that rock our dorm ended abruptly when the cops arrived, but by now they would’ve ended anyway. Everyone ...

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“Up Ahead” by Laurentz Baker

Do you believe this? Traffic creeping along at two miles an hour. It’s thirty minutes from my exit at sixty-five miles an hour as is, and all five lanes are blocked. Are we seriously being rerouted to Highway 675? I’ve never been this way on 675. And, I’m low on gas. Something told me to get gas earlier in the week. Now with every minute passing⎯and still moving at two miles an hour⎯the dashboard gas meter is warning me.

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$50

Prize money

376

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Mar 06, 2020 EST

Won by Ariel Kalati 🏆

Title: The Memory Garden

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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