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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#49: Worth the Wait

Mrs. Dalloway follows a woman running errands in preparation for a party she's hosting that evening. A Single Man depicts a day-in-the-life of a professor. Molly Fox’s Birthday features one friend housesitting for another.

Of course, these novels are actually about much more than their mundane premises may imply. That's the wonderful thing about fiction: something as ordinary as running errands can turn into wildly different stories at the hands of different authors.

This week, we're working with a similarly mundane premise (on the surface, anyway): waiting. It's up to you to dig beneath the surface of banality to reveal the interesting story happening underneath!

This week's prompts

Write a story that takes place in a waiting room.

Thriller and Suspense – 256 stories

Write a story about a person waiting for an answer to a question.

Thriller and Suspense – 171 stories

Write a story about waiting — but don't reveal what's being waited for until the very end.

Nonfiction – 323 stories

Write a story about a relationship where one person is always running late and the other is constantly kept waiting.

Romance – 108 stories

Write a story about two strangers chatting while waiting for something.

Dialogue – 196 stories

Stories

“The Restaurant ” by A. S.

Submitted to Contest #49

My fingers drum impatiently on the tabletop. The cloth is silky against my fingertips. I slowly take a sip from the crystal on the table. The condensation wets my fingertips and I watch as the droplets slowly gather together and stream down the glass. The same waiter I have been dealing with for the past hour appears again. Grinning unapologetically, “Still waiting? I’ll get you another refill ma’am. That makes it the fourth refill? Fifth?” I smile tightly back, trying to end t...

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“Looking Back.” by Marsha Webb

Submitted to Contest #49

Bryan sat in the uncomfortable wooden chair, he was early, but he didn’t know what else to do or where else to go. He was alone; no one else was there, nothing to take his mind off things. He paced the narrow corridor looking at the old leaflets pinned to the wall. The familiar damp, musty smell took him back to the first time he came here. He sat back down, checked the time on his watch and closed his eyes. Unfortunately, with nothing to distract him, he started to replay the day again. This morning he had opened his eyes with a start, he r...

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“Leap and Fall” by CARLOS MANUEL EUSOYA

Submitted to Contest #49

They say fall is a season of harvest. That’s right. He did harvest loss of friendship and anxiety. The flattened leaves soaring in the free tangerine atmosphere become entwined with the oak twigs, their tangling noticeable by bikers under the autumn park. The gold glimmers at the sun's genuine gaze, paving the path for a radiating season. Dozen tourists, local and out of town alike, host pilgrimages to this karat safari, with silent desires of indulging in the concealed abyss of nostalgia. ...

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“ queuing ” by Sandra Claros

Submitted to Contest #49

- Hello? Oh ! Elizabeth, I was thinking to call you and tell you to postpone the outing we should have together today afternoon. - Yes! I am so sorry, dear, but I was forgetting to tell you that I have an appointment today , dear. Yes! With the doctor that I had never seen before, but I guess I have told you about the appointment the week before, don’t you remember ? Well I am still feeling that I am short of breath, so I will go there have a check up, and maybe have some examinations for the ...

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“Waiting on Reedsy” by Eric Smiley

Submitted to Contest #49

Timothy Boundeslas couldn't wait. He couldn't, he had written beyond any doubt the perfect short story that he was sure to win this week's Reedsy Short Story Contest. A beautiful story, "Bobby Brittlethorp and the Bully" about a boy who, after coming into contact with a radioactive Bombardier Beetle, develops the ability to shoot hot acid at people. It was soo good. He was going to be an author. He had waited almost seventy years to do so but now was his time. Well the first five or ten years were really about getting out of diapers and lear...

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“Waiting, for her” by Mara C

Submitted to Contest #49

I stare down at my watch: 11.50 a.m. I sigh, shaking my head. She always does this, always stands me up. She's always making promises she can't keep, always making plans that she doesn't stick to. I'm tired of this, and sometimes -guiltily- tired of our relationship, tired of us. I sit in a small Café, with an empty seat by my side, and two empty seats opposite me. She would've been sitting in one of them, smiling at me, making me smile as well, and staring into my eyes with an eager expression; her eyelashes flitting like butterfly wings....

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“The Waiting Room” by R L Brewer

Submitted to Contest #49

The waiting room was too bright, the fluorescent tubes glowed so brightly they made her eyes hurt. The seats were cold and far too hard, and the air conditioner felt a few degrees too cold. The smell of disinfectants and bleach lingered in the air and reminded her of why she hated hospitals. “You’re pacing again Trish,” Andrew said firmly. His glare was telling her she was embarrassing him again and to sit back down with him. To pretend there was no rift between them, a solid front against the world. She couldn’t pretend. She knew he bla...

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“Worthy enough?” by Zahra Daya

Submitted to Contest #49

Sighing heavily, I stuff the last piece of toast into my mouth wondering when it would be over. I check my emails yet again-for what feels like the hundredth time today. Every time I open that blue mail app, my heartbeat travels to my throat and rests there till I exhale in a myriad of emotions when I see nothing. I decide a distraction would do me some good right about now. I get up and rinse my dishes, climb upstairs on all fours - I hadn’t seemed to grow out of that ritual - and lay on my bed, phone still in hand. Just as I open the calm ...

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“SECRET INGREDIENT” by Rodrigo Juatco

Submitted to Contest #49

A whirlwind of long disheveled hair and ruffled clothing, AURA STEVENS, storms towards a hospital admittance desk. Aura had the look of a person who had just stumbled out of bed and threw on whatever she could find with little regard to her appearance. Upon reaching her destination, Aura drops her heavy purse upon the desk with a THUD then addresses the attending nurse in a rather uncivil fashion. “My husband, Craig, had an accident at work. I was told he was sent to this hospital.” Make up, keys, and various other feminine items spill onto ...

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“The trail of life” by Palash Jhawar

Submitted to Contest #49

Sofia walked faster than before, moving around every vine and branch in her path. The forest was so dense that even during the middle of the day, she could barely make out things just a few feet ahead of her. She also kept getting scratched by the thorny vines every now and then, but that didn’t slow down her progress. After all, the life of her little brother hung in balance. Sofia was a 20-year-old sophomore at the community college. She was an introvert at heart who lived at home instead of the dorms, resulting in the fact that she had ...

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“Nightborn 5” by Harken Void

Submitted to Contest #49

Three pickup trucks, two Fords and a Chevy, rolled up the mudded path. As the drivers saw the red and blue lights of the police car, they pulled their pickups to a halt, headlights falling straight on Damien’s face. Why did you come now, Mortensen? Why now, after five years of silence? He should have known his nightmare would not stay buried. It was just like his old man used to say. ‘Make sure they’re dead before you bury ‘em.’ He was referring to problems in life, but Damien thought the saying fit perfectly. “Cross,” Briggs said from the b...

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“Charlie” by Jessie Nice

Submitted to Contest #49

It’s been two years.Two years since I saw him from the windowsill, coming through those gates.Two years since I greeted him at the front door as he dropped his bags and, if it was a blustery chilly day, removed his hat, his scarf and his coat and hung them up to dry.Two years since I sat on the old leather sofa with him watching rubbish telly as the night drew in.Two years since I stared into his old smiley eyes and smiled back.It’s been two months.Two months since I escaped and came back to his home. Two months since I ran away from my new ...

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“The Interrogation” by Deborah Mercer

Submitted to Contest #49

I will not let her know I’m worried, thought Sophie. I will look her in the eyes and not evade her gaze, and I will answer her questions calmly and accurately. She was also determined that the impassive woman behind the desk should not realise that she had barely slept the previous night. She had splashed her face with cold water (this was no time for a cucumber-scented toner!) and put concealer on the dark circles under her eyes. I have all the necessary documents, ...

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“Waiting For Words Unsaid” by Charm Elizabeth Merchant

Submitted to Contest #49

My life spiraled out of control because I waited… …for those words that every kid deserves to hear from the ones that brought them into this world. I often asked myself, why can’t she see me? Once in drama class, the teacher posed the question: If you could have one unusual ability, what would it be? One girl said to make herself invisible. I already knew what that was like. From a young age, my bones harbored the writing bug, starting with my first journal, then short stories, and even poetry, that by the time I transitioned to high school...

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“Promises Are Just Words” by E.F. Peterson

Submitted to Contest #49

"He promised he would come," I cried as I looked through the crowd of parents. "He told me we could go get pancakes after." "Sweetie, he isn't coming," Mrs. Donovan assured me. There was an air of melancholy around her, but it wasn't something that appealed to me at that certain moment. I remember the other mothers and fathers hugging their children, the fathers giving their daughters flowers-- enormous bouquets of roses that seemed larger than the children themselves. The mothers were each holding the hands of young ballerinas, proud of th...

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$50

Prize money

1054

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jul 10, 2020 EST

Won by Courtney Stuart 🏆

Title: When The Northern Lights Finally Reach You

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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