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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

“Adventures and Alliances” by Jessica Tomaselli

Submitted to Contest #49

This was the least exciting thing to happen to Alicia in the past 48 hours. If she hadn’t just woken up from a nap, she probably would have fallen asleep. She was sitting in the store waiting for the customer service representative to activate her new cell phone, or whatever it was they do when you get a new phone. This was her first errand since crossing the ocean and it was just as mundane as the process back in the United States. The upside was that it was giving her time to mentally process everything. The downside was that she had prom...

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“Upside Down” by 16 Shades Of Irony

Submitted to Contest #49

I puff out smoke from my cigarette. My partner nudges me in the direction of the men holding the guns. They are staring avidly at us. I shake my head in dismissal. He’s a new partner, doesn’t know how to loosen up. The slight, fidgety movements of his shaking hands and the rapid blinking reminded me of myself when I joined ten years ago. And maybe that’s why I told him things that I never had told anyone. “We’ll be standing around and waiting for a while. The other side always does that. Makes them think they are superior or something. I swe...

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“Slight Shift of Perception ” by Jacquelyn Thiebeaux

Submitted to Contest #49

Well, this is certainly a new feeling of anxiety that I've yet to experience. My ability to "suck it up" and to believe in myself forever lacking, intertwined with all the rest of the life stuff, not to mention my overall fragile emotional disposition in general, is why I'm here. It isn't the; I'm actually dying right now in this very moment panic attack type of anxiety. Certainly don't feel any tinge of excitement mixed with mostly fear kind of anxiety either. I wasn't sure how to categorize this new one. For the best I guessed, since I was...

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“The hospital waiting room” by Emily Lawson

Submitted to Contest #49

The hospital waiting room. Quite possibly the most boring room on the planet. They are all pretty much the same, no matter where you go. A variety of well thumbed through magazines, a few books and the usual half empty box of generic facial tissues. Rather uninspired artwork on the beige toned walls, worn out seating and an end table covered with medical information pamphlets. The large plant in the corner by the door is plastic. The muted TV bolted to the wall is playing drug advertisements on repeat. The stale air is not being circulated...

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“Tick Tock ” by Rhea Romero-Giuliana

Submitted to Contest #49

Tick, tock, it’s still on repeat. “FUCK OFF WITH THE DAMN TICKING AND TOCKING!” I yell with vigour Within ten seconds all eyes were on me. Instant regret is running through me. I could swear that the scream is only in my mind, but I guess not. Oops. If only a rock just magically appears, I could just walk, rather run, right under it, until it is my turn. Across from me, but slightly to the left, a lady is sitting there. She looks to be about sixty years old. Her hair is a little greying at the roots, and her face has drooped a li...

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“The Sorting” by Sam Newsome

Submitted to Contest #49

The Sorting Saddam Hussein (b. April 28, 1937; d. December 30, 2006) Gerald R. Ford (b. July 14, 1913 d. December 26, 2006) God must have a great sense of humor, or at least an appreciation of irony. Allow your imagination to roam regarding events of a few years ago. Envision a large anteroom. This is a typical r...

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“The Snow Day” by Leonard Eckhaus

Submitted to Contest #49

The Snow Day September 1995 – In the Surgical Waiting Room, St. Joseph’s Hospital Mrs. Foster had been waiting for almost three hours. “Why is it taking so long?” she thought to herself. Her nerves at her wits-end, she would alternately stand and pace the room back and forth, then sit in a chair with her hands in her lap, twisting her fingers. Finally, the door opened and the surgeon, dressed in a white hospital gown and still wearing his surgical gloves, stepped into the room. “He’s doing fine,” the doctor said, “everything went perfect...

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“Patience” by Christine Gracey

Submitted to Contest #49

I sit patiently beside my Father in the busy waiting room of his Doctor’s office. He waits quietly beside me, but occasionally I hear him giggle a little as he stares into the distance. When I try to start a conversation he only answers me with a simple sentence and does not add anything to the conversation. I have told the receptionist that I want to go in with my Father during his checkup so I can let the Doctor know what is going on with him. We watch people come and go in the waiting room for an hour. The young father rocking his sick li...

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“A story that takes place in a waiting room” by Wokoma Oboma-kunaa

Submitted to Contest #49

A multinational company had called for submissions of applications for suitably qualified candidates to register for a hire and full time employment. Applications got through, as many found it an achievement to be enrolled as a staff of the reknown multinational cooperation. Boscowoko inc, was a largely recognaised firm and globally reknown for its culture and cutting edge performance in the telecommunication world. They only took the best of the rest as staff, and their benefits for identifying with them was a well silivating package. In p...

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“A Ray Of Light In The Dark” by Abigail Boykin

Submitted to Contest #49

BOOM! CRASH! CRACK! A light shines in his eyes as he hears a doctor's voice. "10 cc's stat! We are losing him!" His family rushes to the hospital as soon as they hear the news. His mother is crying and falls to the ground when she sees her baby boy. His father quickly grabs his wife from the floor and walks her over to a chair. "I will be right back my love with some coffee." He walks over to the doctor and whispers, "Sir where is Annabelle?" This confused the doctor. "Mr. Smith-", the boys father cut him off and told him to call him N...

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“The Interrogation Room” by Glen Benison

Submitted to Contest #49

The poor bastard does'nt stand a chance. I watch Watters, through our security camera, pacing back and forth in the hallway adjacent to the interrogation room. Zooming in from the camera’s remote control in my office, I see beads of sweat on his forehead. I count the twelve strides he takes before he turns and retraces his steps. There’s a manned desk at one end of the hallway, a steel door with a wire-meshed gl...

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“Lost” by Hi U

Submitted to Contest #49

"Please help her" I begged as the doctors rushed in to the hospital with my sisters body on a stretcher lying almost lifeless. "You'll be ok Alex just hang in there" I kept saying balling my eyes out while rushing to keep up with the stretcher. My mind was racing a mile a minute trying to wrap itself around what just happened. I was brought out of my thoughts when one of the doctors stopped in front of me and told me I had to wait in the waiting room so they can focus on helping my sister. I wanted to put up a fight but didn't. Instead I j...

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“THE PEACH-WHITE ROOM” by Lunyzbreid L

Submitted to Contest #49

“Hey, who are you? What is this place?”“Hi. I’m Stephan. I’m not sure. I’ve been asking myself the same question.”“I wonder why I’m here. All I know is that I was at the clinic, waiting.”“What were you waiting for?”“I was and am waiting for a kidney, mine is broken. Still, I don’t know how I got here. I woke up here.”“Me too. I mean, I don’t need a kidney. First, I woke up alone, then lost consciousness, and the next time I opened my eyes I saw you. How should I call you?”“I’m Peter, so we are the only two guys in this room. Why do you ...

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“The Coast” by Anjali Klinder

Submitted to Contest #49

The man had grey leathery skin like the outside of a purse passed down through generations. Sunspots danced over the wrinkles of his hands, his cheeks, his forehead. His fingers were short and bulbous, the joints rusted over with arthritis. Bags crouched beneath his eyes, shiny and bloated and slinking slowly down his cheeks. His eyes themselves were a dull brown, cloudy with age. They flitted over every surface in the room - the cherry wood coffee table in the middle, the light pink chairs lining three of the four walls, the news magazines ...

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“Waiting for the Woe” by Ed Friedman

Submitted to Contest #49

I know this feeling. When nothing else has any meaning except for what is uppermost in my mind. Right now, the only thing that matters is what’s going to happen in the next few minutes when the doctor walks through that door. We’ve all, at one time or another contemplated our own death. But sitting in this sparse gray room with nothing to look at besides posters of the digestive tract, no doubt provided by drug companies as perks for doctor’s offices, I await a verdict that’s literally life or death. I’ve done nothing to prepare for good...

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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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