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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

“Pickles? ” by Anja Z

Submitted to Contest #49

Its night time and the boss and his wife are in the house. No noise could be heard from where I’m situated. Its cold tonight and I don’t have any fur like the persistent yet curious cat, or any hair like the bosses.I am just here.A gift past from one generation to the next, an old model standing alone through all the storms the earth has to give.Waiting…Its day time now and the soft yet cold snow of the previous night are set on my eyes. The bosses are awake I can’t sense, but I can see the lights are already on in what they call a ‘hom...

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“Two Minutes and The Lifetime They Take” by Elle Clark

Submitted to Contest #49

120 seconds leftTwo minutes is barely any time at all. At the same time, it is eons and eons. Time is relative, as the great scientists have said. When she met him, it had taken her only two minutes to decide that he was the one for her. Such a short time to pivot the course of your life but his T-shirt said This is what a feminist looks like and he was blushing and awkward and stammering. He’d offered to buy her a drink and when she’d hesitated, he’d put both his hands up, told her he understood and wished her a good evening. When she caugh...

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“Nebula 13 (Chapter 2)” by Laurentz Baker

Submitted to Contest #49

Fight for Briem Or Fight for None The message that materialized on my ship’s screen read⎯Onyx Blake. You have not been authorized to assemble a force to engage (this) the Briem. Nebula Council of Planets (NCOP) I know that a council member is likely at my ship’s entrance. We won’t survive tangled in red tape. I need to depart quickly as it is, due to the enemy’s head start. But with the council en route to seize my ship I skip proper space station departure procedures. If they board my ship here I’m grounded. If they catch me h...

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“Ninjago Fanfiction___ Part-3” by Cam Croz

Submitted to Contest #49

Cole stared at his fellow Ninja as they awkwardly tried to have a conversation. He tried not to laugh out loud. He could tell that Lloyd was still annoyed that Mystery wouldn't tell him who she was.“What are some questions you think we should ask people?” Lloyd was asking now. It took Cole a moment to realize that Lloyd was talking to him. He looked up and made a surprised sound.“Nice to see you green Ninja’s have stopped trying to hold a conversation.” He laughed. They just glared back at him.Mystery took a step towards him.“What ...

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“Waiting for the evening bus” by Authoring Studio

Submitted to Contest #49

I had never known him. But there was something in those knowing eyes of his which drew me to him.It was an evening like any other. My remedial classes for Algebra had just ended, and I was waiting at the gate of the school campus for my mum to pick me up. I was making undecipherable designs with my shoe in the little amount of sand lining the park outside the gate when my phone rang."Andrew dear," my mum spoke. "Can you come home by bus for today? I might be a little late today, and will have to take a different route from my office to reach...

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“The Bloodline Gamble” by Deidra Whitt Lovegren

Submitted to Contest #49

There in the cold hospital waiting room, we gathered together to watch my oldest sister die. As usual, I sat alone and apart. The only person I even liked in this motley group was currently in another room, heavily sedated on a ventilator. If my oldest sister had been sitting next to me, we would have been making snarky comments and laughing conspiratorially at the absurdity of it all. Who gets leukemia in their 40’s? And not just any garden-variety leukemia. My oldest sister managed to conjure up T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia. The bad kin...

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“Embrace Me Back!” by Shivani Manocha

Submitted to Contest #49

“He is lying still on the bed, sleeping like a baby. I love seeing him sleeping beside me— the way his lips curl up even in sleep, always makes me smile; it makes me feel complete. But when I try to embrace him in the warmth of my love, he lies there lifeless.” Alia wakes up from her sleep as she hears a loud bang outside, but does not bother to find out where it came from and sits down with her back straight against the headboard. Looking straight at the wall in front of her, she moves her quivering hand towards the other side of the bed,...

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“Suspense ” by Anja Z

Submitted to Contest #49

The clock on the blue wall is ticking signalling the hours the minutes and the seconds passing. The lady to my left is sleeping or should I say passed out from exhausting from trying to handle 3 kids. The man to my right is coughing into his hand to not let anyone inhale his molecules of bacteria. I’m sitting in my chair biting my nails and staring at the ceiling. From where I am sitting the ceiling and the walls aren’t looking too bad, but upon closer inspection you can see the mould on the walls and the cracks of the years of the buildi...

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“Dentist Drills ” by May Mills

Submitted to Contest #49

I was sitting in my dentist’s waiting room on a gross chair on a beige carpet staring at a beige wall. Beige, of all colors, beige. A color that does not spark any emotion or feeling. A color that is devoid of sympathy. I mentally let out a frustrated augh, I don’t get nervous from too many things, but dentists scare me. I don’t understand why but they just do. I think it's the syringes and drills. Just augh. I stared at the receptionist. She was sitting behind a boring looking desk wearing boring pale blue scrubs. There was a myriad o...

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“Terrible Surprises” by Lynn Penny

Submitted to Contest #49

Uteruses suck. That’s it, that’s basically the whole story. If you were to ask Kazi her most magnificent piece of wisdom, she would tell you this. They do beautiful things like creating humans from two cells into a whole baby! That’s like stuffing two balls of playdough together then ending up with Michelangelo’s David Statue, completely unrealistic. But the manner that they create them is torcher. An agonizing nine-month-long process that is so fragile it can’t handle any booze. Pregnancy is the ultimate party pooper.There was also a b...

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“The Booth” by Lindsey W

Submitted to Contest #49

The small diner at the end of the street was open twenty-four hours. It had a bell over the door so every time a new customer walked in, it was annoyingly announced to the whole shop. But the people who dined there were used to it, maybe even enjoyed it. The food was usually flavorless and cold but there was always a homemade pie ready to be served, and hot coffee to be poured.Ding."How many today?" The waitress behind the counter asked as a girl, about twenty, walked in. She had on a bright green dress and her brown hair had been curled: sh...

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“Waiting Forever” by Authoring Studio

Submitted to Contest #49

Hello guys!I am Hazel Adams, and I am proud to define myself as a human who is lazier than the laziest sloth in the world. I want to tell you a story, so come to me and listen, won't you? My backache is getting worse than ever, even though I am just in my thirties.I was lolling around on the couch like a sloth (as is my natural behavior- I should respect my animal identity) with a huge bowl of popcorn to keep me company one night. It had been a nice night until then. A huge storm began thundering down on us out of the blue in a short while.(...

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“Rekha’s Waiting………………………………………………………..” by Alkaa Sharma

Submitted to Contest #49

Rekha’s Waiting……………………………………………………….. Rekha lost her father Mr Goyal when she was 13 years old. It was a suicide as was told to her by her relatives. As she was only a teenager and was not quite aware of the perplexities of life, she didn’t knew what storms were waiting for her. She was very close to him as he was the world for her. He was her friend , her guide and her protector. With him, she felt very secured. She thought his sole purpose of coming on the planet was to love her and take care of her. He pampered her with all...

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“Wanderlust” by <inactive> .

Submitted to Contest #49

You sigh, not for the first time in the last hour. Your eyes sting from all the tears you’ve cried today. You can’t comprehend why your life has to be this complicated. Your father always said that if you did good things, good things come back to you. Well, wasn’t that exactly what you were doing? You work hard on your school and club activities, and your test results weren’t too bad either. You are an A- student and everyone compliments your music club for having you in it. Wasn’t all that good? Didn’t you deserve to at least have a ...

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“Too much to handle” by Nirosha P

Submitted to Contest #49

A great deal of thoughts were rushing through my mind. Too many, that made me fail to remember simple things. This just made me even later. I glanced at the clock. This was insane! I could swear I had an extra 10 minutes! They flew away like wind! Greatly distressed, I seized my coat, grabbed my keys, and headed out the door clutching onto my handbag. As I drove, I tried to ignore the immense amount of pain I was feeling and just focus on the appointment I had with the doctor. I grew even more infuriated as the traffic jam li...

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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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