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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#50: A Moment Like This

Throughout this contest, we’ve read wonderful entries that provide sweeping overviews of characters' lives (such as "The Tree"), as well as submissions that offer glimpses into distinct life-phases (like "Time Bomb"). We’ve also been captured by stories book-ended by the start and end of one particular moment in time: such as "The Price of a Nice Guy" (a woman gets a flat tire and parks on the side of the road), "Who Speaks to Death" (a story told through a single text conversation), and "To You" (a 50th birthday party).

In the spirit of those last three examples, this week's prompts challenge you to embrace the short story's ability to really dive into and explore one single scene.

This week's prompts

Write a story about a proposal.

Valentine's Day – 211 stories

Write a story about an argument that seems to be about one thing, but is actually about another.

Dialogue – 121 stories

Write a story about a person experiencing pre-performance jitters.

High School – 162 stories

Write a story told entirely through one chase scene.

Thriller and Suspense – 143 stories

Write a story about a summer afternoon spent in a treehouse.

Summer – 303 stories

Stories

“Roots” by Joyeaux Bullis

Submitted to Contest #50

The tree seemed to grow taller and taller every time I glanced at it outside. Draped over the sofa, I peeked one eye out of the window to take another look; as if I feared the tree would sprout roots and run away. Instead of running, the tree grew. I jumped off the couch and pressed my face against the cool glass window. While the tree continued its growth spurt, the house on top remained the same. I looked at it, longingly. My father had built it for me on my 10th birthday. I had begged and begged for a treehouse and my father, being the ...

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“ Shelter from the storm” by Jessica Tomaselli

Submitted to Contest #50

Sarah glanced at the clock. 2:00. Just like quarantine, this day was stretching on forever. In the morning she had worked on the treehouse she was making in the backyard, then ridden her bike with her brother and played on the playground. When they came home, he had claimed their mother’s iPad and she had drawn a picture of her friends from school. She had not seen them in so long and missed them. Then her mother had made them lunch, after which she had read for a while, but she had a hard time focusing with her brother yelling with his frie...

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“Devil in the Details” by Leela Birds

Submitted to Contest #50

Lou slapped her arm and wiped the remains of the mosquito on the folded-up tarp after a quick examination. "Did you know you can make them explode?" Her dad had given her the canvas for rainy days, but so far the summer had been nothing but sweltering heat. "Yeah. I was there when Santi said that." Keke's long, dark legs were dangling off the platform as she tried to re-tie a piece of fabric to the corner pole. The tree house was really a tent at best, with a few solid boards as base and several tie-dyed scarfs and other pieces of fabric t...

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“An Old Friend” by Alexandria Klys

Submitted to Contest #50

The wind brings to me a sound. The distant voices of children - running and playing under the warmth of the afternoon sun. Cars and vehicles driving on the roads to get to where they must be. People conversing about everything that they deem interesting. I lay on my back, the wooden floor creaking underneath me. The dust threatening to tickle my nose with every breath I take - but I ignore it. All the sounds that the wind had brought me became nothing but a whisper. A gentle breeze that...

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“Flower of My Life” by Shivam Gupta

Submitted to Contest #50

It was a radiant summer morning and the sun was blazing mercilessly. Andrew woke up panting. The droplets of sweat were covering most of his forehead and his heart was thumping hard to jump out of the chest. It took him a few minutes to get back in his senses and realize where he was and what he just went through. Though this horrid and somehow relentless nightmare is driving him up the wall for the past few years, it still feels up to the minute and puzzlingly direful as ever. His body was yet shivering in dismay and his feet were resisting...

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“The Split” by J M Knapp

Submitted to Contest #50

I threw the bag in and crawled up. It was hot inside. Our summer had gone from cold to hot in a matter of days. The window shutters are stuck so I pry them open and a breeze quickly flows through. I don’t care so much about the breeze. It’s the routine. When I open the bag, I see that my sandwich got a little smashed by my soda can. I pop the top on the soda and gulp down about half of it. The sandwich can wait. I’m not really hungry anyway. I rest my back against the boards on the wall and remember the day I helped my dad put them up. As ...

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“A day in Dyclon” by Anya Ramani

Submitted to Contest #50

Part I Maya opened her brother's door and stood in the doorframe. “Charlie are you ready?” she softly asked. Her brother was nowhere to be seen in his untidy room. “Charlie are you there?” she asked, a little louder this time. “Right here, Maya!” Charlie grinned as he popped out of his closet, tightly clutching a plastic sword with a leather hilt and chipped off paint. Charlie was wearing parts of a knight Halloween costume. He was wearing the silver breastplate with a golden border, the helmet with swirling patterns, but strangely not...

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“Thank You For Protecting Me” by Lorna Clark

Submitted to Contest #50

Trigger warning: depictions of suicide I drag myself up the ladder. I am tired, so very tired. In here I am protected from the world and all the horrors it holds. I wonder what my father would say if he was with me in the treehouse now. He built it for me and Josie, his twin girls. Mother shouted at him, “You shouldn’t spend all your days making that shed for the children. Anyone would think they mean more to you than I do”. She never came to see it. He loved us dearly and he wasn’t afraid to show it.&nbs...

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“A Snowy Summer Day” by Madison Jurgensmeyer

Submitted to Contest #50

The scorching July sun beat down on my neck, a bead of sweat trailing slowly down the collar of my shirt signifying its oppressive heat. Summer was everyone’s favorite holiday; but for me, it was just another reminder that the Hallmark-like Christmases, hot chocolate and peppermint-tinged pastries were still months away. Mama doesn’t like us in the house in the summer, she says its to pretty a day to be wasted inside, so we spend our summer days in a treehouse on the back forty acres of our small farm. Usually, my older brothers would join m...

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“The Treehouse” by Matt Jones

Submitted to Contest #50

I sat down on the dirty, creaking wooden boards; a thick layer of dust carpeted the floor. I wiped my filthy hands on previously clean, but soon caked, faded blue jeans, no longer bright but now darkened. The dim and dusty confines of the treehouse were in stark contrast to the surroundings beyond; the bright and burning sun in the mid-afternoon sky above. I was sheltered somewhat from its scorching rays but could still feel its intense power beating down on my little woodland hideaway like heavy, pulverising beams of fire.The power was so i...

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“When We Were Young ” by Tikvah Vismer

Submitted to Contest #50

I’ve found throughout the years that there is one thing we don’t seem to get enough credit for. We are adaptable to change. Change took me away from here, the place I once called home on the corner of fifth street. Change has now brought me back, but I won’t be staying. I hesitate for a moment as I walk the well-worn path of the backyard of my childhood and find a consolation in its reacquaintance, even though now I’m far from home. I wander the path in sentimentality for what was, hesitation dwindling and the thought that maybe this was a m...

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“We'll Get There” by Ray Paramo

Submitted to Contest #50

“May.” I whisper her name, but it gets drowned out by the breeze. The leaves shiver in the trees. I take another step. Dry bark crackles beneath my shoes. “Mayday.” My heart’s going fast. My palms are cool, sweaty. I still scare so easy. I hate it. “Rawr!” May jumps out from around the corner of the next building. I kinda expected it, but of course, I reel back. Her eyes are all scrunched and she’s making claws with her hands. “Dammit, May.” I loosen up. “I told you to stop doing that.” “Why?” She’s got this grin on her face that...

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“pride” by Zohara Writer

Submitted to Contest #50

Boom, crash! “Look what you've done now! I told you not to go near the tree house Emma!” Sam growled at his sister. “It wasn't my fault!” Emma whined in reply. I had just gotten up From where I was sitting on the splintery floor of the tree house to see what all the commotion was about when I realized the rope ladder on the tree house had just broke and Emma, my best friend Sam's sister, was standing 20 feet below on the dark green turf holding the broken rope ladder. Extraordinary, I thought now I'm stuck here in this tree...

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“Discordant Juncture” by Amy Lancaster

Submitted to Contest #50

Discordant Juncture By Amy Lancaster It took some concentration to slow his breathing. He could still feel the adrenaline that had flooded through him when he heard her voice on the phone, and that was making it hard to wait. It had been a few years since he’d last seen her. He still didn’t understand exactly what had gone wrong, but life without her hadn’t been easy. He’d been distracted. He’d blown off a lot of opportunities to meet other people, but he told himself he didn’t care. He knew that was just one...

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“Treehouse Disaster” by 𝔸𝕚𝕤𝕙𝕒 ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕦𝕕𝕙𝕣𝕪

Submitted to Contest #50

"Come on! Let's go!", Aliza shouted to her cousin Jaslene. They were going on a one week vacation and Aliza was so excited that she couldn't help sitting still. They were supposed to go on an airplane, which was Aliza's favorite type of transport service because she could spend all day looking at the small little t.v. in front of her. They were going to Hawaii, which was the place Aliza loved the most in the world. Aliza was sure there was going to be the best vacation yet. "I'm coming, hold up!" She shouted back. Aliza quickly ran to Jasl...

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$50

Prize money

940

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jul 17, 2020 EST

Won by Emily Hemmings 🏆

Title: Life in the Trees

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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