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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

“Violet” by Willa Piper

Submitted to Contest #50

This was just awesome. I couldn't believe this was happening. My parents sucked big time. That was for sure. Stomping across the backyard, I made my way to our tree house. I frowned. I hadn't been there since my little sisters took over the place. Not that I cared anyway. If the place was a mess, it wasn't my fault. Why did I have to clean it, and babysit my sisters at the same time? With a huff, I climbed the steps to the tree house. My earlier conversation with my parents on repeat. "Sorry, honey, but you've got to stay with...

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“Hold Me a Moment” by Jessalyn Inman

Submitted to Contest #50

I pause with my feet on the ladder and my head and shoulders peeking up into my childhood treehouse. The sun filters in through the one open, square window, diffused by the big green leaves of early summer on the old maple in the backyard of my parents’ house. I finish clambering into the treehouse though the opening and hoist myself onto the dirty, wooden floor. Dust moats I’ve stirred up swirl in the panels of gentle, evening sun illuminating my old hideout. I don’t exactly remember the last time I was here. “Oh wow! This i...

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“Frog Song” by Charlie Howell

Submitted to Contest #50

<I have never been in love, but if I was to compare thee to a summer’s day, I’d choose one like this.> The dry spell has broken and now it’s even more beautiful than the days leading up to this of shimmering heat. Rain beats the dusty roads to mud and tall grass bends under the weight of the fat droplets. It hisses on the surface of the pond and sets the frogs singing. The song of this amphibian chorus floats through the windows of the treehouse, muted by the sound of the rain pattering on the leaves surrounding us. &nb...

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“Under the Foliage” by Rubina S.

Submitted to Contest #50

His laugh echoed off the wooden walls that surrounded us. His brown, ruffled hair had a golden tint from the sun’s rays that seeped through the small carved window. I sat there, inches away, amused at his ability to get amused so easily. I stared into his captivating, hazel eyes. Years of memories had evolved in this tree house. We were best friends since childhood, and built the tree house together during the summer before 6th grade. But 9th grade, things changed, and I started having feeling for him. But I buried them and pretended that I ...

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“THE FISH AND THE BOY” by Arsalan Rashid

Submitted to Contest #50

It is rather imposing how feeble humans are. They make rhapsodic memories only to look back at times of sorrow. Like rivers, we keep flowing to the edge of the wistful waterfall. At the bottom lays the recollections of our past. However, surely like the falling droplets, we have no other choice but to cherish what is gone. An amber tinted bliss was painted across the horizon. Climbing my way to the horse chestnut tree, my fingers ran through the tall grass. I clenched my palms with every heartbeat; every second the birds sang in harmony a...

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“ANGEL'S WINGS” by April Hope

Submitted to Contest #50

ANGEL’S WINGS She walked up the steps to the porch and was just about to push the button on the doorbell, when suddenly all hell broke loose. The sound of the explosion pierced the air and lingered in her ears. Opening her eyes to see nothing but clouds of dust and debris was familiar to her. Instinctively, her medical training kicked in and took control as if she were having an out-of-body experience. So, she picked herself up, dusted herself off and got to work. She went around to the side of the house...

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“The Old Tree” by Emily G

Submitted to Contest #50

For years and years, I've been planted in this sprawling yard, watching couple after couple move in and out of this wonderful, towering house. I've learned much, forgotten little. One thing I thought I would never know, however, is the joy of little children swinging from my branches, sitting in my shade, and venturing to my tallest leaves. I had given up all hope of ever seeing a child smile up at my tall bark and frown at my staying here when they must leave. Until one day, this hope was reignited by the sound of little laughter, joined in...

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“Stolen Time” by Sarah Dumont

Submitted to Contest #50

-Do you want a drink? I bought that wine you used to love. I didn’t know if it was still your favorite. I nodded and looked at him while he poured two glasses. He was sitting on the lumpy mattress next to me in the treehouse we shared growing up. We had escaped here one more time. It was one of the hottest days of the summer so far and his cheeks were red from the heat. I remembered he used to always be hot while I was cold all the time. He hadn’t shaved in a few days and his hair was all messy and longer than it used to be. It made ...

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“The Creaking Tree House Floor” by Heather Ann Martinez

Submitted to Contest #50

The Creaking Tree House FloorBy Heather Ann MartinezAfter rounds of needles, experimental treatments, new drug trials and thickets of paperwork, Wyatt and Lilly moved back to their hometown. Lilly’s father built a tree house in the west end of their property well over thirty years earlier. It was the most shaded area of where she had grown up, and it was here that she and Wyatt first met. With their luggage and prescriptions sitting in paper bags on the stoop of Lilly’s family home, they raced to the tree house realizing that they were ...

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“Last summer” by Jaymie R

Submitted to Contest #50

The wooden boards nailed to the tree shifted and squeaked as Dylan scaled them to the top. Lifting up her left hand, she pushed open the hatch revealing a small dusty room with cobwebbed corners and splintered floors. As she pulled herself into the wooden room her arms wobbled like cooked spaghetti and her knees scraped the edge of the wooden boards but it was worth it to be up there one last time. The pictures that hung on the walls were slanted, cracked, and beautiful. Her lips turned up in a smile as she crawled over to the corne...

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“We weren't no scaredy cats” by Lily Penrose

Submitted to Contest #50

The Neighbourhood kids always talked about the creepy, old abandoned treehouse in the middle of the woods, past the creek that ran behind the fences in our backyards. Jane and I weren’t scared of nothin’. We were going to spend the whole night in that “scary” treehouse. We got the essentials to spend 24 hours in the treehouse; blankets and pillows, a ouija board, a little alarm clock, a few board games, and of course a chamber pot, pee bucket, whatever you wanna call it. And yes. We dumped it out off the treehouse patio porch thing. What? It...

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“Treehouse Cardinal” by Corbin O'Skinny

Submitted to Contest #50

“How on earth could you carry that up here?” Haley whispered mostly to himself, but also to this beautiful red bird that just flew into his treehouse. The cardinal flapped fervently. Haley scooted back into the corner, away from this maniac-invader. “Red, can I call you Red?” Haley asked as the bird kept flapping and dragging its payload into its own corner of the treehouse. “Red! You stop that right now!” Haley got up. “Thank goodness. I could have helped you if that was all you wanted.” Nodding to the bird, he walked over to the window...

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“The Boy in the Treehouse” by M.M. Romero

Submitted to Contest #50

The boy was in the treehouse. He couldn’t tell how long he had been there. In the beginning, he would mark each passing of the sun overhead with a notch on the wall but had long since surpassed the highest number to which he had ever learned to count. He looked around as the summer light filtered through the bars on the windows. The treehouse was sparse. There was a semblance of a bed – a grouping of blankets, a pillow. There was a lamp, a worn copy of a single volume of a one hundred-year old encyclopedia, chalk, and...

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“Ginny's Tree” by Mary Swearingen

Submitted to Contest #50

One could not imagine the old walnut tree without the treehouse. They had become inseparable, like Laurel and Hardy, Astaire and Rogers - time had morphed the two into one. The tree's sturdy branches hugged the little wooden enclosure as tightly and securely as a protective parent embracing a child in danger. When summer was in full bloom, the treehouse was barely visible, and so were its occupants. Making it a wonderful place to hide from a searching parent or an annoying sibling. Such was not the case during winter. During those months, th...

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“A New Set of Stars” by Taylor Arbuckle

Submitted to Contest #50

The sun was up when Julian closed his eyes.When he opens them, the light around him is a glossy shade of blue like he’s underwater and there’s sunlight all around. And, yet, he hasn’t moved.The treehouse stands, still, where it always has. The same yellow bean bag rests, full of holes and covered in crayon stains, near the window. Tacked to the wood are the same old posters from various video games and musical groups he enjoyed when he was still small enough to fit comfortably in this place. Their coloring is a bit off, as everything is tint...

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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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