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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#57: Legacies

Everybody hopes they’ll be remembered. It’s a big part of why writers write, artists paint, and singers sing. It drives some to rise to great heights in politics or business. It’s part of why people have children.

But whether you hope to build a legacy through words, kind deeds, grand ambition, or a strong familial line, the truth is, we don’t always know how history will look back on us. All we can do is put our best selves forward, and hope that our integrity and values will resonate long after we’re gone.

This week’s prompts invite you to delve into people’s hopes for the future — and the legacies that may or may not be what they dreamed of.

This week's prompts

Write a humorous story about the descendant of someone remembered for an insignificant act.

Funny – 73 stories

Write a story about someone who’s famous for something they never actually did.

Character – 119 stories

Write a story about someone breaking a long family tradition.

Angst – 170 stories

Write a story about someone who travels to the future, and isn’t happy about how they’ve been remembered.

Science Fiction – 131 stories

Write a story that starts with someone writing their will — one they know people won’t like.

Dramatic – 183 stories

Stories

“My families holiday traditions has been broken since I grew up” by Lavonda Bishop

Submitted to Contest #57

When I was younger I noticed our family traditions during the holiday's meant more to my mother than my father, though my father worked very hard to make our holiday special. There had been some holidays that my father got laid off from his job and as I remember back when the holidays were getting closer and it started with Thanksgiving day. I felt the stress all through the house as well in the face of my mother and father. A couple days before Thanksgiving day I heard my father say to my mother how are we going to provide a Thanksgiving da...

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“The Reading” by Moji Sola

Submitted to Contest #57

The fire crackled, releasing embers into the air. The breeze was biting, but mother and daughter didn’t notice as they huddled close together. The daughter, a seven-year-old, dark-haired with black eyes, like that of an eagle, huddled even closer to her mother. Her mother wrapped her even tighter. A fly could not survive, had it gotten in their middle. “The mosquitos are biting, mom”, the child complained, looking up to her mother. “I’m sorry, sweetie. It will soon be over, don’t worry”, the mother crooned, stroking her daughter’s back. “I d...

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“Meeting Son-in-law” by Benny Njuguna

Submitted to Contest #57

He reads the text for the third time. Finally, my daughter will get married, he says to himself, almost in a whisper. She'll have a family of her own. A smile spreads on his face at that thought only to be fade quickly in a few seconds. In its stead, a sad expression engulfs the once radiant face. "I'll miss you, my dear daughter," he says in a low voice. His thoughts are interrupted by a tap on the door. "Come in," he says. A middle-aged woman enters, holding several files on one hand. "Here are the files you requested, Sir." "Thank yo...

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“Resignation” by Chris Slade

Submitted to Contest #57

I can’t do this anymore. Have you ever thought you were born to the wrong family? That you didn’t belong? I meet a lot of people through the family business. Some of the people I’ve met believed they were born into the wrong body. A woman in a man’s body, a boy in a girl’s. I even met a unicorn in a woman’s body. Even stranger? He was a male unicorn. Don’t ask me how that’s possible, I’m no expert. I don’t even believe in unicorns, after all, I would’ve seen one by now. But I take people for their word. Who am I to call them a liar? I’ve m...

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“On Both Sides” by Tammy Pieterson

Submitted to Contest #57

They spat fire. Beautiful, luminous fire in every colour imaginable. Fire, so beautiful, you wouldn't mind if it killed you, in fact, you would prefer it that way, to be graced by it's foreign beauty and give it the honour of taking your life. It was early in the afternoon and training had begun. The Ra-ens were a very proud and undefeated tribe, descendents of Ra himself, shot down from the heavens as seeds, many, many years ago. They grew from the soil like trees, fed by their father, glowing in their silky ochre skin and piercing ...

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“Breaking free” by Jane Gachambi

Submitted to Contest #57

“Why are you here? Couldn’t you send her with your mother instead? This is a women affair. How are you going to handle screams and that labor ward with nude women?” asked one hefty nurse. I had gone to the nurse station looking for someone who could assist my wife of ten months deeply trapped in labor, screaming, and scaring me stiff. “No. I can handle it. Not everybody has a mother. Don’t you have male nurses here?” I asked with a voice that was tucked between sadness and rage. All of them turned to look at me including those who wer...

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“Ascensión” by Noel Thomas

Submitted to Contest #57

It is a strange feeling seeing your own grave. I came back to see my family, but they won’t know me. They’ll simply see an old man with a slight Spanish accent. It is only a slight accent because although I am fluent in English, I still held onto my beautiful Spanish language. Language is a key in preserving our culture, but we were told that we must assimilate to be successful.I continue wandering around the memorial park and suddenly I see my family. My heart is overwhelmed with grief and awe. They are having a service remembering my wife ...

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“Tradition ” by Lee Doe

Submitted to Contest #57

I do not want to get married today. Was it a little late to be deciding that? No, it was never too late. I must believe that. The music gained in volume, almost tauntingly, ‘The wedding march’. I have been to enough weddings to know that this song had such a deep meaning. A new beginning, the start of a new life with the person you love, the person you want to spend the rest of your time with, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad. To me, it seemed the complete opposite, a chain, a noose tied around my neck, closi...

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“Purgatory ” by Sam Corrigall

Submitted to Contest #57

Once she hit her 90th birthday, it became real to her that death was looming closer, certainly within the next few years. The tunnel of her life was coming to an end and she inched nearer to that bright white light day after day. It had been that way for all humans since the beginning of time, but the reality of the end of her life did not truly hit her until 89 years had passed. She wondered regularly now what would happen when she died. She questioned if heaven was actually real as promised through her devout Catholicism or if she wou...

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“Write a story about someone who travels to the future, and isn’t happy about how they’ve been remembered.” by Franklin Obiagwu

Submitted to Contest #57

My name is Anon. That is not my real name. I want to remain anonymous because I live in your neighborhood, and I know that once this story leaks to the public, as I know it will, you will know it’s me, and I cannot afford to bear the shame of any of our neighbors seeing my nakedness. I was married to a beautiful girl, who rejected so many suitors before I showed up but accepted to marry me because I came back from the city, wore impressive clothes and worked in a reputable company. She must have thought that with me, it would be happy fore...

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“The Truth, at Least Mostly” by Cal Emery

Submitted to Contest #57

The car moves steadily forward, smooth on the newly paved roads. The sky is a dark purple, fading into dusty pink, the trees just silhouettes against the night. The stuffy smell of musty cigarettes is replaced by the sweet night air, pine needles and a light breeze as I roll down the window. Mars sleeps in the back, curled up on the leather bench. The trunk holds our three suitcases full of clothes and books, a Trader Joe’s bag with food- apples and bread, a can of beans, bottles of water. Our only belongings. Mars whines as I accelerate, sp...

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“Addressed to Me” by Mackenzie Hebner

Submitted to Contest #57

Addressed to Me By: Mackenzie M. Hebner I woke up to a new setting that morning. I didn’t quite recognize the sheets hovering over me, or the drapes through which the morning sun rays were protruding. There were small lines of dust collecting in the beams of light now illuminating what seems like an alloy of my former room. I could have sworn that the hard wood was a lighter stain, and the windows had white trim not brown. I could almost guarantee it. Maybe I’m just out of it this morning. After all, I tossed and turned all night....

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“SURREALISM” by Michael McDonald

Submitted to Contest #57

Richard was 17 years old. Coming from a lower middle class family, he had never been one to ask for things, especially at Christmas time. He accepted what he had, realizing he was still better off than a lot of people. But as an older teen living in a time of an exploding music scene in 1965, (Rolling Stones, Beau Brummels, Beatles, Byrds), he wanted to be a musician and experience that excitement. And for the first time in his life, he began dropping verbal ‘hints’ to his dad for a set of drums at Christm...

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“Wage Theft In The Windy City” by Tom Moser

Submitted to Contest #57

“What I hear you saying is you want to bargain with the Devil,” said the voice from a dark cloud. The man the voice was speaking to looked up at the cloud and waited for jeers and laughter from other voices to stop. “I never thought of it that way, sir,” Ken Noble Jackson replied hesitantly. It had taken him many years in human-time for this meeting, and he knew he might never get another opportunity. Ken thought he saw movement in the dark cloud, a silhouette of something large appeared to sit on a stone. It was a presence that d...

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“Ghost” by Lylian Xanakis

Submitted to Contest #57

I died on December 7th, 2025. At least, that is what the tombstone bearing my name says. The details about how I travelled to the future are unknown. Like any other Saturday of 2020, I finished my laundry, I cleaned the rats’ cage, and then read a book on the couch for an hour or so. Nothing out of the ordinary, nothing that would make me believe anything of this magnitude was about to happen. When I went to bed, I closed all the shutters and checked that the alarm was on. If there’s one thing I know is that I don’t want any intruders. ...

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$50

Prize money

676

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Sep 04, 2020 EST

Won by Iona Cottle 🏆

Title: Et Tu?

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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