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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#86: Springtime Flowers

March 21st may be considered the first day of Spring by many, but Mother Nature doesn't always agree. Depending on where you live, the daffodils could be showing their sunny faces or still hibernating under frozen soil.

For me, it’s usually a mix. Here you can be wearing shorts one day and shoveling snow the next, but one thing is consistent: as soon as the weather warms up, I’m bursting outside to gulp down that fresh air and watch the world come back to life. This week, regardless of what the weather actually holds, let’s celebrate the season of rebirth and renewal. After all, in our imaginations the sun can always be shining and the birds can always be chirping!

This week's prompts

Set your story at a park during a spring festival.

Spring – 82 stories

Write about a character coming out of a long hibernation (either literal or metaphorical).

Spring – 158 stories

Write a fairy tale about someone who can communicate with woodland creatures.

Kids – 168 stories

Start your story with one character pointing out the first sign of spring to another.

Spring – 107 stories

Write a story where flowers play a central role.

Spring – 278 stories

Stories

“Spring At The Compound” by Chris Wagner

Submitted to Contest #86

Spring Harvest Festival had arrived at The Park again, the watered down Easter-without-religion distraction they established to keep the peasants of The Compound docile. I paid no attention to their bright banners, light soulless jazz, or the pastel clothing of the milling throng. My attention focused on the brass plaque they had beside the Parrott guns in the Civil War display, far from the central plaza. The Mayor wouldn't advertise secret tunnels out of The Compound on a map like this, of course, but a trained eye could see ce...

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“In Bloom, You Wither” by Paul Ferguson

Submitted to Contest #86

Tulips. Always were one of his favorites. The gate up to his family estate lay open, flanked on both sides by flowers in bloom. Daffodils, buttercups and of course a wide array of tulips. None like the one I possessed however. The dreary mood about me had been alleviated somewhat, gazing at his cultivated beauty, but it still hurt to know what came next. Walking up to the house, guards were stationed at every entrance per my instruction, having already scouted ahead in-case of some trickery. Yet, Domenico was not a man to deceive even the ...

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“The Hibernation” by David Dicaire

Submitted to Contest #86

The Hibernation It was deep in the forest an area that few if any had ever entered. The trees were tall, majestic, the foliage was thick, apparently impenetrable. The snow that the sun could fire at had melted, but the white crystals that managed to fall out of the zone remained like a lump of grey cauliflower. Amid all of the changing face of nature was a hut almost totally unseen. In fact, if someone was foolhardy enough to try and break through the thick foliage of this particular area, they would probably miss it. The...

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“My Flowery Soul” by Lis Lovén

Submitted to Contest #86

My Flowery Soul… You know, it might sound funny or weird or what else? It is really something ´other`. Very often I have been called a Tulip or a Rose or a Lilac. It was very odd, but no. I could not think about just being a woman being picked because I had beauty or because I had sex appeal. Right on the spot of my own being I craved to be like a female flower. FF. Female flower – see! I had nothing to do as I lived out in that very small county, well small when it came down to meadows and such. Anyhow it gave me a lust to write poetrie. ...

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“Another Fairy Tale” by Srestha Mondal

Submitted to Contest #86

Once upon a time, this was a beautiful Garden.Now, I sit below the broken rib-cage of a tree.I see a skeleton of an arm dangling over my head. Once upon a time, this was a branch. Hope falters in its gaunt, dying fingers like the flickering glow of fading stars in the shroud of night’s darkness. Once upon a time, those were its twigs. Foolish little fingers they are, still waiting for that touch, the touch of the Hand of Life. Years have passed, those silly twigs should have given up already, like the rest of the Garden, like me. They should...

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“Perennial Remembrance” by Annie Warren

Submitted to Contest #86

There are many things I remember. That's the curse of being human. I remember the way light streaks across the ground like it's reaching for you, to wrap you in warmth. I remember the way it feels when a warm breeze ruffles your hair and brushes across your cheek. The feeling of hundreds of warm blades of grass under your legs, and the smell of the dirt that gets stuck to them. I remember it all, but those memories don't feel like they're mine. A faint memory of running my fingers across damp flower petals fills my head for just a moment,...

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“Dark night of the soul ” by Jinger Stukes

Submitted to Contest #86

The dark night of the soul..what is that. Something stupid obviously something fake. I’ve never know someone who’s gone through that? Have I...oh no...pacing, cold under the weather they say. No something else...something different. It’s like who I was does not exists and who I will be hasn’t been created so where do I land? Where am I..who am I? Pieces of me start to fall off. Purging and aching my body is in flames. It hurts so bad I can’t feel anything. Ripping me piece by piece. Section by section psychically, energetically mentally and ...

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“Plant A Tree” by Amber Zhao

Submitted to Contest #86

‘Plant a tree!’ Jillian laughed, her streaky horselike mane of chestnut flying in the early spring breeze. All around her and her sister, Georgia, were luxurious pale green leaves falling softly like stardust, and birds mirroring their joyful cries as they cascaded into the unbelievably baby blue sky. Snippets of song flew on the friendly wind, and perfumed meadows filled with swaying flowers beckoned beyond the playground. Fertility was encompassing this wide green land: the lush, untouched hills and paddocks of grass, the glorious butterfl...

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“Stems” by Chris D

Submitted to Contest #86

She loves him not. He sets the daisy stem in his box, leaning back against the tree. The box is full of bare stems, of imaginary rejections that have never actually been given. All those petals doing it for her. A car door slams. He tucks the behind himself out of her line of view. She doesn't need to see his collection of cowardice. "Hi Icarus!" she calls out, attempting to collect all of her shopping bags in her arms. She lives on the second floor above him, and he knows how much she hates making a second trip. He thinks it's b...

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“Phantom Reality” by Thompson Emate

Submitted to Contest #86

“You can’t understand. You can’t really comprehend. You can’t relate with the burdens I carry.” “How? What do you mean?” Lester asked. “I fight everyday. I fight fierce battles. I fight to keep my mind in place. I fight oppositions it’s a tough one.” Lester nods and responds, “Ok. It’s normal. We all fight everyday. We all fight for our dreams and ambitions. We all fight for what we want. Every sane human being does that.” “Oh! I said it. You won’t understand.” Timothy holds his head. “Then please make me. Am your friend. I need to know wher...

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“Still Asleep” by Cynthia Brennan

Submitted to Contest #86

Still Asleep By Cynthia Brennan Crystal waited with sick anticipation for the doctor to come. Filled with dread, her stomach felt as if she’d swallowed a stone. She had been through this before, but as she waited for the results this time, she was having a hard time staying calm. The stakes were so much higher than in the past. All that money she had piled up over the last few years would be of no help to her if things didn’t turn out the way she hoped they would. The only difference that being well off made now was...

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“Talking Bouquets” by D. Owen

Submitted to Contest #86

Not sure what to say…then say it with a talking bouquet The carved wooden plaque hand painted with delicate wildflowers has been hanging prominently on the wall in the small shop for decades. Seeing it hanging there this morning clouds my eyes with tears. “Oh, Granny Rose. I already miss you so much” I sob. How will I say all the things I want to say about the woman who loved me, who raised me, the ...

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“Edge ” by Meli Mangos

Submitted to Contest #86

Her bare feet skidded across the forest floor as new buds of grass and saplings stretched toward the sky in the early morning light. The year’s winter had been harsh and great storms and winds took the souls of many of the trees that had called the forest home. Today was the first day of spring, and she was late to give her report to the dryad council after they had awoken from their slumber. “Oh, gosh.” She said to herself as she jumped over a tree log. “Father Gerald will be sore with me.” Little Yalandra, as she was called b...

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“The Peace Lily” by Aimee Sanders

Submitted to Contest #86

I bought you chocolates and you bought me a peace lily. You told me that this lily, like it’s name, represents peace and tranquility. It was a fitting gift for an apology and made me feel insecure about the thoughtless box of chocolates I had given you. The reason behind the apology gifts seems so pointless now. We were in our last year of high school and we had both had agreed to go to the same university in the next city over to study English. I had been busy planning out what classes we could take when you shocked me by saying you n...

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“Cornish Heath” by John Del Rio

Submitted to Contest #86

Nellie was near the rear of the shoppe when her aunt opened the door for the killer. It was a little past normal closing time for Flowry. That is the name of the thriving floral boutique that is run by her aunt. Nellie has worked there for several years. The front door to Flowry was a milky glass; this did not lend itself to knowing who was on the other side of the portal. There were two large windows to either side of the door; but if you didn’t see who was coming, through one of those windows, then it was a surprise when they ent...

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$50

Prize money

797

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Mar 26, 2021 EST

Won by Scott Skinner 🏆

Title: Flowering Walrus

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.

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