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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

“False Spring” by Shari Tiedens

Submitted to Contest #86

Anastacia woke alone. It was cool and dark in the Den, the pods around her still and silent. That was wrong. Some should be out by now, aglow with pre-revival routines. Others should be awake. She should not be the first. Not if everything had gone as it should. Wake up, Canary, she thought, with a tight feeling inside. She unfolded from her sleep on unsteady legs, every inch of her trembling. An inquiry to the ship’s computer revealed the problem. A triggered perimeter alarm. But the numbers that should have told her where and when were a...

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“Awakened” by Stormi Gales

Submitted to Contest #86

The sound of a door slamming echoed through the empty halls. A bright harsh light blinded her. She had not seen light in such a long time, she had almost forgotten what it was. She squinted, lifting her arms above her head to shield her throbbing eyes from the unforgiving shine. As she began to sit up, unfamiliar grey flowers that had grown along her slumbering form began to fall away before her. Through shadowed eyes she watched them whither, die, and dissolve into ashes around her. The sun shone brightly through the broken windows of her c...

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“Footsteps” by Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #86

The waning days of winter are in many ways, the most torturous. We remember what is to come, we know what we have endured, and yet we find it difficult to believe that our expectations will once again, validate a new reality. The days grow warmer as the sun shakes off its vail of darkness. The trees begin to lose the naked embarrassment of winter, tempered only by the conspiracy of new light that accompanies it. The branches suddenly erupt with a tinged green glow that has seeped through the bark and lies proudly exposed after...

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“Small small bouquetSAY IT WITH FLOWERS” by Judith Veder

Submitted to Contest #86

Some small bouquets- SAY IT WITH FLOWERS Some years that dracaena margenata or dragon tree in my livingroom in the Bronx, New York, has stalks of flowers that come out at night to attract moths, and by morning, smell so heady and sweet, we need to open the windows. They are also very sticky. I’ve never seen the moths and that’s ok. What does that say? This plant is the descendent of the very first plant my now ex and I bought in the plant area in downtown New York in 1965 for $2.00 and carried on the subway all the way home...

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“Untamed” by Flower Queens Adventures

Submitted to Contest #86

Her gamertag was UntamedDaisy but everyone called her Untamed. She wore a Daisy pendant necklace because she believed its qualities,innocence, purity and newness, fit her perfectly. She wasn’t the best video gamer but she was one of a kind. “Asturd”, “ThatGuy3”, “ChocolateAsh”, and “PoppinCherreees”, were all her best friends, and yes she knew their real names but she rarely used them. Gamertags had their own type of anonymity and class. Her love seat was a dark navy blue seated directly in between a roundtable, stacked high with pizza boxes...

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“Artio” by Lexi George

Submitted to Contest #86

Her eyes fluttered open. A dim blue light shone into them. She ignored it and closed her eyes; she was not ready for wakefulness. Just a few more weeks, she thought. And with that thought, her dreams twisted around her, and the light was forgotten. A month later, her eyes opened fully. They were swirling gold, ever-changing like flames. The light was brighter now, and it annoyed her. Silently she cursed it, then yawned, closed her eyes and return to sleep. As she did, prayers of far off people entered her mind. They were asking for spring, f...

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“A Fresh Yellow Morning ” by Claire Brocksopp

Submitted to Contest #86

I took a seat, perching carefully next to a bald man in sunglasses. I could feel the early morning dew from the bench seeping its way through my jeans but I didn't really care too much. My focus was solely on my surroundings. The sky was clear and the air was fresh, burning against my cheeks and stinging my eyes. With each blink against the crisp morning came a new tear drop, trickling slowly down my cheek. Ironic really, that I was in the one place where crying was welcomed, yet the only tears present were created by the weather. I stared d...

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“The resilience of spring flowers” by Ionel Rusanu

Submitted to Contest #86

Sveta was a good girl. Always has been. But for some weeks, an inexorable guilt engulfed her. It was her fault that her father, the pillar of the family, was in a hospital fighting for his life. She suspected, and for good reasons, that she was the reason he was infected with the new virus.She didn’t know where she got it. Maybe from the crowded marketplace where her mother sends her to buy the groceries. At first, she thought she had caught a cold from a trip she made in the woods at the edge of the town. Her mother sent her there to pick u...

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“The Winning Arrangement” by Bonnie Clarkson

Submitted to Contest #86

Weather cooperated with Richard’s plans for attending the state fair. No rain. Lots of sunshine, but not too hot. The people wore clothing colorful enough to be an entry of a florist’s design. He believed walking the fairgrounds to be more pleasurable than an ocean cruise. Richard, thirty-years-old and with brown hair, looked at his map. He noticed the university’s home and garden landscaping display on the map...

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“Spring’s Light” by Kathleen March

Submitted to Contest #86

The other day I happened to be home, inside my house and probably caught up in some art project, when I began thinking that something rather odd was occurring. Something had moved, or gotten louder. Something had gotten bigger, or had shrunk. Somebody across the street had finally taken their holiday lights down. I didn't have a clue, really. The only thing I sensed was that it just wasn’t the same as the previous week. Of that I was more than sure, however. Something out there was different.Still, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, ...

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“WELCOME SPRING” by Mara Masolini

Submitted to Contest #86

WELCOME SPRING It was the first day of Spring and in the large park of the small town a great party had place, the party to welcome Spring. The park was magnificent, even Strunz was a small town, it had a wide green park where, together pines and cypresses , there were also cherry trees, pear trees, peach trees, apricots trees, almond trees. All these trees were now just in bloom, or their flowers were about to bloom at any moment. The flowering foliage of the trees ,which looked like&...

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“An Orchid” by Bri Dunigan

Submitted to Contest #86

My family was good with flowers. The only thing Grandma had been able to grow consistently were the many varieties of florals and ferns that wound around the property fence and weaved across the lawn, leaving gentle lines surrounding the house. It was like living in a fairy ring, or her protective spell. Dad had inherited her love of nature, but his obsession was with those smaller flowers that beckoned the coming of food. He grew all sorts of fruits and vegetables, and grew them well too, something even Grandma had failed to achieve. Aunty...

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“Suffocation” by Paddu Menon

Submitted to Contest #86

SUFFOCATION.by Paddu Menon Today. It was the first thought that came to her as she woke up. He was gone. And, soon, this bedroom, the house in whose eastern corner it sat, and the tiny garden outside with its gnarled old red hibiscus and the half-grown mango tree they had planted together, all those would be gone as well. It was the strangest feeling ever. Apart from that the garden was abloom. She had loved the hibiscus in different colours, the roses big and small and the hydrangeas and the chendus. Common but so colourful. Supri...

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“Wake up. Wake up.” by Jam Aboy

Submitted to Contest #86

I found myself walking in the silent corridor of the building. The second floor is too quiet. It is only me and the hushing wind. All classrooms and dormitories are empty; all are messy. I try to walk and walk until I reach the side stairs. I suddenly stopped. I do not know where I am going. Likewise, I do not know where I started. My mind is in blank space; there is nothing to hide, there is nothing to be seen. I have goosebumps because of the place. I felt cold, and it gets more intense as the wind passes through me. The last mark of winte...

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“Flowers are a way to bring a smile to the one who receives them” by Andrea Mattarelliano

Submitted to Contest #86

Flowers have always had a special meaning to me, Either me buying them for someone special or on the receiving end, Its not everyday that i get flowers, so if i get them it makes me feel like that person thought of me enough to buy me them, When i was a little girl my dad and I had a special bond, Not only was i his little girl but i was born on his birthday and he has told me time and time again that he gave me his birthday, I loved my dad, he is now in heaven and I miss him greatly, Before i got married and started my life with my husband,...

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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.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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