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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

“The Orisun Omi Forest” by Lavonya Ogunwale

Submitted to Contest #86

The Orisun Omi Forest By Lavonya Ogunwale It was early one morning in March. Just before daybreak, all the creatures of the Orisun omi (Spring) Forest were gathering at the center of the forest. It was definitely a morning like not many in Orisun. You could hear the pitter-patter of little hoof and paw scampering from near and far. Every creature was dragging and pulling one of their own kind in a rush to hear the voice of the great, Elder Evergreen! Every year this was the greatest event of the Orisun Forrest. They had all gathere...

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“Coming Home” by Rebekah Marriner

Submitted to Contest #86

The Christmas lights were still in the window. They were switched off and sagged under three months of accumulated dust. There was something cold about that, Kelly thought, as the Paramedic wheeled her to the gate. It had cast her house in an uncanny gloom, like it had been abandoned and left to time. Which, she had realized, it had. She could remember the last time she had been in the house, although it had been somewhat chaotic. There were flashes of her nephews running around trying to grab as many items as they could to take with her, ...

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“Springtime” by Nancy Mcatavey

Submitted to Contest #86

Springtime April: The calendar says spring. But the Boston weatherman has the true story: rain, sleet and even some, yes... snow across the higher elevations. I know how the calendar lies. I’ve learned a few things about spring weather during my thirty -eight years of gardening. Bean seeds that rotted in the drenched soil after the Mother’s Day Flood. Tomato and pepper seedlings blackened overnight by April’s icy fingers. So I practice patience and spend drizzly afternoons snuggled up on the sofa r...

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“Overslept Hibernation” by Nolan Pieper

Submitted to Contest #86

Deep in the heart of San Francisco, an alarm clock is echoing throughout the small confines of a fourth-floor apartment. A man, abruptly awoken from his glazed-over stupor, stumbles about in frantic disarray. Clothes, trash, and ort are littered across every dimension of the apartment; creating a jungle of garbage where the vines are unwashed tube socks and the humid, tropical climate is from the stench of leftover food scraps and trash. The man is late for his first day back at work and desperately trying to find any clean article of ...

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“It's Spring” by Babette Gilles

Submitted to Contest #86

Two friends perched on a sun-warmed rock beside a babbling brook. One was a toad, his coarse, olive skin enjoying the new warmth of the sun. The other was a cricket, anxious to search for reemerging bugs but obliged to sit by his friend. A light breeze nearly tipped over the cricket, so he huddled nearer to the frog to be protected against the soft winds that sent the leaves singing. Also to stay out of view of mama birds desperate to feed their chirping children. Normally the cricket submerged himself i...

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“Freedom” by Viola Bennett

Submitted to Contest #86

It was a moment Eris thought she’d never be able to experience again, but she was determined. The sun blazed in the sky, but the grass felt cold as it curled beneath her toes. She felt the heaviness of the blood pumping hard through the legs she had barely used for three years. She leaned her body weight on the crutches her fingers desperately clasped around, and gently pushed herself forward. Each wobbly step only moved her an inch, but she knew that an inch forward was better than staying still. “It’s been so long since I’ve felt the sun...

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“To be or not to be?” by Victor Flute

Submitted to Contest #86

To be or not to be? On a beautiful sunny day in the middle of March I look out on to my front garden. The bank, for my front garden slopes down to the road, is covered with daffodils, celandines and violets. I am able to stand outside without a coat as the cold March wind has stopped. Spring has started and signs of new life are everywhere. Birds are singing, squirrels are leaping about in the trees where leaf buds are swelling. This year this is more significant than usual as I too am promised a new life. For a whole year I have been shield...

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“Daffodils in Spring” by Laura Davies

Submitted to Contest #86

Grant heard the birds first, they sang as the first hints of sunlight peeked through his bedroom curtains. A loud defiant song, that screams I am still here, the night has not taken me, and I will see the sunrise today. An old song, sung for millions of years. He had heard the song thousands of times, but had he ever really truly listened? He supposed not. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and slipped his feet into his woollen slippers, Margaret had picked them out for him the last time they had gone grocery shopping together. A sof...

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“The Predicament” by Fern Stone

Submitted to Contest #86

I am bones sewn together by a sheet of pale chiffon, buried under six feet of quilted ennui. I am surrounded by cups left half-empty and unopened mail. Piles of unwashed clothes intermingle with take-out bags and bobby pins. In this little winter wasteland, there is only one footpath through all of the disarray, and it doesn’t even lead to the egress. There is no sound but the dripping of melted snow on peeling window panes. There is no smell or taste in the air. There isn’t even a purpose to breathe. There is nothing left of me. This is hib...

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“The hidden talent ” by Canaan Newman

Submitted to Contest #86

The Hidden Talent He had been unseen, unnoticed, and unheard. No one ever recognized him because he was just a bystander, trying to fit in. He was always just there but no one really cared. Just another regular. He was done being so regular though, he wanted to stand out, be seen. Rico went to a school of over 3000 students, there were so many cliques and settings he wasn’t cool enough for. Rico was gifted though, he was an exceptional swimmer but no one cared because he wouldn’t talk to any until it all changed. Rico was wal...

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“A Shot at Hope” by Sam Harvey

Submitted to Contest #86

I sat there jiggling my leg up and down as I looked around at the first building I had been inside in a year. Literally a year, I realized. A year ago to this day, I had an important meeting that was canceled because their offices were shut down due to COVID-19. March 16. The day my life ended. Not really, a bit of an author’s exaggeration, I guess you could call it. My life really ended, or at least the life I once knew back in 2017 when I got sick. I got a cold, and I never really recovered. My ability to simply exist became a chore. I wou...

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“A Flower's Request ” by Pamela Kalidasan

Submitted to Contest #86

Two things mortal beings have in common- life and sleep. And if you really dig deep into the concept, whether it's spiritual or philosophical The origin is the same start to finish. It's an endless cycle, a circle that can't stop time and I bloom within it so does the rest of the living. It takes years in the making, but nobody really notices. I don't have eyes, hands, or legs like rabbits or wolves, neither can I move like the earthworm or birds, instead I wake up slowly climbing from the ground which the sleeping fertilizes. Here...

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“New Beginnings” by Sarah Eng

Submitted to Contest #86

Trigger Warning: Miscarriage Aubrey’s weary eyes fluttered open to a streak of bright light breaking through the crack of her curtains, disturbing her state of hibernation. These curtains were meant to black out the sun and along with it, the rest of the world. But alas, even the black pieces of cloth had failed her. Never mind though; Aubrey had long bypassed allowing herself to be disappointed by anything. After she had faced the biggest disappointment life could have handed her. The scene played back in her head like a broken record, ...

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“To Rise” by Danny Fisher

Submitted to Contest #86

Springtime. The rising sun illuminated the dank space of the cave, and the bear stirred for the first time in moons. Knowing that now was the time to move again, he strolled out of his humble abode and began doing what he does best - looking for food. He spent a few minutes nibbling on fresh flowers and foliage, and then made his way to the river. While vegetation was delicious, the long hibernation had left him nearly starved; it was time for some real food. Fish. Delicious fish, a delicacy among grizzlie...

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“Stop talking and listen” by Richard Hawkins

Submitted to Contest #86

Have lunch with me she said. That how it started and the way it has been ever since we were in school. Brenda was not like most teenage girls. despite being attractive and approachable she had no boyfriends and only a few close girlfriends. I was the school stoner who only noted quality was having the best weed. Brenda didn't smoke weed at all. We had history together right after lunch. Returning from lunch I was usually enjoying my high from the activities during lunch. I had a running joke with her asking for sex. Always got the same answe...

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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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