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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#98: Origin Stories

Every year, on the fifth day of the lunisolar calendar’s fifth month (which happens to be this Monday!), the Dragon Boat Festival commences with gusto all across China. Within three days of celebration, people attend dragon boat races (as expected), eat sticky rice dumplings (zongzi), and hang aromatic plants around the house to ward off evil spirits.

The origins of the festival are obscure: some say it commemorates the death of a poetic and patriotic official who was exiled from the ancient Chu state. Others say it celebrates a filial daughter who lost her life searching for her father, who fell in the river during the organization of a boat race. While father and daughter were reunited in death, their misfortune connects to yet another alternative origin story for the festival: the fifth day of the fifth month was considered the unluckiest day of the year, and the festivities are carried out to keep this bad energy at bay.

Taking inspiration from these fascinating stories, and from their multiplicity, I present to you the prompts for this week! Don’t worry if you’re not familiar with the festival itself: since the tales behind this occasion are so diverse, there’s something for everyone.

This week's prompts

Write about a family with a long-standing tradition, whose members all have conflicting origin stories for it.

Thanksgiving – 58 stories

Start your story with a character having a premonition, but no one believes them.

Dark – 147 stories

Write about someone who’s desperately trying to change their luck.

Teens – 101 stories

Set your story on (or in) a winding river.

Middle School – 122 stories

Write a story involving a character who cannot return home.

Angst – 320 stories

Stories

“Be Careful what you Wish for” by Lilith Safiro

Submitted to Contest #98

June 14, 2021. This is the date of this years’ Dragon Boat festival according to the Gregorian Calendar. I packed up my clothes and went straight to the airport to catch my flight to Beijing, China. Today, it’s June 10, 2021, 10:52 pm here in Seattle—I opened my laptop and started some entries in my calendar to indicate what I can do for the following days so I could prepare for my paper works. As a journalist, I need to be on the actual country where the festival originated. Where will I even begin to start writing about it? “Good ...

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“Choosing Love” by Kristen Jensen

Submitted to Contest #98

Melanie pranced through the fields of hay that grow high this time of year. On occasion, she could see the overlook to the beautiful waterway she grew up beside. She could still picture the porch swing moving back and forth on a breezy spring morning. The tulips her mother planted had always begun to bloom during that time of year as she marveled at nature’s beauty. She reminisced on the days when she could walk on the old wooden boardwalk and feel the warm sun under her feet and the leftover sand between her toes. She used to look over the ...

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“Gaspard's Revenge” by Kate Enoch

Submitted to Contest #98

This story is my version of the murder of the Marquis, from the novel, A Tale of Two Cities. The rattle of the carriage in deafening. My arms burn, but the pain is the farthest thing from my mind. Well, my pain is the farthest from my mind. My hands are slick from oil that drips off the axels in rhythmic plip plip plips, and a bump is starting to form on the back of my head from the countless times it’s connected with the underside of the carriage I’m clinging to. The Marqu...

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“Running” by Feyre Astor

Submitted to Contest #98

When you start running you can’t stop. The feeling of the wind against your face and the view constantly changing is the best in the world. But, some people don’t run for fun, they run from their problems. Their past that's constantly coming to haunt them. Now, this isn’t a story about a girl who ran away from home because she seemed to like it. It’s a girl that was forced to leave her home, her memories, her loved ones, and her life.*************** Nikki had a pleasant life. She would always go to school with her best friend Zyra and w...

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“Uproars and Benedictions” by E Moss

Submitted to Contest #98

I have a limited arsenal of internal movements at hand given to me for explaining my plight, so if focus is frenetic then I shall implore the reader will entertain that I scramble in reciting my last utterances alive like slurred declarations concerning a passage into stillness that is transient, whereas all other which I surface is tenebrous in inhospitable abandon. So I ask that the reader be unflinching about observance so that I may leave understood, notwithstanding my vanishing reserve not only depleting me of alacrity but also seldom t...

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“Belen” by James Alcivar

Submitted to Contest #98

She stopped under the shade of a tree. The light filtered through the leaves into the car as she looked out onto the familiar road. Belen rolled down the window trying to get fresh air. The wind lifted the dead leaves onto the windshield. She did not feel well. The road was empty, and she was alone. She waited for a car to drive by or someone to cross the street. No one came. Belen had five children. Four of them left her as soon as they were old enough to work. Only one of them finished school. They didn’t speak to her anymore now that t...

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“Ash Out” by Ashlynn Prins

Submitted to Contest #98

“Why, God?” I mutter. I breathe heavily, trying to keep from sobbing. My face mask pushed hot air back at me, making me feel lightheaded. I whipped the thing off my face, despite the smokey air surrounding me. I close my car door, and walk up onto the sidewalk. It used to stand right there. It was right there, with that big green tree and all of the green plants that my mom tried so hard to make beautiful. Where we had movie nights on mom’s bed and deep conversations on the back porch. Where we had coffee ...

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“I Was Gone” by Margo Harris

Submitted to Contest #98

As I watch the scene unfold around me, my melancholy is felt throughout my body… or what’s left of it. I am cold, shaking in the breeze of the dancers’ movements. Pushed further and further to the side of the room as each new attendee enters. No one can see me, but I see everyone. Shoes stick to the floor as spilled beer is danced upon. Techno music booms through the brand new stereo system. Chatter and laughter fill the air, creating an unpleasant constant battle to be heard over the music. A mix of sweat and alcohol can be smelled...

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“Burnt Bridges ” by Mike Davies

Submitted to Contest #98

Burnt Bridges. She would understand, she always did. This time was different, this time he had burnt all of his bridges, surely? The cold metal structure he had secured, was to be his bed for the night. The train station was the only quiet place he could find. Only one train went through the sleepy station, that was the 03.35am sleeper to Wilmshurst. You've probably gathered by now that this was not the first time Vic had slept on this particular bench. Slept, was not a word he would have used, there were too many things roller-coastin...

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“A crybaby's adventure” by Paris Carlton

Submitted to Contest #98

I felt as if the cimmerian sky had also had a bad day just like me, to the point they started crying which upset me to the point of tears. I was a crybaby and nothing but a sensitive brat as pa would say and it was quite exhausting. Because of this, I had cried myself to sleep and forgot about the whole reason I was having a bad day. It was, moving day and like always I had to say goodbye to my long-time friends. Saying goodbye was hard because I never knew if I would see them again and it felt as if the two-hour distance was a world a...

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“What I Need Most” by Jamie Harvey

Submitted to Contest #98

I stood there only able to stare out at the vast orange valley. How did I get here? One minute I was standing at the end of Duncan Street looking at the message board outside of the Baptist Church. Sometimes there were jobs posted there that I can do. Things like cleaning or babysitting. Anything to make some pocket money. Anything to get away from home. Well, what was left of home anyway. A year ago my mama died. She had a brain tumor and had been sick for a while. I didn’t take my good-for-nothing da...

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“Commander Weirdo” by Chris Wagner

Submitted to Contest #98

The propeller slowly lost momentum as my Bird Chopper sank into the murky gray swamp. Just minutes ago, I'd been lacing my boots in the TV studio. The house lights dimmed as the low key farewell music played. A man in a feather and felt goose costume blew the cameras a kiss before taking the copilot's seat. The big propeller turned like a ceiling fan when you just pulled the chain to shut it off. I donned my aviator glasses, saluting the kids in the television audience, clambered aboard. The Airwolf style jet bo...

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“The Road Man” by Donavan Barrier

Submitted to Contest #98

He stuck his blistered thumb out to his side. His eyes squinted against the boiling desert sun. His skin felt itchy under his shirt. The sweat slowly dripped down his brow and tried its best to blind him. A quick swipe with the back of his hand quickly stopped that. The blacktop stretched thin in front of him. Miles of the stuff lay out bare. It seemed to bubble and broil underneath his feet. It looked disgusting! Surely if he didn’t keep walking, the soles of his shoes would melt, and he’d be stuck there forever. Forever waiting for a ride ...

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“Hope” by Aashutosh Dhungana

Submitted to Contest #98

Writer: Aashutosh Dhungana Hope "Dear letter, Currently, neither do I have any proper clothes to wear nor any apt shelter to live in. The only thing I have is a glimpse of hope. The hope of returning home with a gleaming smile on my face, the hope of eating the rice pudding that my mom makes, the hope of fighting with my brother over unnecessary trifles, and the hope of getting beaten up by my father. With t...

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“Where is Home Now” by Nina March

Submitted to Contest #98

“Do you have any fears about returning to normal life?” It was a simple question but it held so much meaning. I stared vacantly at Lisa as I tried to form a sentence together that would summarise what I was feeling. The truth was there weren't enough words in the world to describe everything I was feeling in that moment. “Honestly...” I began my voice coming out in a nervous croak. “I don’t know. But I’m ready to try.” Lisa paused as if she were taking a moment to process what I was saying and deeply analyse my answer. ...

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$50

Prize money

751

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jun 18, 2021 EST

Won by Mary Sheehan 🏆

Title: Blessed Home

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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