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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

“Only Luck Decides” by Lan Inu

Submitted to Contest #98

Moral luck is the pique of humanic ferocity. Even the slightest hint of the convoluted term could wipe out an entire nation if treated properly. It’s arguably the most intense form of humanity's greatest achievements and will continue to stay that way until the world has completely devastated itself. The universe is simply a game of chess in which everyone gets the opportunity to play, but unfortunately for the challenger, the opponent will always be victorious. It doesn't matter who possesses the better skills or the higher willpower, the d...

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“Never-ending Debt” by The Sundial

Submitted to Contest #98

"Now pay up Shamus, you bet heads five times and lose it all," said Delton. "You don't walk in here in debt, trying to pay off debt. We're an establishment not some back-alley chumps." "Here's the money, I'll have the rest next week" Receiving two blows to the face and knocking out a front tooth. Wiping the mud off his brown knitted suit. Tails he thinks; tails land five times, I'll be back tomorrow after work, when Old-Man-Willis clocks out I'll swipe the register and be on my merry way. At the register waiting for Willis to clock out...

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“WHATEVER IT TAKES ” by Suyan Budhoo

Submitted to Contest #98

WHATEVER IT TAKES “Luck favours the hard working”, that’s been my philosophy, and that’s what kept me working hard throughout my adult life. Even though I’ve been a work horse, luck seems to have eluded me like the plague. I’ve had bouts of luck from time to time, but nothing substantial to write home about. With most people, lack manifests in only one area of their life, but for some reason, it seems to have attached itself to me like a leech sucking on my blood. My lack of luck came in the form of an unsuccessful marriage, ...

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“Title assigned: Optimistic outlook to Luck!” by Yashpaul Kalra

Submitted to Contest #98

Manmohan the main protagonist of this good luck or Bad luck of this unfortunate story began his career at the age of twenty-two only getting a job of an office clerk at the Central Secretariat Office just four years after partition of India in 1951 when he was twenty-four years. Quite appropriate age not very late in life. He got a starting salary of one hundred and fifty rupees which was not a bad start in those years. &nbs...

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“A Dismal Pattern” by Philip Baker

Submitted to Contest #98

"It may sound superstitious," said the first man, "but every year, in the exact same period, something terrible happens. I'm telling you, I have seen it far too many times to fall for it again". His name was Mark and he was sitting in the far end of the white sofa, in a luminous cafe, filled with yellow warm light and low humming tones playing in the background, that would make the wooden walls vibrate with their low tone. Mark was a tall, lanky guy, with exceptionally large arms like a spider and a comely face and he was standing in full co...

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“Oasis” by Akra Carras

Submitted to Contest #98

An oasis. That’s what Fikri needed. The lightly-laden pony beneath him was flagging, having dropped from it’s all out gallop to the slower canter hours ago, and to a trot minutes ago. Without water, Fikri knew that the horse could simply collapse beneath him, and then he would be stranded in the middle of the largest desert in Ashal. The sun beat down on the two lone figures, both of them knowing that it was the hottest part of the day, the sun high above, its heat hitting the sand and seeming to make the air sizzle around them. It w...

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“Houseboat” by Kayley Dickins

Submitted to Contest #98

The Postman had struggled to find them earlier, and whilst that had been vaguely inconvenient at first, they had grown to find it amusing. Every time they changed mooring, a new innocent Postman would be faced with the mission of finding their new base, a mission that it always seemed wrong to place at such ridiculously early hours of the morning, but such was the life of a Postman he supposed. At least the Postman had signed up for this, he however had not anticipated spending one very early morning every few months waiting to wave to a Pos...

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“The Cold” by Timothy Wilson

Submitted to Contest #98

The first thing that he noticed when he plunged into the depths of the Connecticut was the cold. It wasn’t a minor inconvenience like the many chilly mornings he had experienced during his overextended tenure as a graveyard security officer; no, this was one of the most uncomfortable, if not painful things he had ever experienced. However, both titles were soon given to the sting that pulsated from the newfound gash that appeared in his lower stomach just moments after the jump, most likely attributed to the sharp rocks the stream had forced...

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“Hydropholynemia” by Jon L

Submitted to Contest #98

I stared out the window. We were going to a cabin site in Canada. I didn't know how long it was going to be, just that it would be extremely boring. The books that I had brought only made me carsick, yet I managed to read them anyway because it was an excuse to stop at a gas station and walk around. It was also so that I could go in there and get a snack or two. For the next half hour, I was munching on Sour Skittles and Tic Tacs. They weren't the best, but a lot better than not doing anything. Eventually even that got boring, and I put them...

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“River stones” by Laura Monaghan

Submitted to Contest #98

The River wove like an opalescent snake right through the seams of the world. One side of its banks skimmed the edge of the Earth’s sky whilst the other bordered the beginning of the galaxies beyond. It was along the latter that I spent my days, tending to the fertile soil and polishing the stones scattered along the River’s bed. The afternoon light shone golden here, fracturing like honeycomb as the sun bled through the River and into the Earth’s atmosphere. I ambled along the River’s edge, my feet flirting with the shallow ripples. ...

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“The Square on the River” by Stevie Burges

Submitted to Contest #98

During the early 2000s not long after moving to London from Cardiff, on a rainy, dull Saturday afternoon I sneaked in through the gates of Dolphin Square and found myself in one of the most glorious gardens I had ever seen. I felt sure my friend had made a huge mistake by telling me to get a flat here. This was not for the likes of me - it was - posh. I was convinced if someone saw me in the gardens complete with tourist book in hand I would be marched out of the garden and told not to come back. However, I was persuaded by my frie...

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“Along a Winding Stream” by Narwhal Writer

Submitted to Contest #98

The sound of running water and the crisp breeze brought Marina back to her childhood. She kneeled next to the river, stuck a hand in, and examined its path as far as she could see. Based on its many curves and surface movement, she estimated where the water flowed fastest or slowest. Part of her considered resorting to her backup plan before dismissing the idea. The shallow depth didn’t allow for as much movement as she liked. Plus, she didn’t want to risk a wanderer spotting her. As she studied the river through sight and feel, memories of...

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“The River ” by Grace Kelley

Submitted to Contest #98

My town was next to a river, a winding, never ending river that was wide and deep. We weren't allowed to go near it, some of the people in my town say if we were to go too close we would drown and be in pain. Maybe I should have listened because I did drown, but didn’t die. Would I be sorry for leaving to the river, maybe. I did not die, I had fallen in, I had hit the bottom of the rocky river below, it was deep and cold and the rushing water swept me away, I emerged from the water, I was nowhere near home and my bones felt stiff from the ...

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“The River Mother” by Donavan Barrier

Submitted to Contest #98

Free. Free and flowing. There’s a slight hint of white noise as the clear, cool stuff runs over the stones and pebbles beneath me. It sounds close to the end of a kiss, right when the lips part and the breath between two lovers resumes again. The trees around me shiver in the late afternoon breeze. They speak, too. They tell the others of their beauty as that is the only language nature says. The paddle in my hands swathes out a path to the side of me, gently pushing me along her body. It’s beautiful out here. Always was. &...

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“This River” by Henna Cho

Submitted to Contest #98

This river flows from the mountains. The river that she peered at, from around her mother’s silk skirt, mesmerized, staring at the water that ran, washed over the earth’s curves and edges. She was told to stay away, not even get close, as the muddy banks, even, wanted to hold the river so close that it folded right into its grasp. She would venture on some days, away from the eyes of her parents, watch from afar. The sound soothed her, the sight relaxed her, and on several days she would find herself waking up in her bed after having fallen ...

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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.

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