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Write a story in the form of a landline phone conversation.

Posted in Dialogue on Jan 10, 2025

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✍️ 78 stories

Calling Home

Submitted to Contest #285

Home, a place I haven’t been in more than ten, wait no twelve years. I can’t believe Grammy is gone. The finality of death hits my chest hard, my aching heart beats loudly, the lub-dub, lub-dub, echoes in my ears. The stifling heat makes it hard to breathe. Or is it the sadness that is engulfing me. I walked aimlessly through the kitchen, running my fingers over the yellowing cream color Formica countertop. The chip in the corner opposite the oven and stove still there from when I accidently hit it with my skateboard when I was eight. The ag...

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Copper Kiss

Submitted to Contest #285

The second the phone rang Clara  threw herself at the phone where the bright red phone was attached. “Hinson’s residence, this is Clara,” she spoke quickly enough that it barely sounded like separate words and she was met with a familiar laugh at the other end of the phone. “That was the fastest you’ve ever picked up the phone,” Amber’s voice was laced with amusement. “You said you would call at six.” “So you waited by the phone?” Clara nodded and then remembered to speak up. “Yeah. I didn’t want to miss it.” “I would have called again....

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Landlocked

Submitted to Contest #285

Sensitive content: Drowning, Death The sun hasn’t risen yet. It is so early that Cora still has sleep in her eyes and the world is a bit blurry. Waking up from such a deep sleep, she’s not sure which view will be outside of her kitchen window. She dreamt of a home she knew before. As she places the yellow kettle on the stove, the house phone rings. She bustles into the living room and grabs her slippers on the way because the floors are rather cold. Letting the phone ring, she throws a couple of logs into the wood stove and notes that she...

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The Existential Musings of Peggy and Inez

Submitted to Contest #285

                                                          Tuesday Evening“Whoever this is, I’m cookin’.”“You always have time to talk to me, woman.” Peggy’s voice sounded thin and reedy over the phone, as if she were five hundred miles away  instead of...

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Alright

Submitted to Contest #285

A phone booth stood near the foot of a desolate red hill and the bell of the machine inside rang endless and dissonant until the man from the east halted to answer its call. He was shrouded in the ash of belching spires and scarred and bled from hard fire winds. He was nourished only by fury and yellow-eyed vermin and a modest skin of sulfuric water. He stood before the decaying chamber and heard the broken aria, desperate and futile and forgotten. A folded door canted from its hinges and he tore it loose and then listened to it fall upon th...

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Wrong number

Submitted to Contest #285

“Hello Jose, is it you?” asked an older female voice A voice expressed in confusion from the other side of the call “No, my name is Pedro, I think you called the wrong number”“What did you say? Can’t hear you, it seems the phone line is not working properly”“My Name is Pedro”“What?”“PEDRO! I AM PEDRO! NOT JOSE, PEDRO!”“Ah alright, Pedro. Sorry, I keep confusing you and your brother, I think my old age is finally catching up to me”“I don’t have a brother” – said Jose while facepalming knowing this would be a long call – “Listen I think you go...

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Ring Ring Click

Submitted to Contest #285

Shiny black plastic covered the inner mechanisms of the phone. The chrome hook appeared empty, the receiver being in my hand. A ringing was heard through the receiver as I twisted the reel and dialed each number. Sliding down the wall I plopped to the floor waiting for Jules to answer.Her voice on the other end startled me as I was thinking about what I was going to tell her. “Hello.”“Oh, hi Jules! Whatcha up to?”“Nuthin much here going on. How bout you?”“Not much really.”“Hey,” I held the phone back at a distance as her harsh voice came thr...

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A Basket of Kittens and Three Million Dollars

Submitted to Contest #285

Just do it already!Ah! What the— Emma? You’re home early. How long have you been on the line?Long enough to hear you pick up the phone, sigh mournfully, debate if you should call Becca, and then hang up thirty-two times.… It wasn’t that many times.You’re right. It was more like ninety-two.It wasn’t— Are you in the basement?How did you know?Because that’s the location of the only other phone in this house.Oh, right. If you already knew where I was, why did you ask?It wasn’t an inquiry so much as an expression of my shock and bafflement.Why ar...

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Beep

Submitted to Contest #285

By Patti A. Pierucci I called my dad today, two days after his funeral. I paced around the kitchen as the yellow phone cord snaked behind me. My dad’s answering machine whirred into action, and his deep, precise voice wrapped around me like one of his warm hugs. “This is Lou. Leave your message when you hear the beep.” Beep. “Dad, I wanted to tell you that I miss you.” There was, of course, no answer back. It was enough that his recorded voice greeted me. “I’m sorry …” My voice broke. “I’m sorry I wasn’t a better daughter.” No judgement fro...

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Love in the Time of Landlines

Submitted to Contest #285

I open my bedroom door and walk casually into the family room, glancing around furtively. No one seems to be around, not my parents, not my brother. Good. I’m dying to call my boyfriend, but I would like some privacy, which I never seem to have. Someone always seems to be sprawled out on the sectional, like my mom watching Love Boat or my brother playing Space Invaders. I pick up the handset on the butter yellow wall phone and dial Steve’s number. Busy signal. Crap. I’ll have to wait a few minutes and try to call back. In the meantime, I go ...

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The Pay Phone on Fifth

Submitted to Contest #285

It was late at night, and he walked down the sidewalk, trying to clear his mind after the day he’d had. The silence of the empty streets pressed in on him, amplifying the loneliness he felt. He wished he had someone to talk to, but his friends were all busy, and he lived alone. As if the universe had heard his thoughts, a pay phone on the corner started ringing. The sound was so unexpected that he stopped in his tracks. He looked around, but the street was deserted—no one waiting for a call. He was about to ignore it and keep walking, but t...

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two cans and a string!

Submitted to Contest #285

The house was unusually quiet that afternoon. That was a rare occurrence given fourteen people lived here, including two parents and twelve children.  It was a brutally cold Saturday afternoon in mid-January. As was the case every Saturday, we younger siblings loved to go outside and play, building forts and snowmen, snow dogs occasionally. Sometimes, we'd pretend we were lost in a desert and would crawl around, entertaining ourselves with pretend mirages. We had very little to do inside the house. When we ...

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Stay off the line

Submitted to Contest #285

It was a typical Saturday in Emmas suburban paradise,Emma could barely sit still. She was perched on the edge of the couch, the phone resting beside her on the table. Her fingers drummed a restless beat, the anticipation making her jittery. She had been waiting all day for a call from Brian. Brian, the boy from school who had finally noticed her—really noticed her. The same boy who told Becky at the Mall he would call her, and now, Emma was counting the minutes.But, of course, nothing in her life was ever easy.“Hey Emma, have you even starte...

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Zero Content Satellite Delay

Submitted to Contest #285

“Hello? … Hello?”“Hi, sweetie.”“Hello? Who is—ah, hello, Mum. Is everything alright?”“Can you hear me?”“This is a surprise. These calls are expen—yes, I can hear you.”“What time is it with you, Sweetheart? It’s three-thirty here.”“There’s a delay, Mum. You have to wait till I stop, then speak. It’s after midnight here.”“I think there’s a delay on the line. It’s probably because of all the rain.”“We have to take turns, Mum.”“Oh, you have a delay too. Midnight! It can’t be that late; it’s only the afternoon here.”“The rain won’t affect anyth—y...

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The Secrets of Wells

Submitted to Contest #285

"Hello?" Lisa’s voice was clipped, sharp with annoyance as the cordless phone’s antenna crackled. "Whoever this is, make it quick. Mom’s on standby waiting for a call, and she’ll kill me if I tie up the line." "Lisa! It’s Kurt! Don’t hang up!" There was a pause. "Kurt? Why are you calling me at… 9:42 on a Saturday? Wait, are you at home?" "No, I’m… uh, at the payphone outside the old Wells hotel." "The one they closed down last year? Why are you there?" Lisa’s voice dropped into an incredulous whisper. "Please don’t tell me you’re out explor...

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