Your main character is approached by their long-estranged parent who wants to reconnect. How do they react?

Posted in Dramatic on Jul 31, 2021

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✍️ 193 stories

“Train station” by Maha NC

Submitted to Contest #79

The trains clattered and rattled on rails that had weathered too many rains, seen too many winters. Jeya wrapped her shawl more securely around herself, squinting in the early morning light to make out the time on the station clock. Five to six in the morning. The sun was begrudgingly making its way up from the horizon. Soon its rays would spear the sky like a million soldiers streaking onto a battlefield, and the memory of the night would be lost to the bustle and braying of a busy day.But that moment was yet to come, and the day was still ...

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“ABANDONED” by Pam Hicks

Submitted to Contest #79

Johnny sat on the steps of the orphanage, tears streaming down his face. What was wrong with him? Why had his mommy abandoned him? He loved his mommy so much but she didn't love him anymore. She had left their house one day and never came back. He had been all alone, scared and hungry. He was only five but his mommy had shown him how to call 911 if he needed help. So he called 911 and the police had brought him to this place. He was still scared but they had fed him so at least he wasn’t hungry. As Johnny sat there crying, a very pretty lady...

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“'You are Our Glue'” by Carole Cobos

Submitted to Contest #79

*Cammie- Age 25*Kate Moore.‘Mom’.Kate Moore was adored by her friends. She was generous and funny and gracious. She was kind and was the mother to two genius prodigy children. And one daughter.People forget about the daughter.She was the daughter.Anyway...Kate Moore was put together and calm and collected. She had smooth short hair that fell a few inches below her chin, a lovely shade of pale brown, and wide friendly eyes. She was intimidatingly pretty.Cammie always thought her mom was pretty. Always proud to say that it was her mom. Her Mom...

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“143” by Chris D

Submitted to Contest #79

There's a science to getting the best amount of ketchup onto a burger in Anna's mind. You draw a smiley face, just like her mother did. If only her mother had been able to draw her own smile on her face. There was something eerie about staying in the house that her mother had offed herself in. Her room was shut, left as she had left it, immaculate, save for the note on her bedside table. A simple 143 in her chicken scratch, on the back of her receipt, as if she had waited until the last moment to tell her daughter she loved her. That had bee...

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“You Left Me.” by Nuha E.

Submitted to Contest #79

I sat there, hands shaking on the table. My stomach rumbled from hunger, but the thought of eating made me feel nauseous. I tried to listen to their advice, to not overthink things, keep my mind off her, not let her get to me. I tried to focus my attention onto other things, on the fact I had yet to finish my Uni application, on the party I had been invited to this Saturday. I thought about Dad. I knew he didn’t want me to say yes to her request. He didn’t want her in my life, in his own, and I didn’t blame him. He didn’t deserve everything ...

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“The Living Ghost” by Kieri Zink

Submitted to Contest #79

I always figured I’d recognize my mother when I saw her, but I don't. The woman sitting across from me looks too well rested and exudes too much peacefulness to be the person who left me behind. I see none of myself in her face. I expected something different. Growing up, most of my friends at least had one parent. Oftentimes I’d hear the remarks our neighbors made to those friends - “Oh, you’re beautiful! Just like your mother.” or “You have your father’s height and your mother’s eyes.” No one spoke to me...

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“A Knock from the Past” by Ishita Nigam

Submitted to Contest #79

Louisa saw her girls off to school in the bus and came back home. She had a couple of chores to finish before heading to work. Her boss was out of town so she could afford to delay her arrival at work today. She came back inside and headed to the kitchen. Half way through the dishes, her phone rang. She closed the tap, took off the gloves and wiping her damp hands on her track pants hurried to pick up her mobile. It was an unknown number. I hope it is the new baby sitter Susan was talking about. “Hello?” “Hello?” The network was fi...

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“Mom and Daughter” by Kate Heesemann

Submitted to Contest #79

Author's note: This is based on a real life situation. Names have been changed to protect people in the story. As Jade brushed her long dark silky black hair out, her phone buzzed. She put down her hairbrush to pick it up. She stared at the text the came through, shocked and a little unsure. Hi, it’s mom. Call me when you can. I’d love to try to reconnect with you, and I thought we could hang out sometime this weekend and maybe see a movie or do some shopping together. Jade put her phone down and thought abo...

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“The Guest” by Paula Dennison

Submitted to Contest #79

I sat not knowing whether to move, breathe, cough, scratch my nose, look away, get up and leave or talk. My sister and I sat on straight back chairs that had been brought in from the kitchen table. I felt perched and laden on the chair. I clung with my hangs to the bottom of the seat. I felt too big for the chair, the room, my sister and the people I sat across from. The walls and gold colored brocade drapes seemed to be breathing in and out. Grandmother flitted about in the kitchen making sweet iced tea for the guests. I could tell she was ...

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“Thus Always to Tyrants” by T.K Wilson

Submitted to Contest #79

Maegan Meridian looked at her father, Aelius, stoically making his way through New York City traffic. The car was silent but for the engine noise and the barely-audible prayer of their passenger. Maegan turned slightly in her seat to observe Fionn Clanless, the boy she called brother, praying his rosary. Silky strands of long, towhead blonde hair obscured his handsome face and contrasted starkly with his black Goth-style clothing, a bit more conservative than what he usually had on. Maegan watched his fingers slide over the beads, coun...

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“You Were Dead” by Malia T.

Submitted to Contest #79

You were dead.It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. My cookie-cutter world, the life I carefully constructed after you left, was unceremoniously destroyed in one message. Just like that, it crumbled into a suffocating dust. I clawed at my throat, gasping, reaching for oxygen. It was as if an invisible hand was strangling me from the inside. “I am back in the area. Please call me.” I read the message over and over again, each time my heart beating a little faster, my chest aching.It had been a long time, seven years, I think? I had...

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“Divided” by VinceiyVenus Claridad

Submitted to Contest #79

Divided My life was going smooth. IT was a life of insouciance, nothing to perturb that harmony. That was, days ago. I’m the strong and intrepid man God shaped me. I’m fully grown. But right now, I am struck by an awful realization that I’m not intrepid- at all. I’m too yellow-bellied to face my past, I’m too feeble to live with it. With God, nothing’s impossible, in His own time. I’ll learn to live with it. Maybe now’s the perfect time to learn to accept the past, and stop shooing it away and use it as a stepping stone for a future with God...

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“Forgiving the Outline of a Man” by Daniel Brown

Submitted to Contest #79

The sun-soaked evergreen of Dora Park darkens in the presence of this mold of bearded flesh in nicotine cologne, cross-body bag, unkempt business casual clothes, wan smile. Yellowed teeth and four-dollar cigarette breath greet me before anything else. Claims he's my father. I scoff toward the trees as a group of scattered wise oaks bend over to hear us. My dad is an outline of a man, I deadpan. A silhouette of boozy nights and casual trysts with countless women. His lanky chest caves, glassy eyes the color of rain clouds sink into thei...

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“The Gift” by David Francis

Submitted to Contest #79

Dark pendulous clouds, pregnant with impending rain, further blackened the sky above me, obscuring the star filled sky. Chill air whipping past me, icy fingers clawing their way through the old cracked leather of my jacket.Not for the first time I found myself wondering what the hell I was doing riding down the A30 in the middle of the night heading towards Land's End. The ancient vee-twin heart of the beast I was astride purred beneath me, testament to the years of care my dad had lavished upon it, a motorcycle of unrevealed and mysterious ...

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“Patterns In The Rain” by Douglas Baker

Submitted to Contest #79

“Strangely, the sea doesn’t get tedious to look at. Wave tracks converge and criss-cross in patterns that have never happened before and will never happen again.” Sebastian Junger, The Perfect Storm. The March rain has all but stopped, and my wipers intermittently push water across the windshield. A rainy night on a busy road, cars sometimes toss up sheets of water that sparkle beneath the streetlights I pull into the Applebee’s parking lot, pass the bright red, orange, and green neon sign and, because the dinner crowd h...

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Your main character is approached by their long-estranged parent who wants to reconnect. How do they react?

Submissions are closed

✍️ 193 stories

“Train station” by Maha NC

“ABANDONED” by Pam Hicks

“'You are Our Glue'” by Carole Cobos

“143” by Chris D

“You Left Me.” by Nuha E.

“The Living Ghost” by Kieri Zink

“A Knock from the Past” by Ishita Nigam

“Mom and Daughter” by Kate Heesemann

“The Guest” by Paula Dennison

“Thus Always to Tyrants” by T.K Wilson

“You Were Dead” by Malia T.

“Divided” by VinceiyVenus Claridad

“Forgiving the Outline of a Man” by Daniel Brown

“The Gift” by David Francis

“Patterns In The Rain” by Douglas Baker

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about someone who decides it’s time to cut ties with a family member.

Write about someone who discovers the only family member they have left has just betrayed them.

Write about two characters who’ve gone through something so intense they now feel like family.

Write about a “found family” who are finally able to get together again after a long time apart.

Contest #79

Enter our weekly contest!

$50

Prize money

905

Contest entries

0

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: