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Write a modern version of "The Tiger, the Brahmin, and the Jackal," in which someone suffers from their own good deeds and must turn to an unlikely source for help.

Posted in Fiction on Mar 10, 2023

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✍️ 21 stories

Escape From a Tagonist

Submitted to Contest #189

Unspoken Antagonist aka Unan should never be spoken to. But what shall a brilliant eleven-year-old do on a summer afternoon when his Mom is busy prepping the delicacies to be served at the house party that night? The mere anxiety of meeting the grown people with whom he should politely converse and little people with whom he is expected to play can stifle him and make him feel a kinship with the socially apathetic antagonist hidden in the game behind the monitor. And converse with him. With a few deft clicks on the mouse and keyboard. I had ...

32 likes 24 comments 24
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Out of the Woods on Mt Tateshina

Submitted to Contest #189

Sayako waves goodbye from our apartment window as I pull the car out of the driveway. With one hand, I wave back, feeling slightly guilty about leaving her for the day. But her broad smile transmits an assurance that it’s ok to go on the hike today, she’ll be there waiting when I return.On Sundays, we have an agreement I can take the day to recharge by hiking alone in the mountains of Nagano. Getting out of the car in the empty parking lot at the trailhead, I pack light: 2 liters of water, mobile phone, an extra jacket, a survival bag a...

30 likes 14 comments 14
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Mom, Dad, and the Devil

Submitted to Contest #189

CW: mental health, mentions of suicide, physical violence, goreIt’s a short walk to my car from St. John’s Mental Health Clinic. At the end of my shift, I take the same route every night down Renforth Street. The distressed bulbs in the street lights cast a dim glow over the hopeful drunk homeless, their hands outstretched like kids on Halloween vying for their nightly sugar rush.I always give them whatever loose coins I have. Sometimes it’s a few dimes, a couple of quarters, a dollar. You never knew their situation — how they got to where t...

27 likes 25 comments 25
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The Father, The Sons-of-Bitches, and the Unholy Ghost.

Submitted to Contest #189

I turned up my collar and tightened the belt of my tattered coat. It was well past midnight and a cool fog had drifted in from the harbor.The muffled sound of voices signaled the passage of three young thugs at the end of the street. They were moving fast, and keeping their chatter down. I don’t think they felt any safer than I did. Not in this district.The solitary streetlamp was no match for the gloom. Its amber light flickered now and again, threatening to go out altogether.Something small and hard thumped to the ground near a pile of tra...

21 likes 10 comments 10
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The Politician, the Voter, and the Media: A Modern Tragedy

Submitted to Contest #189

Sensitive content: This story may offend some people. It fractures a fairy tale, kills a sacred cow or two and stacks a shelf with rampant cynicism, on display for all to see. However, it is a work of fiction. Any resemblance or similarities to persons living or dead, as well as to events, incidents or other circumstances, are pure coincidence. --Don't follow leadersWatch the parkin' meters Bob DylanOnce upon a time in the very recent past, an aspiring politician was contemplating running for high public office. But he was frustrated b...

20 likes 13 comments 13
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The Bishop, the Husband, and the Wife

Submitted to Contest #189

James didn't think to pause after rapping on the bishop's office door and flinging it open until he saw what he was walking into. The bishop, naked from the waist down, was standing behind Janet, a fellow churchgoer, who was also naked from the waist down and clearly in the throws of ecstasy. “Oh God,” cried James, feeling a momentary flash of guilt at the curse he'd used in such a holy place. He stood there, as they quickly threw their clothes back on, using every curse word in the book. James finally shut the door, turning back towards the...

17 likes 9 comments 9
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Mr. Big Modernizes "The Tiger, the Brahmin, and the Jackal"

Submitted to Contest #189

Warning: Light violence and profanity.‘Mr. Big’ is a covert investigation procedure used by undercover police to elicit confessions from suspects in cold cases (usually murder)._______People think the worst of me, but I’ve got my reasons. And sure, the girl got me back to the world, but she should’a known you don’t go after a con. Once upon a time, in a land long ago, a tiger was caught in a cage. He paced and paced and thought long and hard on how he could get out. One day, a Brahmin woman, who was a rare beauty and high caste, di...

16 likes 15 comments 15
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The Survivor, the Zombies, and the Jackass

Submitted to Contest #189

It’s just another casualty, I tell myself. That is, until her bright pink bobble catches my eye. The hoard is descending upon her quickly, probably following the scent of her blood, untainted by radiation. The house she’s hiding in is falling to bits: there’s no front door, and one of the walls has been blown apart, scattering its bricks like confetti across the nearby landscape. When the bombs hit, most places were decimated; by comparison, this ghost town got off lucky. The creatures grumble and drag behind them their mangled feet. Their b...

15 likes 1 comment 1
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A Passing Acquaintance with Grace

Submitted to Contest #189

My good deed got two people killed. And it all started with a dame. Ain’t that always the way?****************************“You did the right thing, Booker. Can’t blame yourself for what happened,” Stella told me. I had just knocked back a fistful of gin and tonics and was feeling the effects of a lot of booze on an empty stomach.“You bein’ right don’t make it any easier to take, Stell. Raymond and Ophelia Murtaugh are still on slabs downtown. Just as sure as eggs is eggs, that rat bastard Kenny Palmer had something to do with it.”“Let’s get ...

15 likes 11 comments 11
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THE CONJUROR

Submitted to Contest #189

The conjuror sat upright against the bay window that framed him into a profile as dark as the rest of the room.  Beside his chair lay a book still warm to the touch after use, and it was one he kept in his possession for occasions like this.  He stood up, his features almost indiscernible before the window where the light cast from the street below was the only source splitting the pervasive darkness.  The room was unlit, dissuading midnight pedestrians roaming the streets from looking in, as the conjuror had planned.  Af...

14 likes 8 comments 8
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Miss Kathryn, Young Francis & Mr Scar

Submitted to Contest #189

Knowledge of the brush and the great works of literature, of Rabelais, Voltaire and Dante, who were in truth his greatest and deepest friends, his strongest affections, meant our young Francis attracted many a person to hear him speak. His fine memory and depth of recollection was only matched by the delicacy of his countenance and earnestness of his constitution. He was as fine as the flowers which he recited in the psalms of Keates and Byron. And so he went, from room to room in the university, offering tales to anyone who would listen. He...

10 likes 2 comments 2
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The Poacher, The Tigress and the Jackal

Submitted to Contest #189

On a bright and sunny afternoon one day in the deep, dark wood, a poacher was taking a leisurely stroll, on the hunt for game. Suddenly, out of the blue came the unmistakable yowling of a tiger! And it sounded like it was in distress. Picking up speed, the poacher came to a clearing where he saw the poor creature tied to a tree with a taut rope. The poacher immediately and instinctively drew his gun and was stopped by the tiger's cries of "Help!" Free me, please!" Lowering his weapon and narrowing his eyes, the poacher simply asked "Why shou...

10 likes 4 comments 4
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Three For the Gallows

Submitted to Contest #189

Lacing his thumbs in his vest over his ample grith, Terra Nova’s ambassador, Alek Ivanov, paces in front of the desk of Prime Minister Rixon Windgrave. “These three individuals have been designated war criminals,” Alek says. “Their convictions will show the citizens of Terra Nova that their type of violence will not be tolerated in your government’s new order.” “That’s why I want the war trials held in Terra Nova,” Rixon replies, speaking on behalf of Nova Prime, victors in the recent war against Terra Nova. After six years of war with mil...

9 likes 2 comments 2
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No Good Deed

Submitted to Contest #189

Bernadette Peters was nice.  Beyond sharing her name with the talented star of stage and screen, Bernadette had little in common with the celebrity.  Her complexion was clear, but not fair.  She was a brunette, but didn’t have the ember-like red highlights the star did.  She also couldn’t sing, dance, or tell a joke with effective timing.  But she was nice. Bernadette held the door open for people and let people with only a few items cut ahead of her in the grocery store checkout lane.  She returned library boo...

9 likes 2 comments 2
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Wren, the Beaver, and Mother Nature

Submitted to Contest #189

Winter was fast approaching and Wren, a young girl of the forest, was searching for ways to stay warm. First, she found an enormous bear's den. Carved amongst the exposed roots of a fallen tree, she dragged her fingers along the smooth grooves of a root and small tufts of dry soil crumbled back to the earth. She smiled and grabbed the branch, giving it three big shakes until large cascades of soil crumbled to the earth, exposing more roots and open air. While this den looked cozy and presently abandoned, she knew a bear would seek it for i...

9 likes 2 comments 2
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