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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story about someone trying to reinvent themselves after spending a long time in a rut.

Posted in Fiction on Mar 31, 2023

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✍️ 38 stories

“How to Break Up with The Best Boss Ever” by Amanda Lieser

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #192

Step 1: Write the Letter of Resignation.Keep it short and sweet and to the point. List the things you loved about the place. If you can’t think of any, then LIE. 5 sentences or less.I write the letter in five minutes flat. Then, rewrite it and agonize over it for an hour. I slam my laptop shut in a fit of fury before pacing around the kitchen for fifteen minutes. I grab the tube of chocolate chip cookie dough from the fridge, cut that sucker in half, knowing I’ll eat both halves before the end of the day, and stomp to my couch. The TV takes ...

20 comments 20
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“Standing Up for Himself” by Graham Kinross

Submitted to Contest #192

Contains: swearing and shelf stacking.Sceptical drunks watched him trip his way up to the stage, sniggering long before he grabbed the microphone.“Anyone else here done with being nice to people?” He cleared his throat, getting dead stares from the audience. “I worked in a bakery. A customer asked me if I could recommend anything. I recommend talking to someone else.” Somewhere in the gloom a noise of mild amusement declared itself the best encouragement he’d get for that snippet.Feeling the perspiration in his armpits spilling outward he th...

37 comments 37
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“Sophia's Jaunt” by Josephine Harris

Submitted to Contest #192

When she came to understand English better, Sophia found it odd that the town was named Cherryfield, yet it advertised itself as the blueberry capital of the world. She’d come to the rural town from Sicily on the death of her husband to be near her son Michael and his family. She enjoyed helping with the children, but within a year the son’s job had changed and the family moved away to Washington State on the other side of the country. Sophia didn’t have another big move left in her so she stayed. As the only Italian in town, Sophia cam...

4 comments 4
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“The Flesh of the Rose” by Alexey Williams

Submitted to Contest #192

The boys throw rocks at us, and one of the rocks hits me on the side of the head. They boys are leaning out of windows and hiding behind bus shelter advertisements. Adam says we should move to a new town, but we don't go to Rehoboth like he wants but to a place neither of us has been before. We book a room in a motel where you can pay by the week and the motel manager talks to you from behind bullet-proof glass, but people in town smile at us as we walk past. Adam says they’re only doing that because they don’t know who we are. Adam only has...

14 comments 14
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“Football Fatty.” by Julie Grenness

Submitted to Contest #192

Goal! Charlene cheered her eldest son, while she munched on a hot dog, with fries on the side. Standing there, rugged up against the winter chills, a suburban mum needing something. Charlene was the mother of five sons, born within seven years, all now junior footballers. She loved her blue-eyed boys dearly, but she spent long hours washing whitey-white football shorts, and piles of sweaters. Ah, hot jam donuts. Yes, Charlene's fleecy lined tracky pants were a bit tighter around her tum and buns. A moment on her lips, a lifetime on her hips,...

2 comments 2
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“What Is Happening???” by Crystal Johnston

Submitted to Contest #192

I have no idea what my life has turned into. My life went from being hated by everyone to becoming adored. Is that just me who doesn’t understand how? Well, it’s started when I went to high school for the first day. I was wearing a tank top with ripped jeans. I was searching for my locker, I didn’t remember where it was honestly. Now I remember, it was locker #6874. A lot of students attended that school, so that’s why it’s such a high number. Anyways, I was walking down the hallway, hardly anyone was in the hallway at the time. I suddenly s...

0 comments 0
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“McCaffrey's Pickle” by Chris Miller

Submitted to Contest #192

McCaffrey’s Pickle McCaffery was free. He hadn’t been free when he woke that morning, when the he’d hit the button at five seconds past six to silence the news headlines coming from his yellowed FM radio alarm. The alarm had woken him every morning for twenty years, after seven to eight hours of reasonable rest in an under-occupied queen-sized bed. It was eight hours every night, except for Thursday, because on Thursdays he went to his group, but the radio alarm made no allowances for the lost hour. When the digits flickered to ...

8 comments 8
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“Hamster Wheel ” by John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #192

Elaine said, “I hate to tell you this…” Greg looked up from his newspaper. “What?” “Oh, never mind.” “Elaine, what?” “I don’t want to fight.” “Who’s fighting? Talk.” “We’re… in a rut.” “We are?” He reached for her. “Greg, our hamster wheel...” He stared. “It rattles and spins but never goes anywhere.” “Uhm, Honey, if it rolled away, you’d lose the hamster…” Elaine rolled her eyes. “Never mind…” “No, what’s this about?” “We’re too comfortable.” “You want discomfort?” “We used to have adventures. I don’t want to watch the clock until qui...

9 comments 9
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“A Flicker of Light” by Caroline Eddy

Submitted to Contest #192

Understudy | Shoreditch Quail egg yolk smoked in hay Fried Jerusalem artichokes, fermented wild spinach Twice-cooked eggplant, Georgian walnut sauce, pomegranate. Char-grilled octopus, blistered shishito peppers, parsley oil Agrodolce rabbit on sourdough toasts, honeyed pine nuts Cherries in rose petals, black currant dressing Bombe glacée miniature – chestnut ice cream, preserved blackberries, semi-sweet chocolate Winter citrus tart  February “Understudy?” Heather read the sign, the word more a question than simple repetition. F...

5 comments 5
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“The Day I...” by Kimani Grere

Submitted to Contest #192

"I didn't move down here to repeat the process. I left my parents in order to find independence, build courage, and make a career for myself," Kiandra paused as she took a sip of her drink, "It seems that I'm stuck with the same outcome when applying for jobs. I get turned down by every employer who views my application."After downing her glass, the young lady pushed it toward the bartender. "Keep these coming. I want to be super drunk where it seems impossible for me to walk."Kiandra's date reached for the wallet in his pocket, placing two ...

1 comment 1
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“Missed Flight” by Joe Smallwood

Submitted to Contest #192

We live as if life should be perfect, like we missed our flight and earth is an unwelcome stopover. Or we like airports too much. You know, that feeling, the topsy-turvy, fast food vacation vibe?  Amazon delivered the wrong boyfriend along with the expensive kitchen tools that I could have bought at the dollar store. Money is tight. Sending it all back will be a pain, each thing in its own box. It could have been fun, my life. But who knows? Behind every silver cloud there must be a lining, or something. I’ll try talking to him again. “...

2 comments 2
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“Periwinkle, Not Mustard” by Alexia P. Bullard

Submitted to Contest #192

[NOTE: Verbal abuse, spousal control, and divorce.] The double doors automatically whisk open in front of her shopping cart, inviting her to enter its brightly lit and warm interior. She takes a breath, forces her right foot to move forward, and steps into the store. Saturday shopping. A perfectly normal, everyday ritual for people everywhere. Maybe not for her, but for most people.  Mother and daughter. Best friends. Coworkers escaping the office. Even people out solo, enjoying a day of doing whatever they wanted and buying wha...

4 comments 4
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“Fresh Start” by Deborah Cabral

Submitted to Contest #192

Kara had spent the last 10 years living in a rut, and she was sick of it. Her days were monotonous; she would wake up at six, go to work at her dead-end job as a customer service representative, come home exhausted, watch TV until midnight, and start all over again the next day. She felt unfulfilled, bored, and stuck. She used to have dreams and aspirations, but now they seemed like far-off fantasies that would never come to fruition. Kara knew that she needed to make a change or risk losing herself completely. It was a Friday night, and...

2 comments 2
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“Resurrected Witness” by Tara Malia

Submitted to Contest #192

The view from my penthouse pales in comparison to the breathtaking majesty of the Italian countryside. God’s country. Gréve, Italy.  Abundant grapes line the countryside, defining infinite rows.  Lush hillsides roll, lazily, climbing to the clouds, where lanky, emerald firs reach towards Heaven.  Clumps of dry, brown earth peek through a green carpet, lightly dust my feet, powdering the cracks between my toes.  Only my sleek, Bruno Magli’s hint of my fast-paced lifestyle back home.  Soon, I’ll leave all traces of my ...

4 comments 4
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“Tales and travels of a street musician - Fiction based on a true story” by Angela Wybourne

Submitted to Contest #192

In my youth, I traveled the country as a free-spirited street musician. Every town had its tales. I would set down my violin case which I had painted and decorated inside and out, on the pavement. Crystals and other shiny things would be carefully arranged on a green velvet cloth inside the case. In this way, I hoped to inspire passers-by to add to the small collection of coins that I had sprinkled around the sparkling trinkets. For a moment I was a magpie. the case was my nest. Decorated with all that might attract that special someone or...

2 comments 2
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Contest #192

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Title: Strawberry Jam Under the Sea

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