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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write about someone who still practices a skill that used to be necessary but has long since been replaced by technology.

Posted in Fiction on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 133 stories

“Inventions in 2068 ” by Gia Volterra De Saulnier

Submitted to Contest #78

It's now 2068, and the Engineering committee has decided to create an invention show with the upcoming technology. The Droids and robots took over as soon as World War III was over. Biological Warfare does that to this planet we now call home. Not that many humans are left though. I guess the Government figured out they didn’t really need humans so much so they just had engineers build all these robots.Most of the humans in my neighborhood had been either drafted or forced to go to the war, but I was too young according to their “standards” ...

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“Letters From Home” by Suzanne Toruk

Submitted to Contest #78

Blair backed her SUV into the double-wide driveway. The tail lights blazed red, and it lurched to a stop. She opened the door with such force, it snapped back on her leg. Using her foot, she pushed it open until it held. Her arms loaded with her computer, messenger bag, and lunchbox and her morning coffee cup in her hand, she used her shoulder to shut the door.The hatch on the rear of the vehicle and the garage door levitated in unison. Blair shuffled through the interior door, greeted by the aroma of chocolate chip cookies. For a momen...

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“A Lost Art Found” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #78

In her years at school, now long past, Agnes worked hardest on, and achieved her best marks in penmanship. It was an accomplishment that she had been proud of, then, as she still is now. In present times, however, she believes that, with computer technology being the main vehicle of writing, penmanship is a lost art. And she feels lost along with it, that both her and her handwriting are creatures of the past. Unsurprisingly, she had become an elementary school teacher, and had taught many children how to write, a task that b...

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“The Pink Dresses” by Beatrice Wingenbach

Submitted to Contest #78

There are websites upon websites of clothing stores online. Any piece of clothing you can think of is right at your fingertips from the moment you type in yellow sundress to the moment you press enter and results come rushing in.2,620,000,000 results in .48 seconds.Packages come in, in as little as 4 days. You can even have them arrive earlier if you subscribe to prime. A dress that would cost 20 dollars in-store now costs $10.95 with free shipping!The world is moving in fast motion and nothing is going to slow it down, no matter how ha...

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“Long Lost” by Emily B

Submitted to Contest #78

Dear Grandma, I hope you doing all right. I decided to write you a letter, just like you asked. How are you doing? We got a new puppy, her name is Cora, she's named after you. She loves walks and baths. She reminds me of you when you were younger from the stories you told me. Young, playful, and full of life. She has a chestnut coat and is part Husky and part German Shepard. Mom got a new job, she now works as a teacher for MIT and has a Doctors degree. That is all thanks to you, without you she wouldn't have been able to do it. Dad still ...

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“The Breakthrough ” by Emmanuel Aiyepeku

Submitted to Contest #78

"Griff, you got talent, am not gonna lie to you. But this....I can't market this." said Vince still trying to find the right words that can communicate both rejection and encouragement. "I mean you are good, really good, but come one, no one listens to this anymore." he continued "Look Vince, you are my man. I really need this bro." begged Griff. "I know man, but Jazz? This is the 21st century man. No one is gonna want to listen to this. Technology has changed music my friend, all you need is some piece of equipment not that sax you keep car...

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“Memorizing the numbers. ” by Stanzin Khenrab

Submitted to Contest #78

"Fuck! I forgot to save Abhishek's number in my contacts." I said laying on my bed, browsing through the contacts of my phone. It was around seven at night when I had a subtle feeling that I had forgotten something important to do. I couldn't remember what exactly so I started to look through my phone. For hours I just stared at my phone, opening different apps to trigger any little bit of memory. But it was all in vain and I was starting to get irritated, until I clicked at the contacts app and then the one which was forgotten, hit my hea...

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“The Gift of Storytelling ” by Amy Jayne Conley

Submitted to Contest #78

The beauty of the tiny corner of the town was lost on most modern-day citizens. So many were lost in their own worlds, glued to social media, stuck in their own bubble of Twitter of Facebook, hungrily scrolling through Instagram the very second they didn’t need to concentrate on the world around them. Whether a five-minute wait at the bus stop, or an hour to kill waiting for a friend... the younger generations of the day simply lacked the mental resilience to enjoy being disconnected from the Internet.   It wa...

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“Arts & Letters” by Mary Corbin

Submitted to Contest #78

Finding that handwritten note from my mother was like a resurrection. My brother Frank and I were in the bedroom of her house the day after she died, sorting through all the stuff. I pulled open the top drawer to the dresser she’d had since we were kids, the one she’d moved across the country just once. I found a book tucked in between some scarves, one of the mystery novels we’d passed back and forth between us. I pulled it out and looked at the cover and smiled. I cracked it open and a slip of paper fell out and landed on my foot. Setti...

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“The Small Things” by Ellie Keierleber

Submitted to Contest #78

Emma flopped on her bed, dejectedly throwing her bag on the floor as she did so, tears threatening to spill over.  It was worthless. All worthless. All her hard work that she had slaved over for the past ten months down the drain in a matter of minutes. All the late nights, event cancelling, and pages upon pages of essays were pointless now. She had sacrificed so much, for it to all come down to this.  Rolling over, she curled herself into a tiny ball as despair washed over her. She hated that she had given up so easily. That as ...

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“Sew Cool” by Cat Tew

Submitted to Contest #78

        “Kat, what are you doing?” I ask, staring at her. She’s sitting on the picnic blanket I had set up, the sun shining off of her blonde pixie cut. I distantly note how content she looks, in her bright pink cat hoodie and black yoga pants just soaking up the sun. However, the item in her hands distracts me.                “What, this?” She asks good-naturedly, holding up the offending object. “It’s called sewing, Jaz.” She ...

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“Old school.” by Michael Young

Submitted to Contest #78

“You should go and see Mrs Preost, her who lives in the woods at the edge of the village”, said George.  “Hang on.”, said Sam. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but she ain’t no doctor as I recall.”  “Well, no, but she has remedies what are more old school, if you know what I mean.”  Sam crinkles his brow, the furrows and lines on his face making him look more walnut than human. “Well, I can’t say as I do know what you mean by old school.”  George sighs and shifts his feet a little. “You know, old school.” the...

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“Hard Bed” by Cheryl Fulks

Submitted to Contest #78

Johnny is the best running back the high school has ever had, Catherine told her father. Bill Monroe agreed but told her there was something he didn't like about the boy. Catherine hugged her father and told him he would learn to love him as she did.  One year later, Bill was walking his daughter down the aisle and still hadn't found that love for him that Catherine had assured him of. She was happy was all that mattered. Catherine's mother told her, before she passed, if she made a hard bed, she would have to...

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“French Toast” by Gouda Cheese

Submitted to Contest #78

“Why do you cook?”That question. Those four simple words, echoed so many times. By friends, by family, by strangers, and by myself. Although there’s no one else left to ask it now.The answer is complicated, and yet simple in its complexity.Why do I cook?Because I want to. Because it brings me joy. Because it brings warmth to the artificial world that surrounds us. Because of the sights, the smells, the tastes, the feeling of creating something worthwhile.Every day I wake up and look out at the barren landscape outside, devastated by the nucl...

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“The Passerby” by A. M.

Submitted to Contest #78

Every passerby has a story, I remembered.  In my twenties, I worked as a lift operator—it wasn’t the fanciest job in the world, but still, it was enough for me to get by on a day-to-day basis.  And no, I’m not talking about those ski resort lift operators that wear giant coats and fuzzy mittens, I’m talking about elevators operators that worked during the times before the ‘up’ and ‘down’ button was invented, the lift operators that wore pure white leather gloves and neatly buttoned-up suit jackets and neckties.  Now, I s...

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