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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story about a family dinner that includes someone unexpected showing up.

Posted in General on Dec 11, 2019

Submissions are closed!

Sorry, we are no longer accepting submissions. Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy Prompts account.

✍️ 85 stories

“No Place Special” by Ian Gonzales

“Hey, Fish, what’s happening with those beans?” My head comes up at the sound of that voice, with its distinctive East London accent. “Underway, sir,” I reply, returning my attention to the task of mixing green beans with a can of something labeled cream of mushroom soup. Around me, laughter breaks out at my response. I can feel my ears burn; I’ve been on this ship a little over four months, long enough to discover that habits formed during four years’ service aboard military vesse...

28 likes 17 comments 17 WINNER 🏆
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“A life changing reunion” by Cam Croz

The long awaited day had arrived.  The day that everyone knew about, but not everyone completely cared for.  Today was the day to feast. The day to rencounter people long lost. 

15 likes 4 comments 4
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“Moments” by Mariyam Ghafar

They say we live in the moment, that the past is always gone, and each day is something new, a stepping stone into a future we dream of even in the cold. For James, that is snow, that is those wintry days of bluster and ice. He sees the Earth of yesterday covered as white as any new page and the toddler inside of him rises as if armed with a rainbow of crayons, eager to set that right.Yet today, James is happy to simply walk in it, create a few footprints of his own . He watches them tumble, those feathered crystals, the...

9 likes 2 comments 2
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“Black Sheep” by Jay Graham

I sit on a barstool at the kitchen island, swinging my feet and staring off into space while the influx of family milled around me, chatter rising and falling in volume, punctuated here and there by laughter. I can smell the turkey cooking, and the pecan pie sits on an oven mitt in front of me, covered by tinfoil. Even though I don’t like either of those foods, I’m not a heathen. I can still appreciate the smells. After all, for as long as I can remember, those have been th...

7 likes 5 comments 5
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“Five souls” by Marte Van der linden

Old Henry Mortimer was extraordinarily wealthy and universally loathed, two traits which had served him well his entire life. He enjoyed fast cars, fine wines and a good argument.His relatives never asked him for money. Not after what had happened Aunt Gertrude. She hadn’t asked for much, oh no, just a few hundred, to fix that dreadful leaky roof, and he wouldn’t be so cruel to his own flesh and blood, would he? The roof had come crashing down the next month and Aunt Gertrude had ended up in a gloomy boarding house overlooking the ...

7 likes 6 comments 6
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“The Dinner Guest” by Whitney Trang

“Giana! Your mother needs her assistant chef!” Zeke knocked on his teenage daughter’s door. It opened, revealing a girl with brown eyes, a dark shade of chestnut brown hair, and a sprinkling of cute freckles around her nose. Her nose was just like her Aunt Illeana’s. “Give me five minutes.” Giana told her father. “I’m on the phone with Yori.”

5 likes 5 comments 5
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“My Toy Soldier” by Bree Kokiri

“Leonard PLEASE I am begging you, play with your gadgets later and GET READY!” My wife, Roberta, is always fussing at me when I’m in my “tech zone”. But I guess I can’t blame her this time. It’s our first holiday as an “extended family” and I know she’s eager to make a good impression. Our Tommy won’t care, and that bride of his, Leah, is an absolute sweetheart….it’s meeting her parents that’s got Bertie in a tizzy. Our first encounter only included her mother, Ramona, at the wedding ceremony. A reserved and stern woman, I was left...

4 likes 2 comments 2
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“Wishbone” by Zilla Babbitt

The chatter around the table was louder than a highway, I thought. Aunts, uncles, mothers, fathers, cousins, siblings, even old Great-Uncle Denton, still with a story to tell and a laugh to tell it with. The table creaked with the turkey and the elbows. The extensions had been put in and they’d still had to bring in the folding table that sat under the stairs year-round. Turkey, Mary Kate’s cranberries, Anders’s brownies, Gabe’s canned apples, the mashed potatoes Nana let no one mak...

4 likes 0 comments 0
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“Come Back To You” by Renée Chatelain

June 28, 1914.  My seventeenth birthday.  My first kiss.  My first lover.  I really didn’t know why things like war had to happen. I didn...

4 likes 1 comment 1
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“Odd man” by Abigail Airuedomwinya

In the early days of November, a man appeared at our doorstep begging ma for bread and water. It was so early ma was still wearing the day's ideas over her head. Her eyes were still half-closed, the sun just coming up. The knock on the door had not been expected so ma had walked clumsily to the door and pulled it open.Over at the other house, someone was yelling. And ma cursed under her breath. It was to be the second day in a row where her neighbor, Mrs. Winifred, would be screaming at her son for not coming in the night before. M...

4 likes 0 comments 0
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“DINNER WITH TIFFANY” by Deborah Mercer

Jeanette and Kenneth had just settled down to a cosy family dinner. They’d originally planned to go to the cinema, but their babysitter, Angie, had gone down with the flu and been forced to cancel. She worshipped the ground their little boy Alec crawled on, and it was hard to tell how much of the blocked up sound to her voice was because of the flu and how much was because she was fighting back her tears. Jeanette assured her she wasn’t to give it a second thought, she was just to rest up and drink lots of f...

3 likes 0 comments 0
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“Family values ” by Unknown User

We had barely been at Aunt Beth’s house when my mom came into  the living room and told my father that we were leaving. I heard the doorbell ring but thought nothing of it after all family would be coming in and out all day long normally it wasn’t a big deal but whoever walked into the house my mom took an instant dislike to.I heard her saying “If he is in this house I am not going to be” I never heard her use that tone ...

3 likes 0 comments 0
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“The Shadow of a Father” by Cara Mccarthy

“He’s my son!” I exclaimed to my too noisy and too opinionated personal assistant, Shelly. “You’re not related to him! He has a father already!” I felt a tear threatened to fa...

3 likes 1 comment 1
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“Thanksgiving at Susie's house.” by Unknown User

Susie always loved Thanksgiving and Christmas, her house was always warm and welcoming to others. Every year Susie hosted a lovely thanksgiving dinner party in her home but last years dinner was not the best. Her and her husband John got married 5 years ago. They had no children, no pets. Last year Susie and John split up and got a divorce after John got arrested for something he didn't do. Susie knew it was partly his fault and got angry at him but deep down she really missed him. They officially split up at the thanksgiving table, where...

3 likes 3 comments 3
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“An Unexpected Guest” by Sara Grim

Every Thanksgiving, my family invites my grandparents on my dad’s side to come over and eat a big feast. My grandpa puts on quite a show for my sisters and me every time he eats. Of course, he doesn’t know he is entertaining to us kids. But we laugh and laugh (after the meal) and recall all of it. Grandpa always burps out loud, and the burp never interrupts his meal. He doesn’t even say, “Excuse me” as if he did not burp. He has false teeth, and they go clickety-clack while he chews his food. This year I am nine years ol...

2 likes 0 comments 0
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More fantastic prompts from Contest #17.

Write a story about a family dinner from the perspective of an in-law who's married into the family.

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Write a story about a "chosen family" dinner, where no one is related by blood, but they still feel like family.

Holiday – 46 stories

Write a story about a family dinner that takes place in any time period other than the present.

Historical Fiction – 32 stories

Write a story about a family dinner that involves some kind of reconciliation.

General – 33 stories

Contest #17

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This week's theme: All the Fixin's

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Ended on 23:59 - Nov 29, 2019 EST

Won by Ian Gonzales 🏆

Title: No Place Special

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