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Start or end your story with someone realizing that life isn’t like the movies, for better or worse.

Posted in Kids on Oct 31, 2022

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✍️ 35 stories

Where the Heart Is

Submitted to Contest #147

Did you know India looks nothing like the city in Aladdin? I discovered that just now, a minute ago, as the wheels of the plane clapped the tarmac and the pilot's staticky voice rumbled above our heads like God himself, welcoming us to Delhi. When I finally summoned the courage to raise the window shade and look outside, there was no bazaar waiting to greet me, no kleptomaniacal monkeys in fezzes running amok. Just disillusionment.In my defense, my family emigrated from New Delhi to the United States when I was three, leaving me with nothing...

45 likes 61 comments 61
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Visitors

Submitted to Contest #147

“Looks like de Luca is making a new movie,” Brent said, face buried in his phone. Renee stared up at the moonroof and sighed. She put the car into park and leaned back. Not like traffic was going anywhere. “There’s a name I haven’t heard in years,” she said. “Is he really still directing?” “Ooh!” said Brent. “Looks like Adriana Mendoza’s in it.” Renee ran her hands over her face. Somewhere along the highway someone honked, which got a chorus going for a while before petering out. “You and your Mexican girls.” “Hey, she’s on my list.” Brent g...

41 likes 35 comments 35
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Fragmented Reality

Submitted to Contest #147

High school parties aren’t like the movies.  I had imagined most of my junior class packed in a mansion, drinking from red solo cups, dancing around, carefree. Being young. Maybe being a little bit stupid.  That’s not what I was met with that night.  I was in my favorite worn jeans and had smeared pink lipgloss on my mouth.  Five guys were sitting on stained red couches, passing around a blunt in a humid garage.  I’d never seen any of them before, and they looked far too old to be in high school.  A girl in my E...

32 likes 25 comments 25
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Boombox

Submitted to Contest #147

It was all Michael’s fault. After three weeks of dating, he really wanted to do something special for Sara. There were flowers (white roses; a favourite she mentioned in passing), candy (little Coke bottles; he liked them, too), and a dinner (home cooked when his parents were out and he finally learned how to make his own bread). It was all perfect; Sara told him so. And then, his first big mistake that felt like the perfect ending. It was her favourite movie. Sara talked about it all the time and he knew that he would have to watch it one d...

30 likes 16 comments 16
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Original Ending

Submitted to Contest #147

Noah had had enough of arguing with Maggie and the harder his step-daughter pushed things, the closer he got to the edge of losing his temper. Maggie had overslept and missed the bus. Now he was going to be late for work making sure she got to school on time.“Why won’t you just relax, Dad?” she said. “I don’t understand what the big deal is!”“The answer is still no, Maggie. You’ve already seen the movie twice.”“But I love the ending! Please! It’s just a couple hours on a Friday night!”Noah heaved a sigh and work...

23 likes 13 comments 13
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Make America Grate Again

Submitted to Contest #147

TW: Swearing. Is your cheese too blocky? Are your burgers hampered by the height of your halloumi? The solution is simple. For only $9.99 we can teach you how to turn a culinary faux pas into a fromage.             *Soft white rind cheese sold separately.             When I was a kid, I thought my life would be like the movies, specifically Spy Kids. Being a spy in real life is incredibly boring. Filling out a risk asse...

20 likes 17 comments 17
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A Pirate's Life For Me

Submitted to Contest #147

“Sail ho! Sail ho!” shouted Johns from the crow’s nest.  “What do ye see, Johns?” the ship’s second in command shouted up toward the top of the mast. It was in the middle of the second dog watch, sixth bell struck a bit ago, but not quite seventh bell. It was not quite 1930 hours yet; dusk at this time of season and at this latitude; not wholly dark, but well into dusk. If Johns spotted another ship in this light, that meant the ship was closer than any of them would like. This was not good; especially since ...

19 likes 4 comments 4
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As You Wish

Submitted to Contest #147

As You WishYou might call Harvey “Walter Mitty Lite”. He didn’t concoct fantastic journeys in his mind, or imagine himself committing an impressive array of heroic deeds. Rather, Harvey’s peculiar inclination rested with his ability to wrap himself in the identities of others more interesting or impressive than himself. More often than not, he found these characters in the movies.His parents first noticed the unusual behavior the morning after the Saturday night TV presentation of “Superman”. Their son did not pretend to be Superman; he...

18 likes 11 comments 11
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Snake in the grass

Submitted to Contest #147

“So, is there anything you don’t get?” Connie asked, resting his tattooed hands on the steering wheel of the Ford F-Series pickup. A Cottonmouth snake—perhaps one of Connie’s victims—curled around each muscled forearm with an open mouth—ready to strike— on the back of each hand. A similar tattoo arose from the collar of his shirt, traversed his neck, and disappeared onto the top of his bald head. I noticed it during my induction. Connie bent down to tie his shoes, and I got a front row view of the head of a Rattlesnake, venom dripping f...

18 likes 8 comments 8
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Happily Ever One Day

Submitted to Contest #147

I remember when I was young, dreaming of the day when Prince Charming would come knocking on my door, ready to whisk me away for our forever fairytale. I was so young and naïve. Oh, how I wish I could go back, but life isn't perfect fairytales and cheesy rom-coms. I know that now. I know that now because of him.I met him when I was just fifteen years old. He was older than me. He was twenty two and he had a motorcycle. He was all tattoos and dark hair. He wasn't exactly the prince I imagined when I was little, but I wasn't that little anymor...

18 likes 8 comments 8
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It's the Shoes

Submitted to Contest #147

Casting office bathrooms are the worst—nervous stomachs tend to make a mess. You’d think the nerves would lessen with each audition, but that’s not the case for me. An experienced actor once told me to pop antidiarrheals before an audition—a trick I still use to this day. I’ve since added Siberian ginseng and CBD oil to my arsenal of pre-audition tinctures to help battle the nerves. When I was a Midwestern pre-teen dreaming of celluloid immortalisation, I didn’t think of such practicalities. All I cared about was becoming someone else. ...

18 likes 0 comments 0
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On The Kisser

Submitted to Contest #147

The anger growing in me feels good, my fist clenches, I am going to knock this guy into next week. My whole life I took the hits, the curses, well no more. I am Rocky, the greatest boxer who ever lived. Standing at the bar, half listening to Lori, this asshole bumped me hard, I know it was on purpose. I snap, throw my glass at the floor, the crash echoing the sound in my head.  Adrenaline and whisky course through me, the din of the crowd recedes into a bubble of silence. My blood pumping, loud and fast, while the driving guitar of ‘Eye...

16 likes 2 comments 2
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Wurlds Best Cashir

Submitted to Contest #147

Our TV is broken. It resides in the basement with the old couch and the water heater and the dust. It has a huge, spiderweb crack on the right, that bleeds multicolored pixels onto the picture, but it works well enough to put a tape into. I sit with a quilt that smells like basement squeezed around my shoulders tight. I have to hug my knees in close to keep the chill from biting at my toes.“Well I’ll be darned. I think this might be the best card I’ve ever seen!” I love TV. I love the mommy and the daddy and the brothers and sisters. I love ...

15 likes 4 comments 4
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How to Become a Better Writer

Submitted to Contest #147

Like in the movies, Samantha believed that writers magically conjure paragraphs upon paragraphs from a nonexistent void. They dance like demons at night, playing on people's emotional vulnerabilities to make them fall for such a predictable movie script and believing that life is easy without consequence.Films depict writers typing away like adrenalized freaks of nature, zombified by turning in books, so they manage to write 200 pages in one week. Book publishers, astonished by this turn of events, reward the authors for their craft, and eve...

14 likes 5 comments 5
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Leap of Faith

Submitted to Contest #147

On the tenth anniversary of Jack’s death you take a final glance around your temporary home. The lumpy sofa bed, the two ring hob with its sputtering gas flame, the grubby walls that weep with damp come autumn. Steadying yourself on a chair, you breathe in the brackish stink of the Liffey and wrench the sky light closed. On the bockety wooden table, you’ve bundled the photo albums,  bread crumb trails of your early lives.  Your Mum and Dad, dazed and smiling with one baby, then three.  All of you on the boat, hands trai...

14 likes 1 comment 1
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