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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story where a character has to take on heavy responsibilities (perhaps beyond their age).

Posted in Kids on Oct 31, 2022

Submissions are closed

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✍️ 48 stories

“Life Drone” by Rachael Asikpo

Submitted to Contest #161

I was wide awake in bed, heavy with exhaustion but unable to slip away. The wailing kept me awake. A sound so broken and hollow, like a woman in excruciating pain, like someone seeking an end, like someone ravaged and tired. It was the sound of my Dad dying. Every day, he died a little more. The cancer ate him away from the inside and all his children had to watch him wither away on the outside. I would get out of bed and linger in the corridor, listening to my mum trying to comfort him with words, knowing fully well that my older sib...

123 comments 123
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“Carly, After School” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #161

Carly,A couple of things--As soon as you get home, make sure you feed your brother. Don’t give him anything with too much sugar in it or we’ll be dealing with him all night. I know he thinks he can handle a few cookies or one of those chocolate bars you sell for school, but we both know it doesn’t take much for him to turn into a Tasmanian devil.Lock all the doors. That should have been #1. Make sure every single door is locked, even the one on top so that you can’t get in even if you have a key. I know you have to stand on a chair to lock t...

36 comments 36
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“Perdidos” by Zack Powell

Submitted to Contest #161

Mamá's lost her mind again. It happened sometime last night. I know because it's Saturday morning and her station wagon is gone, and the house doesn't smell like huevos rancheros, and I woke up an hour ago to find Papá sweeping broken lamp shards off the floor.This is the third time it's happened, so we know what to do now, what to expect. Last time someone found Mamá swimming in a fountain in a park a few towns over. Papá went and got her and she was home by dinner, shivering and sneezing like a Chihuahua.Maybe that's why he doesn't call Tí...

45 comments 45
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“Never too far.” by Karl Blanc

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #161

Charlie started to cry during breakfast, tears cascaded from his innocent brown eyes. Nothing that his favorite toy elephant, Meelo, couldn't fix though. As he grasped the elephant by the tag with his tiny little fingers, you could see joy slowly come rushing back.He had eyes just like mine and a similar dislike of eating cruciferous vegetables. But his smile. His smile he gets from his father. A smile that could somehow make you forget your worries. A smile I have not seen from Danny in a long time.Danny was making coffee while Ch...

31 comments 31
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“White Lilies Run Red” by S. E. Mary

Submitted to Contest #161

Thirty eight minutes have passed with nothing of substance being said within the walls of my small kitchen. Thirty eight minutes have passed without any of my siblings daring to speak what needs to be discussed. My coffee has grown cold and my patience thin. I refuse to start the discussion when I know I will be the one to end it. All of us are here from the oldest to the youngest sibling. My bet is Aubree, the second eldest girl but the third sibling, will be the one to start this heavy conversation. Heavy is a good way to describe the ...

18 comments 18
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“All You Need Is a Cat” by Michaela Dennean

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #161

Winston never liked England in March. He didn't like the unreliable weather, constant dampness in the air, and the seemingly never-ending days. It held a dreariness in it that no other months did. But Rosemary loved March, and Winston loved Rosemary. She spent hours creating shamrock garlands, baking loaves of Irish soda bread, and singing the Prady song in her soft dulcet tones. She lit up during March, her lips quirking up into a smile that didn't fade until April 1. For Rosemary, March brought her back to a simpler time, a time ...

11 comments 11
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“A Talk in Tulsa” by Scott Christenson

Submitted to Contest #161

Mom’s eyes are popping out. “I wish you were never born,” she’s screaming, “If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t be stuck here.” Maybe she’s mad I messed up on stage. Maybe she’s mad we’re in Tulsa, I don’t know. Sometimes when I make mistakes she hugs me and tells me how much she loves me, so it's hard to tell.“Get out!” she says, and then takes her angry look up another level. I back up toward the hotel room door. My neck and legs are trembling uncontrollably. I can’t think of anything to say and go into the hallway to give her space ...

28 comments 28
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“Purgatory ” by Mary Sheehan

Submitted to Contest #161

Warning: loss of a child The papers laid out on the coffee table are yellow with old news. He jiggles the stiff window latch open; it needs a little oil. The lively commotion from the street below fills the silence that hangs in Helen's empty home.He wipes down the mantelpiece, dusting a photo of the five of them at his son’s wedding in 2009. He and Val have their arms around each other, looking proudly at their boy, while Helen and her sister laugh with their little brother.He lifts Helen's ashtray, a cheap trinket from a holiday to Tenerif...

12 comments 12
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“Danny's Big Day” by Kendall Defoe

Submitted to Contest #161

This is a list of all the things that I am going to have to do this week and I want to make sure that I have this as a copy on the fridge. My brother is going to have to read this one day and I hope he can do this when he is my age. 6:00: Wake up. It is going to be the first day of school, so I have to make sure that I have all my clothes and things ready for it (my bag is going to be full of notebooks, pencils, pens, clothes for the gym and maybe my Mom’s cell number). I always make sure that the bed is made and that everything is in place...

8 comments 8
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“The Farm” by L. E. Scott

Submitted to Contest #161

That high pitched whine rang out letting me know that Momma’s coffee was just about ready. That meant she’d be in shortly to wake me up. I’d get dressed and feed the animals and collect the eggs, but right now, with the quilts piled on me, I was too comfy to get out of bed ahead of Momma’s insistence. Out there, the chill of the drafty house could be felt. I only wished I could dress under the covers, but Momma doesn’t like that. Says it makes me look sloppy, as if the animals don’t mess me up themselves. It’s not like I’m goin’ to church. Y...

12 comments 12
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“The banyan tree swing” by Gayathri Sampath

Submitted to Contest #161

A small dust cloud enveloped the road as the slow-moving truck lumbered down the rain-parched part tar part mud road. Chennai municipality had long forgotten about its electoral promises! A silver Toyota Innova followed behind the truck at a sedate pace. It was a Sunday afternoon, and the road was free of the usual school bus traffic. It stopped in front of an old but well-maintained house surrounded by tall mango and coconut trees. There was a majestic banyan tree to the side of the house, its drooping vines casting a benign shadow. Aromati...

6 comments 6
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“Mascara, Heels and Heroin” by T.S.A. Maiven

Submitted to Contest #161

(Trigger Warning: Strong language, Drug use, Abuse) Five-inch-high stiletto boots, bright white, over the knee, click clacked shamelessly. The shapely legs that filled them belonged to Maryann. She spilled out of the dressing room into the dimly lit club like she owned it. Her outfit left little to the imagination. A halter top that accentuated her cleavage while showing off her belly was black, shiny, and appeared to be painted on her. Her skirt followed suit with just enough fabric to barely cover her curvy, muscular behind. The black li...

14 comments 14
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“Cats and Snow” by Ron Smith

Submitted to Contest #161

It was an overcast snowy Tuesday morning when Calvin slipped into his old work boots to go out to the barn and check on the cat and her new kittens. With coffee in one hand and an open carton of Half-and-Half in the other, he wandered across the yard, muttering obscenities about the chilly weather. Mother Nature had quietly dropped a six-inch blanket of snow overnight, a much-needed round of precipitation, and beautiful scenery for those people who may have been in a decent mood and had no place to go. Calvin was not one of th...

4 comments 4
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“Wishing for sunsets” by Ian Barrett

Submitted to Contest #161

I can still remember the first time I saw my mom shoot up.  I must have been 4 or 5. I hardly remember anything about that age but I remember the candle burning on the coffee table, the lights were low in the apartment and the thing I remember most is the smell as she put the spoon underneath the flame. It was pungent, vinegar with a hint of smoke. To this day I can’t stomach anything with vinegar.  Being that young I was just sucked into the image as the flame engulfed the bottom of the spoon. It just hit it and mov...

2 comments 2
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“Ten” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #161

I was ten when I knew for sure. I was ten when the world opened up to me and I saw it for what it was. That was a frightening moment. I can still feel that fear when I cast my mind back. This was one of those big moments in a person’s history which has a subtitle in large capitals… YOU CANNOT TAKE IT BACK Ten years old and I understood that I was on my own, and worse than on my own. That my life was my responsibility and mine alone. I suppose that’s a liberating moment in a life. There is a freedom in it and a sense of control comes to...

2 comments 2
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