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Write about two characters’ different perspectives of the same past event.

Posted in Middle School on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 36 stories

A Father Lost

Submitted to Contest #120

A Father Lost Grace I was about six at the time. Yeah six. Maybe seven? Either way, it was about fifteen years ago, and mother was in a coma. Okay so, give me a break here. I was six, and my dad just up and says that mom wasn’t ever coming back! Can you believe that!? Who does that!? Right, so on to the story. So, he sits me down under the oak tree in our backyard, on that creaky wooden bench… God knows how that thing is still hanging. He says to me, “Listen, honey.” Takes a long pause. I look up at him, just kind of, you know,...

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The Bowtie

Submitted to Contest #120

Peggy coughed lightly, fanning away years of dust from the crumpled box she retrieved from the dark, dank attic. This better be those Christmas lights or I give up, she thought to herself. Pulling frantically on the flaps, she was dismayed—but only for a moment—that no old Christmas lights or tree ornaments stared back at her.             Instead, a puffy dress—once beaming white, but now yellowed with age—sprang from the box as if it had been waiting to jump out and yell “surp...

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The Woman in the Doorway

Submitted to Contest #120

The Woman in the Doorway Ray got to the Denny’s twenty minutes early because he knew it wasn’t going to be an easy conversation with Edgar. He wanted a few minutes to run the conversation he wanted to have through his head and get a good amount of caffeine flowing through his system before Edgar arrived. It had been a late night as their band headlined a small club the night before. The crowd was pretty modest, maybe seventy-five people in a room that can hold two hundred-fifty, but they had been enthusiastic and Ray was also mulling ove...

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Folding Shirts

Submitted to Contest #120

“Hey, you; what’s your name?” demanded the young man.  There were only so many ways to survive and over the years Liam had seen them all.  Tilting his head in an ambiguous fashion he shifted a stack of newly folded shirts aside so the fellow could sit if he wished. He was careful, but still one slid from the pile and swished to the ground. Retrieving it, Liam recast the thing carefully on the lines he had established before. It was not too difficult. Once you had creased a thing properly, folding it pr...

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least possible damage

Submitted to Contest #120

JACOB and his loss I pressed rewind. Then I pressed play. “A knife to the heart is the easiest, no doubt. It would take me only five seconds to walk into the kitchen to get a knife and then another two seconds to push it through my chest. Simple, fast and then over. The knife will forever tempt me, but the problem with it is that it would be messy. Too much blood and a possible nightmare for whoever finds me. They will forever see that picture behind their eyes. It will haunt them when they are trying to sleep. So I can’t do that. This ...

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Happy Accidents

Submitted to Contest #120

He was just minding his own business, when the world stop. Counting the change in the register, after the morning rush, although his restaurant was still full of customers. The voices combined in a rambunctious slur of noise, but he tuned them out. The afternoon lunch crowd is usually rowdy, and it is almost time for the man to go home for his lunch break. A man with a blonde beard approaches his counter, and slaps a twenty dollar bill on the red bar. “I’d like a club sandwich with homemade onion rings,” His voice is as monotonous as his att...

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Pianissimo

Submitted to Contest #120

Sitting inches apart on the piano bench, their hands hovered over the keyboard of the old upright. Jake could barely breathe. I can’t believe I’m here with her. Isabella was so close that one of her blond curls brushed against his arm. A light waft of vanilla, like fresh-baked cupcakes, rose to his nostrils. Just as he had imagined, she smelled as wonderful as she looked. He examined her long slender fingers suspended next to his. I wonder what it would feel like to hold her hand. Without moving a muscle, he glanced out of the corner of his ...

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Perhaps a Tragedy

Submitted to Contest #120

Svatava I had met the love of my life five years earlier when we both worked in the textile factory. Our stools were side by side. Every so often our elbows would brush, and we’d trade a shy smile. She was strong, that was the first thing I noticed about Tereza. She had strong hands and her fingers always knew exactly where they needed to go. She never stumbled or faltered. She would have been described as elegant if it weren’t for her wide, square jawline and her narrowed eyes. Her eyes were what kept the others from approaching her. Tho...

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Isn't that what it's all about?

Submitted to Contest #120

The line in the water began making subtle jerking motions before Corey whipped it tight in an upward motion as he attempted to set his hook. No luck. It was just a nibble and he had let excitement get the best of him. As he reeled his line in he only felt mild disappointment. It was early in the evening after all and he was no professional fisherman. It wasn’t the first or last time he would let a fish get away. All he could do is try to wait until the perfect time next time he felt a curious fish taking jabs at his power bait.  By the...

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Before It Went Black

Submitted to Contest #120

Nadine “Nadine!  Nadine, where are you?!”  My best friend Tina made it out of the classroom in time.  Everything was still and I couldn’t feel anything below my waist.  I was confused and my own body felt like a fraud.  Why couldn’t I get up?  “Nadine!”  I heard Tina’s voice again. “I’m here, Tina!  I’m right here!”  My lips tried to form the words but all that came out were desperate murmurs- so quiet I couldn’t even hear myself over the ringing in my head.  I laid there and listened to th...

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Milk with caramel liqueur

L L

Submitted to Contest #120

She: It has now been 8 years since I saw him last. Feels like he has vanished from the face of the earth. I can´t remember our last meeting. I can't remember most of our meetings, but I remember some and I do remember what he was like. We usually met at parties or poker games with friends. Once at a party he taught me how to make a cocktail that tastes exactly like Baileys, with milk and caramel liqueur. I remember thinking that it is so sweet of him to show me this amazing trick. I was not a hard 20 year old to impress, I guess. I rem...

7 likes 1 comment 1
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Shards

Submitted to Contest #120

“So what’d you think, was Adapters Hollow the abomination you thought it would be? Or do we finally have a Caleb-worthy adaptation?” Jimmy emphasized the movie title and braced himself for Caleb’s relenting onslaught as their eyes adjusted to the room lights, still sunk in to the dark leather recliners after removing their full face vantahelmets. After a long hesitation, Caleb sighed and answered, “You know, surprisingly, it was true to the book. They glossed over the Scavengers to get to the Builders, but that’s forgiva...

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Three is a Guarantee

Submitted to Contest #120

Sequencing timeline photos is essential to a strong social media image. There had been a mix of fun as well as cultural and educational experiences to create a well rounded family vacation. The goal was to project perfection and emphasize family while arousing envy. There were too many shots with only one of the twins. Devin had been camera shy and tended to wander. Her mother-in-law might make some comment about her favoring one twin over the other. There was a nice one from the museum day. There were good candid pics from the cave tour. Th...

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The Ironist

Submitted to Contest #120

I see someone now I see every day, though he may not know it. I may not know it. That is to say, we are the same, though we may not know it. I see him in the mirror.And yet, I'm not looking into a mirror, but across a street. It's New York. Cars. Buildings. Noise.The man has bags, and bags in bags, all empty with his stuff. He pushes a rickety grocery cart. Step. Step. Step. A part of his ripped shirt swings from his hip and scrapes the sidewalk. Ground Zero behind him. Twin tragedies.A brown banana falls from his pocket. Maybe he was going ...

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Good to See You

Submitted to Contest #120

I’d had my choice of tables, and I chose the one from which I could view the front bank of windows but didn’t have to sit inside the ersatz greenhouse.  I ordered hot tea and waited to place my lunch order until my sister arrived.  I tapped the toe of my shoe on the leg of the table and watched the people outside, passing by to go to work, to go shopping, to go to meet their friends.  I wondered if any of them were meeting their sister for the first time in five years. Emily was a doctor now.  She’d always been so brig...

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