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Write a short story about a shop that takes place over a span of years.

Posted in Narrative on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 41 stories

The Shop Under the Hedge

Submitted to Contest #19

 The shop was built in the hedgerow by Mr. Hornberg’s field; a neat shop with brass trimmings on the door and a velvet cord bell pull, even though the sign said to step right in. The little doormat was very new and bristly and the word ‘Welcome’ had been put on with fine dark paint that crackled when you stepped on it. When the door was opened, a string of red and blue bells tinkled softly, hanging down from the ceiling. Also hanging from the ceiling of thick wooden beams were shining copper kettles, painted every color you could t...

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The shop on the corner of the space-time continuum

Shortlisted for Contest #19 ⭐️

Inside the little shop on the corner, space and time have folded themselves back to reveal a thousand rooms on fifty different floors. The shop is more than a thousand years old. Harald Helgason, the first owner, still lives in a distant corner of the ground floor, where he sells furs and silver jewellery and trades with Viking raiders. The future confuses him, so he rarely ventures onto the upper floors where his descendants live. He has five sons and daughters, and they run the shop on the floor above his. Two of his grandchildren sell fur...

18 likes 3 comments 3
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Ms. Potts' Flowers

Submitted to Contest #19

There probably isn’t a soul in this town that doesn’t remember or hasn’t heard of Ms. Potts’ flower shop. It’s the abandoned shop downtown, sandwiched between an artisan soap store and a boutique that sells overpriced clothes for teenagers. There’s a smell now. Well, that’s a little inaccurate. There was always a smell. It used to be flowers, but now it smells like something akin to rot and loneliness and something wet and dry at the same time. People used to come for miles to buy Ms. Potts’ flowers. I remember being young, maybe five o...

14 likes 2 comments 2
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The UnderRoad

Submitted to Contest #19

You could easily go past it. It is a drab little building, built right under the bridge. It has mottled walls of brown, grey, and tan bricks, darkened by the exhaust from the cars going by or floating down from the road above. Apparently, windows had been used to fill in any gaps in the wall. It was the only logical reason for their scattered position and mismatched styles. But if you go through the black door with the bright yellow trim, they say that you will find help.  It doesn’t look like it. It’s just...

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Sometimes, Reading Requires a Strong Left Hook

Submitted to Contest #19

June 2nd, 1987 I walked out from the stockroom, reading off the shift schedule. “Randy, your shift is over. I’ve be closing tonight.” I glanced up. “Annnddd Randy is gone and replaced by a small dwarf.” “I’m not a dwarf!” A little girl with stubby pigtails exclaimed. “Oh yeah?” I teased. “Show me your hands.” Confused, she raised them up. I squinted at them. “Oh yeah, stubby hands. That’s a dwarf for you.” “I’m not a dwarf! I’m eight!” “So, you’re this many huh?” I held up eight fingers. Eagerly, the girl nodded. “Well, do you have this many...

11 likes 1 comment 1
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Ring and Necklace

Submitted to Contest #19

I was expecting to return home in no more than an hour, but what happened next caused me to lose ten years. It was supposed to be a last-minute pickup. It was supposed to be ready the day after Thanksgiving. I had anticipated the Christmas rush and that things would be backed up. I never anticipated that the order would be the wrong necklace and ring. “See. The set I ordered for you was the one you were admiring at the jewelry store,” says Benny. The chocolate set. The one sent was rose gold. It was nice, but another couple from somewhere el...

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Building a Dream

Submitted to Contest #19

It started when she was a little girl. She desperately wanted to have a car toy, but everybody brought her dolls instead of car toys. Car toys were for boys. So, one day, in the middle of her birthday party, she decided that enough was enough. When her uncle gave her another barbie doll, 4-year-old Tara threw it out, in front of twenty pairs of shocked eyes.In addition to scaring her family with this aggressive-called behavior, she got creative in how to satisfy this burning desire inside her. After the birthday party, her mom would often fi...

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Echo

Submitted to Contest #19

The first time he saw her, she couldn’t have been more than nine years old. Even with her horns, she didn’t even reach his shoulder. The old shopkeeper felt a strange fascination with her the moment he saw her, standing outside his shop, half-hidden beside the door. He watched her from behind the counter as he sanded a wooden cylinder, the beginning of what would become a magdal drum, and waited while she gathered her courage. He hoped she would come in. The shop was too quiet for his liking. She was unlike any infernabeast he’d ever seen – ...

8 likes 1 comment 1
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Tuesday Evening, 8 P.M.

Submitted to Contest #19

6. December 1992 Stowe, Vermont When the Prodigal Son stumbled back into Holland’s Holiday Cards, Rosco’s dreams of managerial status were dashed. Rosco didn’t anticipate Richard Holland’s return; in fact, Rosco was mildly surprised to hear that Richard wasn’t dead underneath a bridge from an overdose. Richard and Rosco were as polar opposite as men can be. Both men were classy, but Rosco earned his class and Richard was born into it. Although Rosco wasn’t a Holland, he was informally adopted by Mr. Kingsley Holland, the founder of Holland’s...

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Driving Home for Christmas

Submitted to Contest #19

We drove for miles, laughing now and then to break the tension. The radio pumped out Christmas songs and the heater stopped our toes from freezing.“It’s definitely a good idea” you kept telling me, repetition making you sound less and less convincing. “We’ve waited long enough…”Your voice trailed off and we both retreated back inside our memories, mine full of dazzling lights, the smell of roasting chestnuts and an embrace warm enough to thaw the thickest of icicles.The roads were filled with people driving home for Christmas. In a way, we w...

8 likes 4 comments 4
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Retro

Submitted to Contest #19

Mikey swept the shop floor at 8 a.m sharp, just as he had always done. Lighting the brazier was next. Having set it up the night before, he just had to strike a match to get it started. Years of practice meant he had it down to a fine art.The 'For Sale' sign creaked in the wintry gales for a few weeks now.Today Mikey would have to wear his heavy coat, all day long, as snow flurries were forecast. He scrolled down one more time on his tablet and saw that the temperature wouldn't rise beyond 3 degrees.The shop doorbell clanged loudly...

7 likes 1 comment 1
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Mr Mulholland’s Christmas Emporium

Submitted to Contest #19

Toby sighed as the train pulled into the station. Why am I here? he thought, not for the first time. Because, the rational side explained, if you hadn’t come your sister would have come to fetch you, and she has enough on her plate with work and the children. It was either here or go and spend Christmas with his son Matthew in Germany. At any other time, he’d have been pleased about that, but with Greta about to give birth, and their tiny flat, he thought he’d just be in the way. At least in the old family home where...

5 likes 2 comments 2
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Every December

Submitted to Contest #19

Lilah used to believe there were only two things that attracted people to a bookshop—the aesthetic, and the books. As long as the place looked pretty and there were great books, people would come in to buy. The day Lilah’s mom opened Read Like a Girl when Lilah was twelve, it was a snowy, December day—although, in her town, the snow wasn’t strong enough to keep people inside. It certainly wasn’t strong enough to keep them out of the shop on opening day.Lilah remembered standing behind the counter with her mom, watching all of these stra...

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The Craft Shop

Shortlisted for Contest #19 ⭐️

She slid inside the little craft shop, one town over from where she lived, flinching at the tinkling sound of the bell. The store was overwhelmingly vibrant; fabrics every colour of the rainbow lining the shelves, a thousand different balls of wool, and enough needles to make a haystack. It felt wrong of her to be here, all mousy and plain and beige, as if she was sucking the life out of the store around her. Yet, despite her reservations, she was here with a purpose. Apprehensively she made her way around the shop, gazing at the vast array ...

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The Corner Shop that Wasn't

Submitted to Contest #19

FLOODIt was one of those businesses that was always known as a Corner Shop, even though it wasn’t, strictly speaking, on a corner. Other inhabitants of Liston Road would generally not say, “I’m going round to Stowes,” or “I’m going round to the Post Office” or even just “I’m going round to the shop.” It was always the Corner Shop.     It wasn’t as if it was the only shop on the long street running the length of the longest street in the coastal town, the one that was more or less parallel to the seafront.&n...

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