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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write about a casual act of bravery.

Posted in Narrative on Oct 26, 2022

Submissions are closed

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✍️ 46 stories

“The Husband's Text” by Tracey Thornton

Submitted to Contest #135

CHAPTER ONE              Meredith was startled awake in the middle of the night by something, but she wasn’t sure exactly what. Maybe it was just a feeling she had that something was wrong. She realized her husband wasn’t lying next to her in bed, but that wasn’t unusual. Many nights he got up when he couldn’t sleep, so as not to disturb her.            This night, though, something was different. She stumbled out of bed, ...

2 comments 2
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“The Little Dancer” by Eric Ang

Submitted to Contest #135

That’s my little sister Reyna over there, but I call her ReyRey. My mom says it’s easier for me to say “ReyRey” than it is to say “Reyna.” That doesn’t make sense to me, and I just like to say ReyRey better, but that’s what mom says. Do you see her with the white and blue dress on? Yeah, that’s ReyRey with her black hair pulled back into a ponytail. And that’s my cousin Ligaya next to her in the yellow dress. No, not that one, the one with the white ribbons in her dark brown hair, dressed in the yellow ducky dre...

6 comments 6
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“Water’s Edge” by Thomas Graham

Submitted to Contest #135

They walked from the car on a little winding path through trees and came out in a grassy area. The boy could see water ahead. His mother said look at how big the park is.They walked right to the water’s edge. Big clumps of reeds, taller than him, grew along the bank, but there was an opening along a curved bit of shoreline that formed a little cove, and he could see across the water to another grassy bank in the distance. It was a pond or a lake; he didn’t know which.His mother said there might be turtles. He looked but didn’t see any. The s...

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“Justin's Adventure” by Illania Edwards

Submitted to Contest #135

Justin scowls as he waits for the bus, arms folded across his skinny chest. It's not like he wanted to go to school anyway, but Mama promised to kick his behind if he didn't. The Number forty-seven lumbers into view and pulls to a stop, blinker on. Hoping for cool, Justin scans his card with a chin nod at the driver and makes his way down the aisle. He has to grab on to a seat back when the bus lurches back into traffic. The only empty seat is next to a big dude. The guy doesn't look too scary, so Justin eases himself in. Pulling his bac...

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“The Endless Year” by Judith Teich

Submitted to Contest #135

It seemed like an ordinary Thursday afternoon. The wind was cold, which was normal for the beginning of March, but there was a faint hint of new leaves and buds as Justine walked the few blocks from the subway to her parents’ apartment in Queens.  She wasn’t thinking about anything in particular; her graduate program was going well, although the three days a week of required field work, at a geographically isolated, dilapidated public hospital, were stressful.  The fact that her father had recently undergone a serious operatio...

2 comments 2
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“Little Acts” by Lady Senie

Submitted to Contest #135

It was time.   The decision had been up in the air for so long that the woman had to honestly think about what decision she had decided to make.  The woman stared at her computer screen blankly, her expressive brown eyes looking over the multiple tabs opened on her computer.  She’d done so much research over the last few months!  Coming at her book from so many different angles…  Wasn’t writing the book supposed to be the hardest part?  Wasn’t that supposed to be the thing that kept her up at night, stru...

2 comments 2
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“Time to Jump” by Donna Smith

Submitted to Contest #135

Bravery is what comes when there is no other option but to jump. I’m not a risk-taker. I almost never challenge the odds when they are stacked against me and when losing can cause harm either to myself or others. For me, the thrill of winning in such situations is never rewarding enough to make it worth taking the risk in the first place. I’m not a brave person. I would rather think of myself as smart and have often thought that we would be much better off if our national anthem ended with the words “and the home of the smart” instead of “an...

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“Poetry is Bravery” by Jasz Garrett

Submitted to Contest #135

Dawson sat in the library anxiously, his leg tapping. His shaggy blonde hair hung in front of his silty blue eyes, and he wore his best flannel. It was orange and azure and clung tightly to his broad shoulders. He didn’t expect this many people to be here today.He wasn’t sure he wanted to do this anymore. More and more people filed through the glass door, masks of all colors on their faces. Next to him, Chloe breathed heavily. She was going first today. She wore a puffy winter jacket and a tiny maxi dress; no tights. It was 15 degrees outsid...

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“Bravery In Sobriety ” by Sam Demogenes

Submitted to Contest #135

May 10th, 2017 was the day that would inevitably change my life. It was two days before my eighteenth birthday, and my mom had been asking me for weeks what I wanted. Each time she asked, I gave her the same smart-ass answer, half as a joke, and half 100% serious. And each time I said it, I saw the pain in her eyes as she asked, “seriously Kelsey, what do you want?” Eventually, she just stopped asking. I don’t know what it was about this particular day that prompted reality to set it, but it hit me like a ton of bricks. Something needed to ...

3 comments 3
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“Fire Deaths ” by Karen Lethlean

Submitted to Contest #135

Fire Deaths Mary couldn’t help it. Impossible to ignore those floppy ears, dark eyes and puppy jowls. One individual among so many furry caterpillar creatures who snuffled up to their mother’s ‘milk-tray’, pushing and tugging at her teats. Later when one began nibbling her fingers Mary felt a fierce ownership urge. Named him Deefa - D-fa-dog. She felt sure her husband Jack also desired a farm dog. She remembered their romance, a time when they wandered along silken beach sand. And held her hand out to scoop up setting sun auras appearing ...

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“One More Step ” by Michelle B.

Submitted to Contest #135

TW- Death, drug abuse, child neglect, depressionLeanna opened the refrigerator and took out eggs and butter. She sat them on the counter and turned on the stove. She moved slowly and mechanically, going through the motions. It was breakfast time, and Lily would be up soon asking for food. Lily was only three, and her routine stayed the same regardless of what was happening around her. Leanna envied her daughter at times. Envied the simplicity of her world, the brightness, the ignorance. She buttered the pan and cracked the eggs in it. The ki...

2 comments 2
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“Seraphin” by F.O. Morier

Submitted to Contest #135

What happens to a person when she or he, has no way to beat an intolerable system and there´s no way to escape? How does one break free from shame, and pride indistinguishable from fear? I would like to start with a preface but let´s be honest: that´s always written afterward. Just like history…one can only write it when history has already been made and is finished. That’s just the thing with history, isn´t it? it´s always in the making and never really over. Never… Why tell this story? The people who have lived through it have hardly eve...

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“How much does your cause cost?” by Sara Al-Hafiry

Submitted to Contest #135

I was walking back home past nightfall, exhausted after the long day I spent in college. The street I used to take from the bus stop to my home was quite lively, and it was a short walk before I can finally leave all the day events behind me. It was a particularly tiring day after I lead an uprising in the biology lab. We were dissecting frogs since first year, and we are third-years now, and we were always used to anesthetize them by knocking them out. It’s a method carried out by holding the frog from its hind limbs and knocking them on th...

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“What Would Zelensky Do?” by Michele Brower

Submitted to Contest #135

What Would Zelensky Do? After a few cars passed by my home, I pulled on my sneakers and started making my way down the hill to attend our coffee hour. I’d moved into the small park-model development during the pandemic and hadn’t been able to get to know people, but lately, we’d been told it was safe to be unmasked with people. When I got to the row of mailboxes that separated the upper section of the development from the lower, I oriented myself towards Edith’s flower garden. Today her daffodils were in bloom which made my tactic less ...

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“A Weird and Scary Day” by Valerie Vince

Submitted to Contest #135

(This is an early reader picture story, for ages 4 to 8.)Every day at exactly noon, Victor sits in his cubby corner in his family’s small living room, with his sad dad who reads in his armchair while his mom and sisters go to the shops. [picture of Victor’s dad in a small living room, his face in darkness, a book on his lap, sitting in an armchair, wearing dark trousers with suspenders, thin. Pills and a water jug sit high on a shelf. From the kitchen doorway comes a shaft of light and a swirl of steam. Victor sits on a large cushion in...

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Contest #135

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This week's theme: I Wanna See You Be Brave

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Ended on 23:59 - Mar 04, 2022 EST

Won by Thom With An H 🏆

Title: Home of the Brave

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