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Write about somebody who knows they’re probably going to fail at something, but does it anyway.

Posted in Narrative on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 32 stories

Cigarettes: A Romance

Winner of Contest #136 🏆

I remember our first cigarettes together were Rothmans, middle tar, with a filter, of course. It was ten o’clock on a Saturday night and we were attending a local church’s youth club disco. I recall that she’d gone outside for a breath of air.God, I could do with a gasper, she’d said, avoiding my gaze, as if we were on stage and I’d forgotten my lines while searching for a prop. I groped around inside my jacket for my pack of Rothmans. My awkward fumbling attracted her attention, and she smiled as I raised my head. She moved closer and ...

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The Curse of Adam

Submitted to Contest #136

We’re all fragile.   Like glass.  Delicate little bits of glass.  Beautiful little bits of glass.  And somewhere along the line, we get broken.  Everyone does.   It has to happen.  How could it not happen?   When you’re so beautiful, and delicate, and fragile?  How can you hope to never break? It’s just part of life. At least, that’s what they tell me. But It doesn’t start off that way.  We aren’t born broken.   No.  Just to be broken. And they call it ...

36 likes 26 comments 26
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"If you can't hack it in an honors course, perhaps you shouldn't be in it."

Submitted to Contest #136

In college, I had a teacher who, on the first day of class, said, "most of you will fail this class. Just because you get an A does not mean that I will write you a recommendation."As a person who believed myself capable of academic excellence, I didn't start by putting much stock in this, though it did seem as though he was standing in a serious posture. My early papers, where I was not trying very hard, returned scores in the 80's and I was surprised. I began to put more attention into the class and still received scores in the low 90's. A...

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Love at First Slight

Submitted to Contest #136

Dennis opened the front door to see his senior classmate, Dakota, standing on the porch. “Dakota? What do you want?” Not awaiting an answer, but leaving the door open, he returned to the kitchen. She entered, shut the door and followed. On her way, she sniffed the air. The odor of stale cigarette smoke being absent, the house smelled unexpectedly fresh. Walking by the living room and seeing well placed furniture, book shelves… in short, a normal home, surprised her. There were no torn curtains. No clutter. She had expected early cob-web. T...

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How to Love a Married Woman

Submitted to Contest #136

My marriage was a hastily drawn picture, looked upon as the work of madwomen who painted in unthinking urgency. For me however, it felt less a matter of haphazard color splotches and more so that the strokes were simply confident, and unrestrained. We were linework without preceding sketch. My wife was an amalgamation of thoughts untethered, beautifully complicated and unfinished from the frayed ends of her faded platinum hair, down to the tips of her chipped nail polish. Her first name was the same as my middle, which always seemed like ...

15 likes 6 comments 6
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Postcard From Pollyville

Submitted to Contest #136

CW: mentions of child death, needles/drips, blood. Russ Carney could see through anything. Allie Creet had never found it particularly impressive.  They all did something here, after all. Captain Bennet only liked children who could do things.  Vicky Stevens stretched.  Benny Poladi stuck. Ian Wright glowed. The new girl floated.  It was all very uninteresting, and Allie was the most uninteresting and uninterested one of them all.  Allie Creet vanished.  Russ Carney was the only one who was good at f...

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Jack Plots

Submitted to Contest #136

They met in Neds’ large dining room. His wife Maria had removed the adornments from the long Elizabethan table and with seating for 12, it was more than adequate. Young, tanned, and svelte, Jack Compas sits on one side next to the stunning, and also young, Becky Newsom. Across from them sits the middle-aged Chinese couple Bao and Yang Chong with Yang imposing a sour expression. Also middle-aged, Ned Bates heads the seating while his wife Maria chaired the far side with pencil and notepaper at the ready. Four of the six had recently been fav...

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A Memory From Gym Class

Submitted to Contest #136

           “Line up at the free throw line.”            I wasn’t sure where the free throw line was; I didn't pay much attention to what the gym teacher said. It was never interesting. I just got in line behind the other kids who got there first.             I hated gym class. Why shouldn’t I?  I was seven years old, short, spindly, and a klutz. Nothing good was going t...

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A Soldier's Surprise

Submitted to Contest #136

Colorless smoke curled from the crater, shimmering like the ghosts of Yershai’s comrades. His friends. Crix. Indoph. Tinseff. Del’lor. Melawa. All gone. All— Yershai felt the next explosion before he saw it. By the time he did see it, the shockwave was already upon him, sending him tumbling across the compound like a ball punted by a giant. He… was still alive. Still… *** “Yo!” Crix’s voice—coming from the mess hall, as per usual. The man somehow got there before everyone else every morning, cooks included. And he claimed he didn’t sleep...

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Josephine's Smile

Submitted to Contest #136

"Roses are red.Violets are blue.Sugar is sweet and so are you."Napoleon’s first wife Josephine was born Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de la Pagerie in Martinique on June 23, 1763. Like Napoleon himself, Josephine was a study of contrasts. As a child, Josephine grew up on a sugar cane plantation and developed a sweet tooth. As a result, her teeth had turned black at an early age so she learned to talk and smile without showing them. Despite this drawback, she was renowned for her grace and style. Many people in the 1700's had bad teeth. It was n...

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Asher Brightendale's Dilemma

Submitted to Contest #136

Asher Brightendale’s Dilemmas  Like most things in Asher Brightendale’s life, his attempted suicide was an example of his penchant for dismissing any plan laced with the possibility of failure by summarily replacing it with an obstinate determination to perfectly execute his objective. I.E., he knew, or at least suspected, his suicide by drowning would probably fail, but the portent of humiliation and a damaged ego added to his implacable nature dictated he push ahead anyway. At just after nine p.m. Asher waded into Long Island Sou...

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Chasing The Wind

Submitted to Contest #136

Her tutor stood in front of her, garbed in a colorful flowing robe. He’d set up a table between them and spread out a variety of items on it. A wilting plant, a rock, and a flickering candle. “Come on, Raye. This should be simple for you. Concentrate. Expand your mind to the rock, and lift it.” Raye took a deep breathe and closed her eyes. She collected her mental energy and imagined the rock that laid in front of her lifting, flying, darting around the room like a sparrow! She pushed outwards with her mind and heard a rattle. Her brow f...

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Nothing stops him from trying. Not even death.

Submitted to Contest #136

A large blue butterfly lands on my ankle out of nowhere. Scared the shit out of me. I have an uncontrolled fear of insects of any kind, no matter how cute they might be. Comes from childhood. Early years were an eternal night terror. Often woke up screaming “there is a giant bug behind the door”. It was always same kind of bug, like a cockroach, black, six legs and 2 antennas, big eyes staring at me. Standing behind the door. For me it was all real. As real as the real bugs that occasionally crawl on me causing a hysterical crisis. Even the ...

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I matched with Mr. Donkey

Submitted to Contest #136

***Warning - profanity***I must say it's not bad for a Thursday morning so far. As every other day I'm over my morning coffee with one of my colleague-friends and now we go together for a personal meeting to conduct a job interview for one of our open positions. It's 10.28 a.m. and we're sitting down with Nicole in the room chit-chatting in a good mood, waiting for the candidate to arrive. I'm checking us in the meeting room on its board when I hear steps and I turn with a big smile to greet the candidate - only to realize it's that bizarre ...

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The Audition

Submitted to Contest #136

“Oh my goodness goshness, Sophia! If you don’t audition with me, I’ll make an empty threat and never go through with it!” “That’s redundant, Cindy.” I poked her in the shoulder.“So?!?” She tore the paper off the announcement board. “I’ll staple it back! Don’t look at me like that.”It was printed on purple cardstock and it read:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~AUDITION NOTICEAll 5th graders here at Trapton School for the Unlearned are eligible to audition for the upcoming play: “Seussical the...

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