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Write a story about someone dealing with family conflict.

Posted in Nonfiction on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 82 stories

Time Bomb

Winner of Contest #29 🏆

Tick tick tick tick tick tick. Six months. That’s how long I’ve got until the time bomb inside me goes off and I self-destruct and explode into a million little pieces. Because Mom tried to hide it from me but I noticed that telltale bump and that her sweaters were beginning to look tight and I asked, accusatory —“Are you gaining weight?”I was right, she was gaining weight. Just not in the way I thought she was. I’m pissed at her. She knows it, too, but she tries to act like nothing’s wrong, like every day is just another day ...

147 likes 115 comments 115
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The Burning Avocado Tree

Shortlisted for Contest #29 ⭐️

As Kiwi grew up we took her to her granpadre’s place more often. We lived so far away that at the beginning, when she was younger, we only went there at Michaelmas time. Before we moved to the America we drove hours and hours home to Guadalajara, and now it takes too many hours and aeroplane rides.Kiwi loved her grandfather and hated Guadalajara. We lived in el Ciudad de Mexico in a tiny narrow street house in a building with thirty others. Granpadre was in his huge empty house full of silence and green waving plants.When Kiwi was ten we too...

51 likes 4 comments 4
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Burn

Submitted to Contest #29

“Treason! He is accusing me of Treason!” Wynn growled from behind bars holding her prisoner. “How dare he!” “Your Royal Highness, I understand that you are upset- “ “I am not upset, I am furious!” Wynn cut off the poor maid bringing her a meal. A meal and slipped up words revealing the accusation. “What exactly did the king say?” She put more effort into relaxing her words as to not terrify her maid. “He said that you were a threat to the safety and stability of the kingdom.” Wynn’s face had gone from one of fury to one the maid could not re...

24 likes 1 comment 1
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The Art Of Getting Bi

Submitted to Contest #29

“I’m kicking you out.”Dylan freezes. Milk drips from the spoonful of Fruity Pebbles stuck halfway to his mouth and onto his solid grey Mack Weldon boxer briefs.“What?”Hanna’s hair is thrown up in some messy twist thing that’s probably supposed to look messy in a cute way, but it’s mostly just the regular kind of messy—like maybe she didn’t bother with a brush, or has sworn of hair grooming indefinitely. The toddler attached to her hip tugs her hair then sneezes once—twice. She grimaces and wipes her cheek with the sleeve of her Henley, makin...

18 likes 3 comments 3
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Radio Active

Submitted to Contest #29

“I don’t know what to do. Tess won’t respond to my calls or letters.”“What do you say?”“That we need to talk.”“So, you are demanding a response and she won’t submit to your demands?”“I wasn’t demanding. I want to keep lines of communication open. I’m hurt.”“So, you choose to be offended because she has nothing to communicate? What if you wait for her to want something?”“I could wait forever.”“And…?”The session ended soon after that. Avery wondered, “Am I beating my head against the wall? Isn’t a therapist supposed to at least pretend to be o...

15 likes 0 comments 0
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Potato syndrome

Submitted to Contest #29

It was not easy for my elder brother to provide for all of us. We were seven sisters and two brothers. Having lost our father in India and Pakistan partition riots we shifted to west bengal. My mother, aunt, grandmother all were dependant on our elder brother's megre income. He was just high school pass and had got an ordinary government job . All our relatives and neighbours said we sisters were exceptionally beautiful with slender figure, sharp features and fair skin. In our Indian culture most people desire a fair skined, slim and a beaut...

14 likes 2 comments 2
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Panic Attack

Submitted to Contest #29

“Thanks for everything, Callie.” Joanie smiled as she slung her duffel bag over her shoulder. The sun was sinking slowly over the horizon. “Anytime, hun.” Callie McLain waved from the front seat of the van as Joanie unlocked the door to her family’s apartment.    Joanie’s friends, Ben and Cody McLain, who happened to be identical twins, had let Joanie go with their family to the beach for a month. Some of her other friends-Olivia Duncan, Lucas Jones, and Kasey Pearson-had also gone.   Joanie braced her...

13 likes 5 comments 5
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The Wake

Submitted to Contest #29

My uncle insisted his wake take place on a train and that he be alive for it.  We had buried my grandfather, my great grandmother, and a cousin, not to mention all the people before I was old enough to remember, and we always held vigils over their bodies and feasted on cold cuts and soft cheeses afterward. But Uncle Aldo had seen a movie where the main character attended his wake for all of his family members to honor his memory and he knew that’s what he wanted. Somehow, some were surprised by this even though, at this point, we shoul...

9 likes 3 comments 3
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“The D Word”

Submitted to Contest #29

I’m scared.  My name is Ralph and I’m scared.  Mommy and Daddy are yelling at each other more lately and they’ve even mentioned something called, “the D word”.  They don’t think I know what, “the D word” is, but I do.  I do.  “The D word” is dog.  See, I’m a Pomeranian and they don’t have any real children, so I’m their child, and they used to pet me and play with me, but now Mike and Helena only pet me after they argue and cry and they never pet me together anymore.  One ...

8 likes 2 comments 2
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Match Week

Submitted to Contest #29

Maddi Weathers tapped her foot on the floor, trying to ignore the butterflies in her stomach. When it was finally her turn, she displayed her name tag, and the Council President handed her an envelope. As Maddi walked away, she traced her fingers over the letters on the front: “Maddie Weathers”. By now, she was used to the extra “e”. Pursing her lips, she opened the envelope and unfolded the enclosed paper. “Jayden Turner” was written at the top. Maddi furrowed her brows. She didn’t know anyone with the last name “Turner” in Zone 5 ... Jayde...

7 likes 0 comments 0
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Finding the Thread

Submitted to Contest #29

 I come from a family of knitters and needlewomen on my Mother’s side.  Well, okay, with a few buts. To start with, and though I’m not that “PC” this is a decidedly pleasing thought, they weren’t all women! My Great-Great Uncle Manny (he was really called Manuel, and there were reasons for it, but was always known as Manny, and to his dying day rather proud of the fact that the first ever Labour MP, Manny Shinwell, went by the same name) was a fisherman and could knit both nets and cable sweaters with the best of the...

7 likes 1 comment 1
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Wise counsel should prevail.

Submitted to Contest #29

Dhanu and his wife Lazy are deeply in love with one another. They have three kids. Eldest one is Neer, younger to him is Heer and youngest is Leel. The eldest Neer is PhD in English literature and is serving as a professor in a leading college in the city. And his wife Nez is also serving as a professor in the same college. They are happy working couple.The second son Heer is Btech from MIT and is serving as a research scientist in The Pines Lab. And his wife Hex is a social worker. The third son Leel is a struggling writer and is al...

7 likes 0 comments 0
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When you can't actually fight

Submitted to Contest #29

It’s Monday night and she’s been in bed for a long time.  She cries a lot. The dark curtains blocking out the world from her and her from the world.  I come home alone. Her, my dirty little secret. The mom I had to take care of like a parent. I just paid the bills.  There’s never enough. Her snores echo. There’s really no one to talk to.  She has no friends. She used to cook every day, it was her favorite thing to do, to cook big meals for everyone around us.  Now her pain and the medications don’t let her eat mu...

6 likes 3 comments 3
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Slow Burn

Submitted to Contest #29

Cham stared at the photo of himself and Mum as he took the bus to Draggington: the city where humans and monsters co-existed. He would arrive soon, but first he needed to remind himself why he was moving there.The picture was a snapshot Dad took of Mum holding Cham’s younger self in her claws. As an adult drigi, she was as big as an adult human, and her white feathers shone brilliantly in the sunlight. Cham was as small as a human child there despite being in drigi adolescence. He still waited for his growth spurt to this day. He cheris...

6 likes 3 comments 3
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One more story about a spare

Submitted to Contest #29

While seated in the back seat of the hired cab, Mrs. Deb started reminiscing. How she missed the good old days, so she leaned back at the seat and went into a trance for some time as apparently, she needed to recall the memories of her past 70 years. Being born in the ‘40s and being a girl and an elder one too was an experience of sacrifice, patience, dutifully, guardian like for her. She had always been the compliant one, always eager to sacrifice for the younger ones. Though quite young of an age, she still remembers the whirling of helico...

6 likes 4 comments 4
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