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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story about waiting — but don't reveal what's being waited for until the very end.

Posted in Nonfiction on Oct 26, 2022

Submissions are closed

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✍️ 323 stories

“Swing Set” by Alysha Irvine

Submitted to Contest #49

For her entire life, Lucy had been waiting for Him. She had been waiting long before she knew it, long before the idea could form in her mind, long before she had uttered her first cry into the world that her mother had never gotten to hear. Or, at least, she assumed her mother had never gotten to hear it. Her father did not like to talk about it, so she never asked even though she kept wondering. Wondered what her mother’s laugh had sounded like, what foods she preferred, and if she sang at the top of her lungs on car rides just like Lucy ...

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“Emerging the Victor” by Justine Mae D

Submitted to Contest #49

I woke up suddenly. The nap I had was not the refreshing kind; it's the kind that makes me wish I didn't sleep on the porch steps of my childhood home. It was dark and I can hear the crickets chirping from beyond the trees beside our house. After a while, I contemplated whether I should go inside or not. The house was dark and forbidding. I can feel an ominous presence lurking from within. I closed my eyes and replayed the earlier events of the day in my mind, back to the time when I was speaking exasperatedly with my mother on the phone."I ...

2 comments 2
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“RAIL RIDER” by Beth Moore

Submitted to Contest #49

               The ground under Kelsie’s feet started to tremble. The tremble grew to a rumble, and the rumble became lost in the whistle that pierced the night air. She had expected it to be loud, but this kind of volume caught her off guard. She believed she could scream out all of the anger and pain of the past few months and no one would hear her. She matched the whistle scream for scream, volume for volume. The screams seemed to ease the pain but the fear was sti...

4 comments 4
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“The Diet” by D.F. Roeder

Submitted to Contest #49

THE DIET by D. F. Roeder I am starving into oblivion here. Literally, starving. The pandemic is already winding down in this country. Fewer and fewer people are getting sick and the mortality rate, which unfortunately for me was low to begin with, has now veered into negative territory. I so long for those good old days (was that really only months ago?) when we could all travel freely again, so that I can finally escape. I wandered over here on a whim one day by ferry from Indonesia, curious if there were others here like me, and have, ...

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“Why Bother” by Ashley Wong

Submitted to Contest #49

Standing alone in the crowd, the only thing that Stanton wanted was for the place to be empty. It was too loud for him. Too noisy. Too active. As he stood waiting, an announcement blared across the station. “The train to Zhang Zhou will be leaving in five minutes!” Stanton ignored it as people milled around him. Now that he looked again, the station he was at looked like an ant colony. With too many people, and too much chaos. Being in the train station a day before Chinese New Year in Shanghai, well… It was hectic. Babies cried, children ...

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“It was raining” by Emerson Aguilar

Submitted to Contest #49

October 13 was as long as a day could be. Longer than expected, but shorter than desired, which was good. I did what I did any other day, I didn’t want to change that routine as I knew that was going to take quite a turn for the future. I enjoyed the last time doing these activities, as I knew much more exciting ones awaited. I was to meet with my father after a long time of not knowing him. I had made my amends already and I was ready to move on. Ever since 6 o’clock that night I could feel mu eagerness fuel my spirit for that rush that wou...

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“Reminders of the Past” by Samantha Valle

Submitted to Contest #49

Johnson was a simple man. Plain. Short. Below-average intelligence. Yet, he was cunning. He knew he wasn't smart, so he would use that as a weapon. He lived in a big city, so he could rotate around the city to the different stores to try to steal. Sometimes, it worked; others, when caught, he would accuse that person of prejudice against "special" people. He was homeless due to being unable to keep a job. His small attention span and greedy nature has led him to his less-than-ideal life. Of course he always blamed his parents, his employer...

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“The Waiting Room” by Eden Myers

Submitted to Contest #49

My eyes fluttered open and the first thing I was aware of was the fact that I was standing in a line, a really long line. In front of me stood a row of women, men, and the occasional child. Everyone looked confused but no one stepped out of line. Behind me, another endless row of people stretched on, but these people had their eyes shut, almost like they were sleepwalking. The sky was an eerie gray, empty, and endless. As the line advanced, the people behind me slowly began to wake up as well. I felt my feet move without my brain commanding...

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“The club” by Lee Dohann

Submitted to Contest #49

The nights are quite chilly this time of the year. It signals the start of another long Winter. Soft misty drops soak into the visitors’ coats, as they ascend the stairs. The house, indeed to be admired even in this weather, looks majestic. More and more people arrive, each one equally surprised by the intensity of the chill. I have arrived with John. We have been dating for eight months, and I decided to share this moment with him. This moment which comes at an appointed time every year, and shared by a special group of people. We all und...

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“Five past 4” by Liz Martin

Submitted to Contest #49

She had thoroughly cleaned the living room by 8 o’clock that morning. The bathroom, too, before breakfast. Were she being honest with herself, she could admit that she would have continued, had Dylan not seized her hand and deposited her, none too gently, at the breakfast bar. Pushing her thick glasses back up her slightly sweaty nose, she had glowered at her husband, who had merely given her a flat look in exchange and unceremoniously pushed a bowl of cornflakes along the tabletop. She wrinkled her nose as she lifted her spoon and took her ...

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“Fireflies” by L Hinz

Submitted to Contest #49

Bright lights are dancing, jumping up and down, colliding with each other and parting again, crossing the pitch-dark background – jauntily – without any sorrows. They hover over the grass and weed, lifting up the black curtains for a moment while closing them in another one. Their existence seems meaningless but is yet full of greatness. I envy them. As they dive through the starless night, they supply dim luminosity. One can be captivated by their dreamlike sight. Devouring one's eyes and sophistically tangle one's mind. One would say t...

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“The One That Gets Away” by Bruce Charles

Submitted to Contest #49

The woman sitting by herself sighed heavily while looking out the restaurant's window. It had rained recently and the droplets could still be seen on the glass, which seemed to be a perfect fit for her mood. Walter, who worked as a waiter, couldn't believe how pretty she was, especially right now. Her hair, makeup, and dress all managed to give her an aura of elegance few could pull off.Walter felt a pang of jealousy towards the date the woman was waiting for. At least he assumed it was a date. He couldn't imagine anyone getting that dolled ...

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“Toes Untouch The Overpass ” by Blisters Wournos

Submitted to Contest #49

The 1st second:  Anxiety. I check the setting sun in the sky and try to tell the time like a boy scout from shadows cast by bridge beams.   I swim through the hot pink and creamy oranges of day turning to night.  How beautiful state changes are.  That's what this is, a state change.  I am the purple night sky melting into the yellow remains of the day. I am a wad of dough braving the oven to come out as bread. I am dry ice sublimating in the hot sun. I am ice cream dripping into liquid down a child’s sticky fist...

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“A Wife's Love” by Alice Sweet

Submitted to Contest #49

Time is endless yet feels so brief in the flash of an eye you go from playing on the seesaws with your imaginary friend teddy to signing a marriage certificate while wearing a pink wedding dress cause that's just what you wanted to wear at that moment. Every second of the day is measured, your life is measured, your very existence is measured, and by what ? some unknown force outside our reach. Someone or something that you can't see or hear that gets to predetermine your whole life.     *knock knock* " I'm coming... I'll be r...

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“ "The Crow in Tree Number Five" by London Copeland” by Debbie Copeland

Submitted to Contest #49

There it stood looking like an entranceway to a private cemetery; a rusty black gate with a broken chain lock, ajar, with just enough space for me to squeeze through safely—safely? I second guess myself as I do three Hail Mary’s across my chest. Barren black trees cross over my head as I go through the gate. One…two…three…four…I count the trees per his instructions, only the trees on the right side, stumbling deeper into a murky forest. Stricken trees lead me further into the woods, and then suddenly I pause from counting. My eyes blink as t...

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