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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

“THE SMELL OF SIN” by Tammy Pieterson

Submitted to Contest #49

THE SMELL OF SIN by Tammy Pieterson I've learned to love the smell of sin on a warm summer's evening. Laced with notes of rustic ambience and cheap cigarette smoke that hangs thick and heavy in the already stale air. Where, for the next few hours, you can become whoever you want to be, where everyone is the star in their own movie, and reality is left at the door. Where you really can afford the car you drive and your business really is a success and you are as confident as everyone thinks you are and you really do love your wife and she's...

2 comments 2
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“Will you ever forgive me?” by Thistle Arellano

Submitted to Contest #49

The clicking of the pen was starting to annoy him. He could only imagine what the other people must be thinking, though he didn’t have to. He could see the annoyed glances and the glares from the corner of his eye. But it was either this or pacing, so he stuck with the pen.  Brian checked his watch again. It had felt like the better part of a year had passed since he last checked, but it had merely been a minute. The minute hand must be broken, he supposed, for such little time to have passed. Or maybe time didn’t work here. But he kn...

8 comments 8
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“Clue” by Taryn Holmes

Submitted to Contest #49

Carla hated Mondays. As a general rule, she preferred to keep all negative feelings to one day of the week. But the circumstances of that Monday certainly weren't helping the day’s case. As she sat in the stuffy room, surrounded by a group of strangers, she tried to listen to the presentation. But the speaker just kept going on and on about some newfangled home security system that could only be disarmed by fingerprints or something. The whole thing was too much technology for Carla to really understand. She stifled a yawn, carefully glancin...

0 comments 0
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“Fill Me In, Please” by Kathleen March

Submitted to Contest #49

Daniel walked into the little café on Cervantes Square. It was pouring now, and as he ducked inside, he closed his black umbrella quickly, then gave it a deft shake to leave some rain outside. He deposited the umbrella in the overflowing rack to the left of the door “How’s it going?” He greeted the barista, whose name, he knew, was Xana.  “Great. What’ll you have?” asked Xana. “Café con leite.”  It only took a minute for the coffee, heavy on the milk, to be placed before him, along with a square of anise-tinged bica cake...

7 comments 7
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“The Long Awaited Event ” by Maya Reynolds

Submitted to Contest #49

“Next please,” the attendant calls, sounding slightly bored.As the line shuffles forward, you move along with mounting excitement. You have never done this before and eagerly await your turn. The long line before you doesn’t deter you. You undo your ponytail and shake out your reddish-brown hair before redoing your hairstyle. Technically, you didn’t have to wear your hair up since you’re in an air-conditioned building, but you have to wear your favorite hairstyle for this momentous occasion. You glance around the room. The only thing you wou...

2 comments 2
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“The Floorboards” by Karen McDermott

Submitted to Contest #49

“Look at your watch now…” I can’t. “You’re still a super hot female!” Not currently. The thought makes me smile wryly, then I refocus as my arms start to shake. I try to focus on the rhythm rather than the words of the song I put on, one of the go-to tracks when I need a boost. I judge (pray) two minutes of it have surely passed by now. I close my eyes, but the image of the floorboards I was staring at remains lodged in my brain. I consider the years’ worth of detritus caught in the cracks. I think back to the time I dropped my co...

5 comments 5
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“"Door"” by Gerri Bain

Submitted to Contest #49

“Door” by Gerri Bain     Suddenly, the large metal, industrial-sized door slammed. It was morning and the jolting sound of it caused her to startle reflexively. It happened every time someone came or went, slamming incessantly.  It cracked and shuddered in bursts. The floor seemed to quake.   Something shifted inside her and it was about that door. she just couldn’t explain. Some one thing that she knew she couldn’t remember. Candace racked her brain but couldn’t quite grasp it. It wa...

2 comments 2
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“Breathe” by Lindsey Starrberri

Submitted to Contest #49

She sat quietly beside him, her sun tanned hand grasping his tightly. Her pink painted nails had a gold sparkle to them, and they dug lightly into his weak hand as she silently prayed in the quiet room. Her brother placed his strong hand on her boxy shoulder, squeezing it tightly. She just closed her blue eyes tighter, determined to keep praying. The bags under her eyes were as dark as her brothers; they hadn't slept for five days. All they had been doing was waiting. Neither knew exactly what for- or didn't want to admit it. Clear salty te...

3 comments 3
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“The Perpetual Hiccups” by Parvathy Sabapathy

Submitted to Contest #49

After driving for two hours, navigating through the rush hour traffic, I reach my destination. My back is sore from riding my Kawasaki Bajaj, weaving through heavy traffic, dodging people jaywalking, as well as bumping into sudden potholes and speed breakers that took me by surprise.I climb up the stairs, and after sensing my presence, the automatic glass doors slide apart. I see her in the waiting area, talking empathetically to a sobbing lady. Empathy is the quality that she always carries like a diamond studded crown on her head. She noti...

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“Keep Calm and Wait” by Kate Le Roux

Submitted to Contest #49

My little blue car chugs along through the morning traffic. (Traffic! A fact of life quite detrimental to calm!) and I watch her temperature gauge nervously. Sometimes she overheats, and the last thing I need is to be stuck at the side of the road with a steaming car. I need to be calm. I am so tense that I feel ill, and of course I know that’s not going to help. I need to be well and strong or it will all come to nothing.  Work helps to distract me. I am busy, and the relentless school day doesn't care two pins about my own private r...

3 comments 3
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“The Weaver Comes Out at Night” by Christine Calhoun

Submitted to Contest #49

His mother whispered her last words to him. She was half way through when they pulled her away, a great wrenching swipe that left heat burns on his hands and his chin where it pressed into her cloak. She was ready to go, bonnet and gloves the color of unripe mulberries.   His aunt didn’t let him go the next day, had locked him and his cousins inside until night fell and she came back with a drained face and red eyes.  When he was older he built a cottage on the edge of town, and even though he didn’t want to he made several ...

5 comments 5
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“#0378” by Peony P.

Submitted to Contest #49

I sit, staring listlessly at the matte gray metal of the space station wall. It’s difficult to tell time so many light-years from the star on which the human calendar is based, but I’m confident in my assessment that it’s the middle of the night. The fluorescent lights overhead buzz dully, bleaching the room and lending a sense of liminality to the proceedings. My fellow intergalactic travelers wander aimlessly or slouch on uncomfortable benches. They’re quiet, for the most part, too exhausted to create much of a ruckus. Even the man that ha...

4 comments 4
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“Pumpkin” by Cece Lin

Submitted to Contest #49

Every day, when I go home, I see the same dog on the sidewalk. He was a beautiful dog, with thick white fur and a dark gray mask around deep brown eyes. The web told me that he was a border collie in looks, but nothing like one in personality. Instead of being lively, he remained parked on his tail every hour of the day. Instead of being cheerful, with a bright pink tongue hanging out between his fangs, he had a permanent case of Puppy Eye Syndrome. And every single day, without fail, I would see him, starting intently into the distance, i...

1 comment 1
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“Expected Visitors” by Deborah Mercer

Submitted to Contest #49

The Men in Black will be coming soon. I’m quite resigned to it. It will even be a relief. I wonder if they’ll be dressed very formally, like the ones in the films and TV shows. Though I’ve never been one for formality, I rather hope that they will be. Nothing wrong with a bit of drama and a sense of occasion.      I saw it coming from the minute I witnessed the strange lights in the sky, floating and hovering, with a colour like none I’ve ever seen before. Oh, I’d heard about such things...

5 comments 5
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“The Elephant at my dinner table” by Nicole Leah

Submitted to Contest #49

        We had an extension; by that I mean the front door – we made it bigger. You see, I am expecting some very important and some very large guests; so large that we have set up the dinner table in the courtyard… yes, the black-cobbled, little uneven courtyard. It is all arranged, the ants have done me a massive favour and moved it for me into the courtyard and then will favour me again by moving it back after our dinner party has concluded. I have promised them any leftovers in return – I did try ...

4 comments 4
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