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Write about an encounter with someone new to you who changed your life forever.

Posted in Nonfiction on Nov 8, 2024

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✍️ 103 stories

Fortune cookies

Submitted to Contest #276

It was a usual morning; people around me were rushing about their business, and the city just started waking up. The sun was mercilessly beating down, penetrating through the pristine glass of the coffee shop, tripping over the curves of sofas and tables, and getting lost under the bar counter. The aroma of freshly made cappuccino filled the room and pleasantly tickled the sense of smell. I was sitting on a high stool and tamping marshmallows into the hot drink. Spring has come. Somewhere in other latitudes, this time of year is accompanied ...

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Adolescent lessons in dating and popularity

Submitted to Contest #276

Adolescent lessons in dating and popularity You can say that I was a misfit growing up since I didn’t fit in with others my age. My worldview evolved from a composite series of adolescent failed attempts and near catastrophes. I didn’t play or watch football or baseball. I spent time in the library reading esoteric topics like politics, psychology and new age books about Eastern religions. I didn’t like to join teams but was willing to participate with a small group of friends. I was friendly with the less popular girls but wasn’t attracted...

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Man On The Mountain

Submitted to Contest #276

The first thing I noticed about Karma wasn't his maroon robes or weather-beaten face, but his laugh. It erupted from somewhere deep in his belly and echoed off the Himalayan peaks, causing a few snow-dusted ravens to take flight from a nearby prayer flag pole. I was hunched over my backpack outside a teahouse in Tengboche, Nepal, altitude 12,687 feet, trying to decide if my altitude sickness medication was making things better or worse. My path to this moment had begun six months earlier when, reeling from a messy divorce and the collapse of...

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The Stranger Beside Me

Submitted to Contest #276

It has been forty years since I took American Airlines flight number 3282. It was just a one-hour flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco, but I cannot forget the impact that short flight has had on the last half of my life. I remember it was a typical summer day in Los Angeles. The sun was peeking through some cumulus clouds. The Santa Ana wind plied its way through the trees and surrounding buildings as if a warm blanket was covering the city. I had just spent two weeks with my wife-to-be in the quaint town of Ojai. The excitement and ...

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Singing with Confidence

Submitted to Contest #276

I always wanted to sing. It had been my dream since I was seven years old. I used to listen to the cantors at Mass and longed to be one of them. When asked what I wanted to do when I got older, I'd say, "I want to perform for God." However, I was shy and uncomfortable with people. Whenever I'd sing in front of people, my nerves took over, my legs would shake, my heart pound, and I felt like passing out.I tried to gain confidence, but living in a dysfunctional family made that impossible. Certain family members scolded and treated me harshly ...

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Twelve Days

Submitted to Contest #276

Author's Note: This story contains sensitive topics including mental illness, eating disorders, and depression. i.              On the first day of Anorexia, my true love sent to me a scale at the age of thirteen. My one and only love, my darling, the very contagion that burgeons within me: she rules my soul scale like no other. The gift of a scale started an internal infernal battle within my youthful being, whereby the numbers align every other blue moon, a red thread o...

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Have we met before?

Submitted to Contest #276

I was in a pub, a few weeks back with a friend. We were having a couple of cheeky glasses of wine after work, when it was my turn to go to the bar. It was extremely busy for a wednesday, but I suppose Wetherspoons is generally busy at any time. I had just got my drinks, when I turned and saw someone who looked awfully familiar to me, but I couldn't think for the life of me where. I didn't just want to turn around and say, do I know you? He'd probably think I was chatting him up, and although I found him undoubtedly attractive, I was nowhere ...

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ANGEL

Submitted to Contest #276

ANGEL            Every spring carries with it an aura of promise.  The newness can be seen in the tree blossoms, the crocuses lifting their heads above the ground to breathe new air, and the melodic chirping of birds whose song had been stifled by the cold winter.  None of this is new, but rather a renaissance of what had occurred many times before.            I looked forward to springtime.  &...

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My Friend Matt

Submitted to Contest #276

             MY FRIEND MATT                                  BY:  STEVEN  FORTUNA                                &n...

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Sister

Submitted to Contest #276

I don’t remember our first meeting but if family lore is to be believed, I was so taken by her that I offered up my most prized possession at our first encounter. The blanket was softened from repeated washings. It was covered on one side in the bright pastel emotions of the Care Bears and on the other with a soft silky fabric, a texture and feeling so ingrained in me that I will likely seek it out as a comfort for the rest of life. I have a good reason for not remembering this encounter as I was not even two at the time and m...

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Third Parties

Submitted to Contest #276

It wasn’t her. That was the lesson.  The obvious truth.  But even once I was presented with the truth, in my apparent acceptance was a rejection. I mirrored her denial. I was drawn into that collusion with very little effort. Denial and naivety is where we reside. We climb into bed with a watered down reality that promises us an easy ride, but is never there when we wake up to the cold light of the truthful day. I loved her. Being with her hurt. Being without her hurt. I was never good enough. She pushed me away, even as I pulled i...

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Even the lost can be found.

Submitted to Contest #276

(Trigger warning: This story depicts mental issues, drug abuse and homelessness.)It was early evening when my phone rang. I answered to the frantic voice of my ex-girlfriend's current partner. "I need your help. Dee has been gone for three days." My heart sank.I knew before she told me Dee must be on a binge. Dee had a drug issue. When we dated it was alcohol, but after the break-up she turned to harder stuff. Of course she tried to blame me, the breakup, anything to not take accountability for her own actions. ...

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CALL ME KAT

Submitted to Contest #276

CALL ME KAT “Aaron, it’s almost dinner time. Where are you going?”“I don’t know. It’s the strangest thing… but did you see the black cat that showed up at the back door? ….This is the second morning I found her  sitting on the porch …almost like she’s waiting for me, waiting for me to join her. She didn’t even look at the sauce of milk I put out for her. Aren’t cats supposed to like milk? She just sat there and gave me that look. Looked me straight in the eye. Anyway it felt that way.”“What look? ““As though she wanted me to f...

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Why Are You Here?

Submitted to Contest #276

#ReedsyEncounterWhen the Pandemic hit, most everything was shutdown. A lot of church buildings were closed so, many congregations started delivering sermons via social media platforms. One Sunday I heard you speak, but I couldn't listen to you. You spoke on marriage. My heart was too heavy to hear your message, so I turned you off. Seven days later, there you are again. As I raised my hand to turn you off, once again, (rolling my eyes), I heard a small, still, yet powerful Voice which said, "Just listen." As I listened to you, my eyes starte...

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Beacon

Submitted to Contest #276

I open my eyes and find myself lost in a void. A deep dark vastness of absolute nothingness. Its unbearably cold and distant from any form of life. In the farthest of distances I see a single pinpoint of light. A twinkling that flashes ever so slightly. A flicker so minuscule I must blink my eyes to prove to myself it is real. The essence of my soul is compelled, i must soar through this ever expanding emptiness to reach this light. A beacon that beckons my soul to reach it, for I am destined to be the caretaker. As I glide th...

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