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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write about someone telling their family they won’t be continuing the long-standing family business.

Posted in Sad on Oct 31, 2022

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✍️ 175 stories

“I have a dream” by Pamela Berglund

Submitted to Contest #69

LoHave you ever had a dream? I did.  My dream was to become a best selling author.  I pictured huge crowds lining up the streets, just waiting hours to finally get my autograph and a short "good luck on the first page of my book. I wrote my first story at the age of six. It was a ghost story and was so scary that my teacher read it to the class on Halloween. Why am I telling you this? I am about to walk into my parents house and crush their dreams.  I have to tell them that now that I have graduated from college, with ...

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“Ryot vs. Rupert” by Raven Adkaing

Submitted to Contest #69

Lindsey didn’t know how she was supposed to tell her family. She dreaded having to go to their house this weekend for Thanksgiving, and she couldn’t back out - she had already said she would attend.     Nervously she absentmindedly checked her phone, trying to get her mind off of how she would tell her parents that she wasn’t going to continue the long-standing family business that had been in the Ryot family for years?     A small chirp alerted her that a text had come. She looked at it.     It w...

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“The Candy Shop” by Carol Keefer

Submitted to Contest #69

‘The Candy Shop”             The shop was never mine, and they had made clear to me from the beginning. With its’ polished tile floor and gleaming stainless-steel shelves glistening in the morning’s light. Bright color boxes adorned with delicious candies perfectly lined as miniature soldiers standing guard. All eagerly waiting for a child’s chubby hand to scoop up as many candies as possible. A delightful place to be, yet for me, it was never a happy place....

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“Life in the Countryside” by Writing Banda

Submitted to Contest #69

"Father, I uh, I..." my fingers played around, rolling across each other, enjoying their own hidden reality which I would gladly indulge myself in, but Father's questioning glare refused to let me retreat. The old, worn out house stood swaying in the cool winds that breezed through fields cherished with a love stronger than what any man could bear for gold. The short walls of the house enclosed us, leaving no space to escape. The sofa brought upon the sticky feeling unique to that of leather, each brush against it dragging it along the h...

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“The First Huntress” by Kevin Leonard

Submitted to Contest #69

At last, a rider in the rain. A silhouetted shadow riding hard against the hell that seemed to pour in from all angles, the hooded rider bent hard forward, nearly flush against the horse’s back. One rider where there ought be three. A bad omen, surely. The beast’s hooves thundered into the wet ground, deaf against the heaviness of the rain, sending up clods of mud and earth up to meet in defiance of the rain falling down. A voice called out and the gates to the fort creaked open, just wide enough that the rider’s cloak flicked at the wooden ...

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“Shocking Revalations” by Kaden Vargo

Submitted to Contest #69

For as long as I could remember when I was growing up, my parents would always try to convince me to go to work with them, just to “experience” what they were doing. My father always said to me, “Hey boy, you should come to work with me and your mother sometime and see what it is we do, you might just be doing it one day, I certainly hope so!” I always wondered what that meant. I had the basic understanding of what it meant, but I just thought about why he said it. I do remember them telling me they work at the same job, but th...

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“Russian Roulette” by Navneeth N

Submitted to Contest #69

The Nicholas family is a large family. Originally from Russia, and being relatives to the Tsars, they continue to meet in their homeland every 3 years for their family reunion.  The time has come again, but a global catastrophe has stopped them from doing so. Of course, the tradition is to have a reunion, so as great-grandpa Alexander put it, “Who can stop the Nicholas family? No one!” followed by a string of Russian ranting. Everybody agreed, mainly because the least they could do was fulfill his wishes while he was on his deathbed.&nb...

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“Hereditary ” by Proteller James

Submitted to Contest #69

LOGAN     Although it was summer, logan shivered as the bus stopped on their street, the bus doors twinged open, logan hugged his backpack and hopped out of the bus. He landed on solid ground and dragged the hood of his sweatshirt over his head , backpack mounted on his back, hood over his head and one feet after another he walked and walked to his parents house.    Three minutes of continuous walk and he could see the chimney of their house, he didnt know when he smiled to himself and walked faster, he ...

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“ My Lord ” by Philip Ebuluofor

Submitted to Contest #69

Every family has at least one palm tree, no matter how poor; it is akin to an Arab man not having a donkey, camel or some with goats. It was must have then in 50’s. It serves battalion of purposes: Red oil, broom, thatches, lotion, soap, goat, sheeps food, wine and religious rituals etc. all comes from it.Mrs Okwe was of average height that equals her weight. She usually had a disarming smile on her that arrest any person she comes across. Not educated but wise. She knew from observation that most people were poor in her village due to impat...

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“Cheesemaker” by Munmun Singh

Submitted to Contest #69

“What do you mean you don’t want to pursue the family business?” asked my angry mother. “I mean exactly what it sounds like. I don’t want to take it up”, I replied, projecting full confidence on the outside but tightly clenched by fear inside. “So, you don’t want to be a cheese sculptor?”, she asked in a tone that she used when I was kid. It was more of a warning than a question because the inference from the discussion was obvious and the fact did not need to be re-stated in different words. “That is correct”, I answered, trying not to give...

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“Brave and Free” by Art U

Submitted to Contest #69

His anxiety kicked in as Joe walked into the newly floored study his father maintained so immaculately. The walls were adorned with prizes won, symbols of power and freedom. His father had collected these over the years. And his father before him. And his before him. The grand mansion was a hundred years old. It had been in the family for three generations. He was to inherit it, move into the master suite next spring as his father retired. That too had been their family tradition. It was his father’s last year carving the turkey. Old man Joe...

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“Ring of Tradition” by Violet Waters

Submitted to Contest #69

All my life, I had been performing. For as long as I could remember, balancing on a high, thin wire that dipped with my weight. Gawking, they watched me, grown men and women and tiny children clutching each other, fearing for my safety- But I wasn’t afraid.  Grace came naturally to me, in the same way physics fluxed as my mother and her siblings tossed through the air, the way my baby sister twirled long ribbons around small animals. The Circe De Tradicion never changed. Every single performance was indistinguishable, so no matter how...

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“One Father, One Son” by Masha Kamenetskaya

Submitted to Contest #69

One Father, One Son It was late spring in the city – one of those days, when both sunshine and light rain are received with joy and, let’s say, with hope. It was an early afternoon – lunchtime in downtown: hugs and handshakes, half-buttoned shirts, a sip of lemonade from the decanter. Chair legs squeaking, silverware clattering, the humming of talk. Lunch specials on the table, pages rustling – people devouring pastas, meats, and soups so intently, as if the meal were altogether a detective novel. Lunchtime was booked for the dates that w...

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“Papillon” by Mou Sukoshi

Submitted to Contest #69

“Marie-Eve, is it true? What I heard.” Marie-Eve sincerely hoped it was not true, and also that her sister has not got a whiff of the news yet. But something told her that unbridled optimism was not the word she could employ in describing her current family situation. She forced a wry smile and meekly said, “We are trying to make him see reason.” Her sister Stephanie said, “Of course! Of course! Once in a while a fling is fine. But giving up the long-standing traditions of the family is no joke.” Marie-Eve looked on with a deadpan expression...

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“There But For Fortune” by Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #69

There But for Fortune “Can I have your attention please.” His words barely audible over the clinking of glasses and the slurping, which although considered by many to be beyond the breach of social etiquette, was, and had been a tradition in the Biltmore family for more than two hundred years.  As far as Sam Biltmore was concerned, “Etiquette be Damned!” He had not planned on informing the family until after this festive holiday season, but Aunt Mary was feeling poorly, not expected to be around for his next holiday extravaganza, host...

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