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Write a story with the line “I don’t understand.”

Posted in Short Story on May 9, 2025

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✍️ 91 stories

Deep Diver of Arctic Seas - Voyages of the Destiny's Dreams

Submitted to Contest #302

Deep Diver, the 4,000 elephant seal, swam through the twilight zone of the sea near the Arctic, where sunlight disappears in the water's depths.The Ice Age melt raised the seas where Deep Diver swam.He had a magnificent nose like the beginning of an elephant's trunk.It flopped up and down when he tossed his head. Deep Diver liked to inflate it with air to make it even larger. Then he could look more threatening when he faced rivals in battles on beaches.He and his kind were sensitive to patterns, currents, and flows in the ocean system.Each...

37 likes 12 comments 12
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I don’t understand

Submitted to Contest #302

It happened a month ago and it was an accident.It started off with my mum saying why didn’t I give being a volunteer at a charity shop a go as I might enjoy it. I’d been working part-time in a restaurant kitchen. It was ok at first but then they kept changing my shifts and everyone was running round all stressed.I don’t like stress!Anyway, the first charity shop I went into seemed ok. There was a big model of a dog outside with a slot to drop coins into to help raise money for dogs in trouble. I was surprised to see it as people don’t carry ...

31 likes 20 comments 20
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She Danced with Death

Submitted to Contest #302

I met him the day my brother died.The nurses said the bleeding had stopped, but the monitors betrayed them—one slow, dragging beep followed by a flatline. My mother collapsed. My father screamed at a god he stopped believing in years ago. I stood perfectly still, like if I moved, the world would crack beneath my feet.And then I saw him.He stood in the corner of the hospital room—tall, thin, wrapped in something darker than black. Not a cloak, not a robe, but a presence. I should have screamed. I should have run. But his face wasn't a skull, ...

26 likes 6 comments 6
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The Wreck of the Sæbjörn

Submitted to Contest #302

Pulling up to the house, the first thing I noticed was the pirate on the front lawn. If I told you I remembered the name of the boy in my car, I’d be lying. Was he a man? He was. I say “boy” because I felt bad for him, and when I’m filled with pity, men become boys. I asked about the pirate. He told me not to worry, because the pirate was from Iceland and Icelandic pirates are known to be docile in the winter months. They have to be. They’re freezing to death. I asked the name of the house, but it was unpronounceable. The boy took a piece of...

22 likes 18 comments 18
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If the End of the World Could Talk

Shortlisted for Contest #302 ⭐️

My name is Sage Duperior, and I once lived at the End of the World. At least, that’s what they call Venice, Louisiana, the last pit-stop before entering into an abyss that is the Gulf of Mexico. It’s the closest thing you’ll get to being on another planet while still floating around on this one. The town is basically surrounded on both sides by water. On the map, the state of Louisiana seems to shrivel out and branch into a frail leaf or two – that’s where Venice is. Somewhere on that leaf. There are stretches of land after it, but it’s all ...

21 likes 16 comments 16
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Mr. Bentley

Submitted to Contest #302

“I don’t understand, I just don’t get it.” His voice is quivering and shaky while his face is flushing with emotion. “Why are you doing this?” I sit there snickering behind the trumpet raised to my lips. The band class around me still making a most discordant noise. He is losing control quicker than usual today. It’s only 15 minutes in to the hour long class and he is almost at total breakdown already. He’s already started to run his hands through his combed and jelled dark hair so it is already quite disheveled. He’s tapping his baton ...

21 likes 2 comments 2
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People of the Night

Submitted to Contest #302

The year is 1973. I have just begun working at a grocery supply warehouse in Worcester, Massachusetts. I work in the dispatcher’s office, helping to set up delivery trips for the following day. The dispatcher’s name is Sy, a quick-witted fellow who is easy to like. I know the warehouse manager because my friend is dating his daughter. (That’s how I landed the job.) It is a relatively relaxed and fun workplace between Armard, the manager, and the other department bosses. The job’s most frustrating feature is that the computer we rely o...

19 likes 4 comments 4
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The Boy Who Heard Orchards Breathe

Submitted to Contest #302

There was an orchard on the edge of Briar Thornmere, so beauteous and so profuse that even strangers, drawn by rumor alone, stood in dumbfounded awe at its threshold. There was no threshold, the Boy Who Heard the Orchards Breathe reminded them, but they were too blind in its beauty to notice. They went as far as to say that the trees surrounding the Orchard bowed under the weight of fruit too sweet to belong to this world; its soil smelled of life so vigorous it seemed to press against the soles of the feet. And yet, the Boy Who Heard the Or...

18 likes 11 comments 11
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Happy Mothers' Day

Submitted to Contest #302

The phone rang and an excited eight year old voice announced that his team had won at soccer.‘I scored a goal!’ he said, and I could feel his smile glowing with pride. How many goals did your team score? Three. Who won the other two goals? Nathan and Jake. He bubbled along, full of success and happiness. ‘You should have seen me Gran, I was up near the goal and I just tapped it in. The goalkeeper completely missed it!’It was his second ever game, as part of the first soccer team he had played for. Until now he had only played practice games ...

15 likes 2 comments 2
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Working Girl

Submitted to Contest #302

Working GirlThe newly arrived settlers had been making sacrifices to accommodate requests made by the Southern Kansas Stage Line. They were considering accepting the offer of opening a rest station for the company and had generously served some of the passing stagecoaches even though they had no accommodations built yet on the land they recently claimed. Only the wagons the pioneers arrived in provided food and lodging so far. Mr. Pike, the company's agent visiting the homestead, thought maybe he should stay until the next stage came on the ...

14 likes 14 comments 14
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The Gnome

Submitted to Contest #302

What do you do when you want to get away from it all? Take a cruise! Yes, you take a cruise to get away from all the stress and nonsense of your daily life, like that neighbour who hates what you have added to your own home (the one that is fully paid for and owned by you). You are proud of the aluminum siding, the flamingos (only three), and the decorations that are seasonal and tasteful. But most of all, you are proud of Norman; your Norm. It is your tasteful and special garden gnome…whom you could not stand to leave behind. * What do you ...

14 likes 4 comments 4
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What's In A Name

Submitted to Contest #302

** Kye’s POV between “Brown Eyes” and “Charmed” ** “Kye?”A strange sound wakes me. It sounds like a voice but I do not understand what it says.“Kye.”Cold. Cold, I am so cold. My body shivers.Something soft and warm touches my face. It smells like peaches and like something more like a forest.“Kye.”There is that strange sound again. It is close, right above me.“Open your eyes, Kye. Let me see your eyes.”I obey.A girl sits next to me. She has long curly hair and big eyes. She is frowning. Why is she frowning? I did what she asked. Did I do it ...

13 likes 4 comments 4
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Nichibotsu

Submitted to Contest #302

Mal knew that if the projectors failed then the perimeter would be breached as soon as the last sun went down. That didn’t stop him wanting to kick the post that he was trying to fix. He wanted to kick the post until the small steel box that it held in place fell to the ground, where he’d stomp its lenses to smithereens under the steel cleats of his mud-caked boots. There was no sane reason for it, if the perimeter went down it was game over, he knew that. But he could feel his sanity being leached away into the turgid, gripping clay that ma...

13 likes 2 comments 2
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Mathematical Showdown

Submitted to Contest #302

CECIL HIGGINS counted heartbeats like other men counted coins. Precise. Methodical. The drunk swaying twenty-six feet away had an elevated pulse—112 beats per minute, visible in the filthy neck above his crooked collar. Cecil’s pencil scratched another data point in notebook nine. Three years of obsessive documentation had worn the leather cover smooth. Coffee, whiskey, and other men’s blood stained the pages inside.Subject exhibits classic alcoholic tremors. Right-hand deviation: 1.5 inches per second. Predictable. Equation applies.The man ...

13 likes 1 comment 1
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I don't understand

Submitted to Contest #302

The flickering gas lamp cast elongated, dancing shadows across the cluttered shelves of Professor Eldridge’s study. Dust motes, disturbed by my frantic pacing, swirled in the weak light, mimicking the chaos in my own mind. I gripped the worn leather armrests of the professor's chair, the only stable thing in a world that had suddenly tilted on its axis. I stared at the intricate, almost alien symbols etched into the obsidian amulet lying on the mahogany desk."I don't understand," I repeated, the words a hollow echo in the silent room.Profess...

13 likes 1 comment 1
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