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Start your story with one character pointing out the first sign of spring to another.

Posted in Spring on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 106 stories

The Garden

Submitted to Contest #86

Springtime in the garden always began when the pink azaleas started to bud. Dad would find them while checking the garden fence for rabbit tunnels and come inside with an armful of the tiny blossoms, ready to trim and slip into a Mason jar. The first year it happened, he came inside, his face flushed with excitement, a single pink bud the size of a fingernail pinned between his dirt-crusted fingers. Look, the azaleas are flowering, he told the both of us. Springtime. In the summers, but mostly in the spring, in the heat of the day when ...

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Burn the Night

Submitted to Contest #86

“Aha, there’s a robin. I’ve won. It’s officially the start of spring.” Asmodeus crowed, pointing out the red-chested bird hopping on a branch of the tree over us. I harrumphed, crossing my arms, and sat back from my careful robin-sighting. “So?” I asked, subtly craning my neck to see the bird hopping onto the park bench next to us. The comfort of the black bench, warm from the slow steading sun, was a place to absorb the beauty of the park. The beauty of a joyful community at play. He poked me, and I squirmed away. “I won the ...

67 likes 21 comments 21
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Cherry Blossoms

Submitted to Contest #86

If you think I don't see you, you must be crazy. You're mingling in with the cherry blossoms like light through a window, refracting. You're the first sign of spring. It's like I know you. Every day, I glance out the window at 1:30 and see you there, running into the horizon. Is it part of a class? Or something else? "Pay attention, Kalmin," Mr. Gentry slaps a ruler across my desk with a despicable screech. I stare as it bounces back and forth. Right, left... right- "You don't come to my class to sleep!" He turns back to his desk, where an a...

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Spring Fling

Submitted to Contest #86

“You see, when the clovers start to pop up in our fields, that’s how we know the tulips should be sprouting soon...”She continued to explain the natural signs of the upcoming season, but my mind was elsewhere. I found my gaze fixed on the way her lips moved as she shared copious amounts of gardening knowledge, surely too much for one person to hold. Even from the back of the crowd, I could see specks of gold reflecting the late-March sunlight in her eyes. Heavy clouds hung above us, yet a perfect sliver of light squeezed through onto the dam...

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The Magic of Spring

Submitted to Contest #86

"Look, Mum. The birds are back, and the flowers are peeking just above the snow. It's spring. Everything comes alive during spring." Her wrinkled hand was cold in mine, her eyelids firmly shut, the blue veins protruding cruelly from her paper pale skin. Her chest didn't rise and fall anymore- she was silent, still, her lips blue. The only indication she was alive was the beep of the machine, piercing the cool air with cruel insistence.  "We can't keep her here forever," my wife had said. "I'm sorry, darling, but forever is an awfull...

46 likes 9 comments 9
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Unfurl

Submitted to Contest #86

“Snow’s melting.”She looks up from the cobblestone path. “Sorry?”He clears his throat. “Snow’s melting.”“Oh. Right.”Somehow, he persists. “I guess that means spring’s coming."“Yeah,” is the only thing she can say, because it’s not a surprise to her. She has a calendar hanging in her college dorm, all colors and bookmarks and bright highlights leaping off the pages. It’s covered in space photography. She’s always wanted to cup the galaxy in her hands.He chews his lip for a moment. “Do you-” he starts, and then he trails off. She basks in the ...

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The Magnolia Tree

Submitted to Contest #86

Trigger warning: emotional abuse, gaslighting “First sign of spring, that is.” I looked up from checking the time on my phone to see whether I’d make the bus. “I’m sorry?” I asked Leigh Street’s answer to Chris Packham, swallowing my annoyance while I watched the bus going by over the tops of the neighbours’ fences. “There, look.” I followed the direction of my neighbour’s hand. Indeed, the skeletal magnolia tree was now dotted with little oval buds, glistening with dew. “Lovely,” declared Mr Critchley, as though he’d planted th...

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Life through Maizie's Eyes

Submitted to Contest #86

The silver minivan swung to the left, each tire bumping in quick succession over a gentle curb onto the driveway.“Home!” Maizie cheered from the backseat, clapping her hands in delight.Jenn glanced at her in the rearview mirror as she pulled up to the white picket fence that edged the parking pad and enclosed their backyard. She smiled at her wiggling daughter, who glowed in the clear spring light that beamed through the window.“I have something special to show you when we get out,” she offered as a tease.Maizie gasped softly. “What is it, M...

27 likes 17 comments 17
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Painted Ladies

Submitted to Contest #86

"Oh gosh!" I groaned as the tour bus roared into my neighborhood. Spring. It was here but it brought the tourists with it. Every year, this was how I knew spring was here. The beautiful yellow flowers were blooming along the walls of the houses and hummingbirds were flying and sucking the nectar out of the red flowers from the bush. The trees were blooming with green leaves. I live in the pale yellow house in San Francisco. This city, more precisely, my neighborhood, gets no privacy. When I mean that, I mean zero privacy. I know that my ne...

25 likes 7 comments 7
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Seasons

Submitted to Contest #86

Summer slammed the refrigerator door shut with her foot and rushed into the living room. “Okay, this’s the plan, boys.” “I’m right here,” Winter muttered neglectedly. Either Summer didn’t hear her, or she was just choosing to ignore the comment; but she continued, “We have two frozen waffles, an inordinate amount of condiments, three quarts of milk, for some reason, and something green and fuzzy on the bottom of the freezer that looks like ancient spinach.” “Wonder who that was from,” Winter said. “Spring! For the love! Take c...

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To be Persephone

Submitted to Contest #86

"You will know it is spring when you are blooming again, my dear." She hears her mother’s voice whisper in the winds. That is how she knows she is dreaming again.  In her dream, she is imprisoned under the earth in a palace made of bones and gems. "The gates are always open for you," the King of the dead had said as he showed her to her rooms. She was not too naive to understand that her rooms and this home were a gilded cage.  She is in the Underworld, all heat and smoke. Endless miles of black rock extend as far as she can s...

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Ode to Ted

Submitted to Contest #86

This one’s a little bit different, more a good memory I want to share with you all and hopefully will cheer some people up. Enjoy! Edit: Realised too late the prompt said start the story with the pointing out of spring, rather than end. The sound of the phone calling reverberated through my car speakers as I cursed myself yet again for having the music too loud. Two beeps and it hangs up, opening the gate that bars my entry to the works yard. I do a lot of cursing in the morning, for multiple reasons. Always waking up just in the nick o...

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She Wished She Could Tell Her

Submitted to Contest #86

“Look! See?”  My older sister’s delicate fingers point to the ground. “I don’t see anything.” She points at the snow. I look closer. “I still don’t see it.” I say, crossing my arms.  “Look! Don’t you see? The little sprout of green breaking the snow?” Finally, I see it. There, a small blade of grass, lodged between the bright white snow.  “This?” It’s a bit, well, underwhelming. How could a tiny sprig of grass be the start of spring?  “Yes,” she says confidently. I can tell I have a bewildered look on my face,...

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Some Days .......

Submitted to Contest #86

Snow melting at last, the harsh bitter cold and storms finally gone and over, the morning air crisp but the afternoon sun warm and inviting. It was March end in the Colorado mountains, snow capped mountains still breathing - always snow in the high hills here. But now, signs of life and change in weather made the promise of a beautiful summer ahead. Leon Black and his wife, Joanne, lived in the tiny village, had a small cottage home with some nice acreage around them, she loved her garden and he loved to do his word working outside with the ...

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The Pet

Submitted to Contest #86

"Look, Brian, out your window! Bumblebees!” Kelsey pointed. “The first sign of spring!”“So?” I replied, not looking up.“So? Spring is coming, wonderful weather.”“I’m sorry to be a grouch, but I’m kind of busy here.”“You Can read later.” She pulled my book out of my hands.“hey! Give that back!”“No. Let’s ride our bikes.”“I don’t wanna!” I whined.“Come on, let’s go!” She tugged my arm, and I grumbled and stood up. “You’ll thank me for getting you out of your mancave!”I grumbled and drew the curtains of my huge picture window, and it became dar...

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