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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story that includes a character using the phrase “swings and roundabouts.”

Posted in Thanksgiving on Nov 1, 2022

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✍️ 37 stories

“Late night beers ” by Maxwell Taylor

Submitted to Contest #155

CW for mentions of death and minor mentions of suicideAllan awoke with a start. His phone was vibrating rapidly on his bedside table. Not the phone he used for personal matters, but instead his simple burner phone. The one he used for work. The one that could be remotely wiped by the press of a button. The one where he received orders to do reconnaissance on those who are having people paid to kill them. He sat up and tried to put on his best ‘awake’ voice for the person on the other end of the line.“Wa-h-wha-who is it?” he said. “Hello...

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“Miloff” by Britannia Howard

Submitted to Contest #155

 I saw Miloff four times.  The first was on June 6th, the day Wendall came to stay with me at Velle Acres for one last summer. As the sun’s final rays landed on the foot of my porch, and the frogs croaked from the edge of the forest several yards away, he appeared in the corner of my eye: Miloff. The grass sparkled, the crickets sang, and the world blurred slightly. When I turned my head, he was gone, but the mild ringing in my ears remained. I smiled. “Make a wish, Lux,” grandma would say. “They’re fairies.”  Wendall and I us...

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“The Seasons” by Krysta Anderson

Submitted to Contest #155

Winter Prince~Black feathers flutter aroundIn a fury of darkness and cold windThey form into the Winter PrinceHand clenched on his sword that's strapped to his sideThe Winter Prince goes to see the King~People stay out of his wayFor rumor goes around even to this daySaying that the Winter PrinceAnd his sour mood has come again~But nobody knows who he truly isFor the Winter Prince in his wake, is never moodyWhen his Season comes aroundHe's at his brightest and most at easeThe Winter Prince strides past the peopleLike a rolling wave from the s...

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“Swings and Roundabouts” by Kiara Jones

Submitted to Contest #155

My name is Jodi. Jo-jo to my friends. I’m in middle school and my life hasn’t been so great this last year. My grandpa, who has early onset Alzheimer’s moved it three weeks ago and all I ever hear him say is “swings and roundabouts.” Whatever that means. My dad remarried eight months after my mom passed away to a woman who I’m sure is a very nice person, but I’ve been working on my own important personal issues to consider what kind of person she really is. I already have to deal with my douche older brother and thanks to her I now have two ...

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“GUTTER CONFUSION” by Debbie Curtin

Submitted to Contest #155

Just another day, so Randy thought, putting his last-minute notes together. Today they have a job scheduled at the farthest end of the city that just happened to be on one of the tallest buildings in the area. We got this he told Buddy, Linc, Parker and Gavon. It ain’t our first rodeo, right? Just our usual bunch of swings and roundabouts. GUTTER CONFUSION was our successful and highly reviewed business where we continued to take the worry out of the replacement factor for this vital necessity to one’s home or business. Now, we, had to ...

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“Whom You Leave Behind” by John Clark

Submitted to Contest #155

I plopped down at the bar. My favorite seat. The bartender noticed me and motioned that he’d be right over. I had beaten the rush and arrived before most of the other regular patrons. “What’ll it be? The usual?” asked the bartender. I nodded. “I just don’t know how you can drink that stuff! But, as the rules say, the customer is always right.” As he scurried away to get my drink, I turned around to survey the other customers. No one was dining yet, but the gaming tables pulsed with activity. Military personnel trickled in. A few ...

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“Second Chances ” by Kimberlie Luster

Submitted to Contest #155

Green eyes shining in the dappled sunlight, she waits patiently. Sitting frozen, she continues to watch the young girl reading under the large oak tree. Taking note that her blond hair is beautiful and catches the afternoon sunlight, causing it to appear like spun gold. Soon, she thinks, I too will have hair like this.  She has waited so long, and time is running out. She just needs to take the girl and be done with it, it should only take one bite and then it's done. It must be done, if she returns to the pack without her other half, s...

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“Stressed Friend” by Marie White

Submitted to Contest #155

           Jasen doubled over in his patio chair, clutching his abdomen, a bead of sweat glistening in the mid-afternoon sun and swelling in the furrow between his brows. His raspy groan hit her like the blare of an air horn at close range.            “Jasen, you okay?” she asked, breath leaving her.            “Jolly good. Just a…a smidge of pain…”      ...

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“The Reprisal” by Simon P

Submitted to Contest #155

“Donny! Pull it together; I got you! I got you, brother,” I said Kareem’s men surrounded us with blazing gunfire from both sides of the crypt. Last week we got intel that Kareem shook hands with SSA’s (Terrorist group) leader to aid them in delivering chemical weapons, which were later being used on our troops fighting Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region. Our mission was to execute Kareem and seize the delivery.  “We are trapped, Simon! We are not getting out of here alive!” Donny said. He was seriously wounded when the explosion happe...

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“Swing at The Roundabout Club” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #155

In the Mood was playing as I walked into the club that night. That tune isn’t exactly my favourite of Glenn Miller’s hits, but it did what it said on the tin and by the time I’d ordered my bourbon and had a taste of that amber nectar, my foot was tapping along to the music and I was looking around the room to see what I could see. Besides, Miller was on fire and about as popular as could be. Little did I know it at the time, but he’d have almost as many hits as The King and The Beatles combined, and in only a few years too. Now that’s b...

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“A Fed Secret” by Dre Nix

Submitted to Contest #155

B.G. Cosplain            No one ever knew what happened that night. We all have been friends since Kindergarten. This was the first time we were all together in a long time. Posie, Trouble, Chastity, Olivia, John, Lisa, Karen, Henry, and Cameron wouldn’t mention to each other what they knew. Their friend Peter had a car that ran out of gas before he could get to the gas station that night. Trouble and Posie got lost in playing the Xbox. No one noticed that Peter was late getting...

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“Swings and Roundabouts” by VJ Hamilton

Submitted to Contest #155

When I heard Aunt Maisie’s warble on the voice-mail I groaned. Although she and Uncle Leland are no-fuss visitors, the type who’d welcome a cheese sandwich at my kitchen table, I suspected they had an agenda behind their impromptu visit in late spring. They’re good friends with Genevieve’s family. I wanted an excuse for a knock-down belly-busting barbecue. I was in the mood to coax a T-bone steak to perfection on my shiny new thousand-dollar deluxe grill enthroned on the deck that I had lovingly refurbished most of the past year while Genevi...

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“Swing and Amiss ” by Amanda Reilly

Submitted to Contest #155

The ambulance was in rough shape. All four tires were blown and in pieces all over the roundabout. A giant rock was lodged in the undercarriage. It had come to a stop halfway on the roundabout, halfway off, and drivers were forced to swerve around it. Several cut too wide and drove on the sidewalk. But this was normal Philadelphia driving that would have occurred regardless of a sitting-duck ambulance. Still, the scene was funny in a Philly way, meaning it was one hundred percent avoidable but for the sick humor of God. A young woman steppe...

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“Fatum V.1” by Jazz Leung

Submitted to Contest #155

‘Shirr, shirr. Schlock, shirr, schlock.’ A longsword is what Life has chosen for tonight. Specifically, the Fatum V. 1, in its broad format. Estella’s birthday: February 12th, 1994, destiny number 1. As it drags along the empty pathway, the silver steel glints in the light. The blade is tilted just right, and it trails along behind me, balanced by the burdens it has killed off before. ‘Shirr, shirr. Schlock, shirr, schlock.’ My eyebrows raise, and the corners of my lips hold a downturned quality. The Fatum V.1 is not my favourite blade. It h...

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“Apologies ” by Karen Lethlean

Submitted to Contest #155

Apologies Lucas fell asleep late one night and left gas burning on the kitchen range. When he realized, hotplate grates glowed red hot, and surrounding room space smelt like dead fish. Could gas meself, he thought. Never happened if Freyda still lived here. She’d hide his drinking buddy, Jack Daniels away. As she’d done a lot lately. Plus chiding him to drink less. What had been her problem? He only hit her once. And apologized. After sighting those bruises which shadowed her face a few days later. Despite a bouquet of roses, he came...

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Contest #155

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This week's theme: Swings and Roundabouts

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Ended on 23:59 - Jul 22, 2022 EST

Won by Lonnie Russo 🏆

Title: Someone Has Died

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