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Deidra Whitt Lovegren

Author on Reedsy Prompts since May, 2020

Stories (42)
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3612 Followers
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42 Stories

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Dispatched

Shortlisted for Contest #235 ⭐️

“9-1-1. What is your emergency?” Casey moved to the edge of her chair, fully aware that all eyes in the Dispatch Center were on her. She struggled to focus on her first call, her mind ruminating on the “we-need-to-talk” text she sent Michael that morning. Her boyfriend had grown distant since starting classes at the community college. “9-1-1. What is your emergency?” she repeated more loudly.Click.Casey tapped her console, disconnecting the line before immediately calling the number back. She had been trained to expect numerous han...

129 likes 81 comments 81
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Butter & Cream

Shortlisted for Contest #198 ⭐️

I have fed the cat butter and cream before he dies. Dairy is terrible for a cat’s gastrointestinal tract, but then again, so is abnormal dilation of the colon. I’ll take the blame for the dairy. God can take the blame for the rest.For the hundredth time in a week, the cat valiantly tries to poop in his box and cannot. This puzzles him as he hasn’t been sick one day in his whole 15 years of life. What happens when things that have always worked suddenly don’t?The cat tries to defecate again, carefully scratching through the Fre...

104 likes 119 comments 119
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The Smoke of Her Burning

Shortlisted for Contest #189 ⭐️

Part I: It was so terribly cold.It had always been cold in Denmark, especially on New Year’s Eve.The wintry winds brought a desperate chill to those unsettled and impoverished. Wars continued to ravage the land. Treaties were torn up as soon as they were signed. Industrialization poisoned Scandinavian cities and its people. The young moved west for better opportunities in warmer climes, leaving the rich, the poor, and the poor’s children on the streets of Copenhagen. The rich fared no worse—no matter how many people left the country. Wh...

83 likes 67 comments 67
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Honestly

Shortlisted for Contest #172 ⭐️

“O Woman That I Used To Love, what should we get for dinner tonight?’’“Honestly, my Greatest Disappointment? I don’t care.”“You do care. You want me to suggest a place to eat so you can shoot it down. Whatever I say, you will wrinkle your little nose like I decided that we should eat out of the cat’s litter box.”“You could not be more wrong, but you usually are.” “Perhaps you could stop on the way home and pick up some takeout.”“I could, but I won’t. Our nightly conversation about dinner is the only authentic communication we will have ...

109 likes 99 comments 99
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Kaleidoscope

Shortlisted for Contest #171 ⭐️

You never asked for this much insight.But you can’t have both innocence and experience. Experience. A charming euphemism for pain and suffering. Either one will drive out innocence altogether. Isn’t that what you’re really after—a return to Eden? Minus the snake. Minus the apple. Minus Adam, for that matter. However, if you had stayed in an unspoiled world, you would have learned nothing. You would have felt nothing. You would have seen nothing. Better to have loved and lost—etcetera etcetera. Now let’s talk about your ba...

76 likes 55 comments 55
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Far Away and Fast

Shortlisted for Contest #168 ⭐️

There were too many of us, Lizzy thought, tucking herself behind a door jamb.Her father smoked in stony silence in front of a television, while her mother swatted her brothers who snatched fingerfuls of mashed potatoes from a large bowl on the dining room table. In various sizes, her brothers pushed and yelled, whining about being hungry, complaining about being late for football or wrestling practice, asking if there were any more chocolate doughnuts from the bakery.As usual, her mother was cross, but she never yelled. She would slam c...

77 likes 57 comments 57
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Like a Baseball Bat to the Face

Shortlisted for Contest #158 ⭐️

“I need your car.”“Carrie, it’s the middle of the night—”“Simms,” she says in a low voice, unnaturally calm. “Walk back to your bedroom, tell your wife to shut up, grab your keys, and bring them to me.”“C’mon, Carrie,” he whines. Simms is as petulant as a boy whose mother dotes on him—one of the reasons Carrie dumped him in high school.Thirty years later, he is just as weak.“Now, Simms. Hurry.”Simms turns, complying with her request, not because he loves her—but because he loves his wife far less. “Goodness, Simmy! Who is at the door th...

98 likes 108 comments 108
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Shuttered Hearts

Shortlisted for Contest #144 ⭐️

Weddings prove to be the perfect hunting grounds. My brother—with his ridiculous scythe—prefers them, harvesting the overly excited elderly in the midst of their joy. He finds those who’ve imbibed too much, attempting to drive home instead of into a telephone pole. On occasion, a jilted lover will show up, armed and reckless, doing most of his work for him. Fortunately, there are also tiny bones in fancy fish and overweight aunts who dance until their hearts give out. Hearts are normally my thing. Click. I smile, giving t...

86 likes 70 comments 70
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What You Can Do With Your Book

Winner of Contest #142 🏆

You present me with a gift bag as if legions of angels will descend, trumpeting your thoughtfulness in remembering my [insert celebratory event here]. I’m gracious, of course. You shouldn’t have!And I mean that. You shouldn’t have. Because now you are stepping over the line. We are simply:co-workers mothers with children at the same school neighbors with dogs old-friends-from-college, or spouses-of-old-friends-from-college. Regardless, we are not on gift-bagging terms. Especially the kind you immediate...

302 likes 274 comments 274
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Homewrecker

Shortlisted for Contest #138 ⭐️

“No, she isn’t my daughter,” he corrects a colleague. “She’s my wife.”On cue, I beam at my husband, innocent and doe-eyed—like I did in my 20’s when he was in his 40’s. His friend invariably elbows him, making comments about cradle robbing and spring chickens. We laugh. I say something clever in reply. His companion looks surprised. And she’s witty, too?My cheeks hurt in an attempt to hold a smile. They continue to talk like I’m not there, but my husband reaches out for my hand. Above all, we are the dearest of friends. But in publ...

125 likes 130 comments 130
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Hack

Shortlisted for Contest #136 ⭐️

Your cursor blinks. Your cursor blinks ceaselessly. You delete ceaselessly. Adverbs are not your friend. Adverbs are indicative of weak diction, but you cannot think of a better verb to express the action just the way you want. Certainly you can use an adverb occasionally. You delete occasionally.  You delete certainly.You can use an adverb on occasion. You close your laptop. Your writing session is not going well. None of the five prompts are particularly inspiring.You decide to take a break. Make a sandwi...

101 likes 106 comments 106
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The 10th Circle of Hell

Shortlisted for Contest #124 ⭐️

“Virgil?” “Yes, Dante.”  “Um, what’s going on here? I was told there were only nine circles of hell.” “There were only nine circles of hell in the 20th century. But for the 21st century? We needed to expand.” “You needed to . . . expand. Hell.”  “Yes. We’ve added a whole new circle. Well, truthfully, it’s more oblong than circular. It’s been that sort of millennium.”  “Virgil. In all seriousness, I’m not sure I can walk through another realm of the damned. It’s hella depressing.” “Well, you don’t have much of a choice do you? ...

76 likes 64 comments 64
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No Thank Hugh

Shortlisted for Contest #121 ⭐️

“Thanks a lot for coming in tonight—you are a wonderful crowd. Now get out of here!” Hugh’s trademark comedic snark teeters between sincerity and sarcasm. The audience does not know how to take his tone, so they laugh even harder, cheering and whistling at the close of his set. But Hugh is already off stage, walking through the venue's hectic kitchen and out into the dark alley before the waitresses drop checks on the comedy club’s sticky tables. The alley is empty and cold. Hugh puts his head against the rough brick of the bu...

65 likes 49 comments 49
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Lawn Darts

Submitted to Contest #103

Billy Putnam shot my dad in the butt with a BB gun. It was quite a feat, as nailing a middle aged man on a ladder cleaning out his rain gutters couldn’t have been easy all the way from the house next door—a house whose gutters were always full of old leaves and debris. My father’s screams of outrage brought my brother Sam and me tumbling right out of our backyard tent. The tent itself was a heavy canvas monstrosity, one held up with bent aluminum poles, yet perfect for us to play in. We’d been taking Polaroids, scrawling down dates and ...

81 likes 55 comments 55
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A Teacher's Dilemma

Submitted to Contest #102

“Should we get started?” the principal suggests in a cheery, singsong voice, tapping on the microphone. “People? Please take your seats. Excuse me, people?” Her smile is brittle as she grips the microphone a little too hard. She stands alone on the Cafetorium stage, a space that doubles as both a lunchroom and a theater—and permanently smells of soured milk.The throng of veteran teachers summarily ignores her, continuing to talk more loudly to one another, mainly about expected retirement dates. They help themselves to off brand cookies and ...

48 likes 19 comments 19
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