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Center your story around a crazy coincidence.

Posted in Dramatic on Apr 18, 2025

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✍️ 36 stories

A Story about... Love licenses, Child Rearing and getting Paid

Submitted to Contest #299

Every two years in California you have to renew your marriage license or the police can come into your bedroom and take the kids out of the stomach. It’s really weird and I’m greatful it hasn’t happened yet. But this year I got a notice, DOG Certification Required, in addition to paying the normal marriage license fees and getting a red sticker to put on my wife. She forced me to get my marriage registration tattooed on my left finger while I was drinking. I just pay for the tattoo number removal and then get the new one zipped on every year...

20 likes 21 comments 21
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Whodathunkit

Submitted to Contest #299

It’s not easy making friends when you move from state to state, school to school so many times it makes your head spin. That was my life until we moved to Philly halfway through second grade. By this time I’d grown into a rebellious, stubborn little brat. Things changed a bit when my folks decided to enroll my brother and me in St. Matthias Catholic school for the upcoming school year. We weren’t necessarily a religious family, and I certainly came off as the devil’s incarnate when it came to forcing my young self into changes in which I had...

19 likes 24 comments 24
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Tuesday’s Special

Submitted to Contest #299

The coffee cup hit the floor first. Then Mia followed—though not in the conventional sense."This coffee is COLD," Mr. Harrigan had growled, his jowls quivering beneath his expensive tie. Every Tuesday, 8:17 AM, same booth, same complaint. The businessman's daily ritual of torment was as reliable as the diner's flickering neon sign."I'll get you a fresh cup, sir," Mia had replied, the words so rehearsed they'd lost all meaning, like when you repeat a word until it becomes gibberish. She'd been saying them for six years at The Last Stop Diner....

19 likes 15 comments 15
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Getaway

Submitted to Contest #299

"Stay down, everyone. Face on the floor, hands on the back of your head. That’s it. You're doing good. Be smart, and nobody dies today."Sal makes a fist, pumps it up and down rapidly, military tactical hand signal: Time to go. Hurry up.Rhett — carrying two large, black, ballistic-nylon duffle bags stuffed full of cash, 25 kilos in each bag, half a million dollars — takes point, breaching, pushing the front door open, holding it as Sal slings the automatic rifle over his shoulder, grabs the other two duffle bags, a cool million between the fo...

15 likes 5 comments 5
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Burnt Toast

Submitted to Contest #299

Have you heard the burnt toast theory?It’s a simple idea, really. If you burn your toast in the morning, it’s annoying. It delays you. You have to decide whether to try again or just suck it up and eat around the blackened bits. But in the grand cosmic dance of time and cause and effect, that minor delay might be the very thing that saves you later. Maybe that delay means you miss the red light where someone else gets T-boned. Maybe being late to work puts you in the right place at the right time — free coffee, a kind word, a job opportunity...

13 likes 3 comments 3
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The House of Van Severen or 'Room Service Please'

Submitted to Contest #299

The House of Van Severen or 'Room Service Please.'What is 'the house of Van Severen'? Let me explain. Decades ago, an internationally known Dutch/Belgian man named Van Severen became a famous architect and furniture designer. One of his sons, Haans, carries the legacy by designing and selling homewares throughout Europe and the United States. Now, you might be wondering why I'm talking about this. The phrase 'the house of Van Severen' has a special meaning in my family. It's not about the famous architect, but about a series of events that r...

13 likes 19 comments 19
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Anna and Anakin

Submitted to Contest #299

Anakin paced back and forth along the wide veranda with his thumbs hooked in his suspenders. The early evening air smelled sweet from the magnolia blooms dropping from the trees. A peach pie cooling on a nearby window sill promised sweet desserts. The sun hung lazily close to the western horizon painting the humid sky purple and pink. But all this escaped his mind.He swept his straw hat off his head and ruffled his dark hair to disperse the band around his bowl cut. Tucking his hat under his arm, he dug in a pocket producing the little black...

12 likes 9 comments 9
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The Ninth Step.

Submitted to Contest #299

You never know, your next step might be the one that changes everything. John Anderson stood outside the nondescript office building, hands jammed in his coat pockets, rehearsing lines he wouldn't say. It was a gray Thursday afternoon, and the sky hung heavy with a threat of rain. He counted the bricks above the doorway. Anything to delay going in. Out of 10, He had made it so far to Step Nine. It reads: "Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others." He'd breezed through the first few...

10 likes 5 comments 5
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Channelling Lizzie Bennet (and Bridget Jones)

Submitted to Contest #299

The accident was definitely not Lucy’s fault. For one thing, the bad-tempered man in front of her hadn’t been looking where he was going; and for another, it was his coffee and not hers that she was now wearing on the front of the pristine white blouse she had selected for the early morning staff meeting.“Can’t you look where you’re going?” Mr Grumpy obviously thought it was her fault, not his. No apology. No “I’m sorry - can I pay for you to have that dry cleaned?”“It was your fault!” she replied spiritedly.“I hardly think so. I was just le...

10 likes 0 comments 0
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Subject: M36

Submitted to Contest #299

5/5/2025, 2:20am36.010357, -84.269646Subject: Male, mid 30sObservation room 1:The human subject needs no sedation. He was found on the side of the road after crashing his motorcycle while intoxicated.Visible tattoos include a camel on his toe, a cross on his shoulder, and IGY6 on his wrist.Once awakening, the subject's first question is about our species’ genitalia.The subject realized there were no restraints, and promptly grabbed a bag from his clothing with sand in it.He offered to share.I don’t consume sand, thus declined.Needing a scan ...

9 likes 0 comments 0
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Two Big Things

Submitted to Contest #299

I drank a vanilla milkshake at the Dairy Queen, walked down the sidewalk to the liquor store and bought a fifth of Cutty Sark scotch, went back to my motel room, stripped off my clothes, and lay naked on the bed. I hadn’t had a drop of alcohol the whole way out here and I needed a shot or two now to fall asleep. For the past three days, all I wanted was to see the world whoosh by me from the cab of my pickup and let the steady growl of the motor calm my mind like a purring cat.I watched the tree-filled Appalachians of Georgia give way to the...

9 likes 1 comment 1
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The tea told me to

Submitted to Contest #299

“I need it to be red,” Clara’s least favourite client booms from the speakers.“I understand,” Clara starts to answer, “but I don’t think it will do your brand any justice. Maybe instead we could—”“What Clara means to say,” her boss interrupts, “is we’ll take care of it.”“I certainly hope so,” and then the call cuts off. Clara lets out a loud groan. Her developer job has lost all its fun these past few months; she needs a break. Clara gets up and walks to the kitchen to treat herself to a cup of tea. The hot, steamy air coming from the cup al...

9 likes 4 comments 4
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Dog In The Fight

Submitted to Contest #299

From a bird’s eye view, in the bare steel rafters of the C terminal at the O’Hare Chicago International Airport, which really does have the occasional bird, Michael Kelly stood out from the huddled masses. A small dot, pacing back and forth. He was a seasoned flier. Typically, he would be in first class, but as it happens he was called last minute to a corporate emergency that saw him relegated to Economy Plus. 14A. To make matters worse, he was hashing out the final detail of a prolonged divorce as veterans and families with small children ...

8 likes 4 comments 4
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The Cat's Curse.

Submitted to Contest #299

Sharon was late for work, again. Rushing around the house she had managed to pull together an outfit, her handbag, and the folder she needed for the morning’s presentation. There wasn’t time for a shower but with a spritz of perfume and a brush of her hair, she was as presentable as she was going to get. Slipping on her shoes and grabbing her keys, Sharon turned around in the hallway to say sorry to the crying ginger tom behind her. “Red, I’m sorry, you’ll just have to snack on crunchies until I get back”. The cat sat, looked at her, and the...

8 likes 14 comments 14
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The Toothless Fairy

Submitted to Contest #299

Molly’s alarm went off, as it did every day at 8 a.m., sending a jolt through her system and making every living cell rebel against the idea of getting out of bed. “Oh no, this is going to be a tough day,” she thought. “Why must people work until they’re 67, while the average European lifespan is 73? This is pure injustice.”With this philosophical reflection on the human condition, she slowly placed one foot on the floor, then the other, and finally slid her torso down, landing on her knees. Her head, unfortunately, remained on the bed and r...

8 likes 5 comments 5
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