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Write a story with a character making excuses.

Posted in Dramatic on Apr 18, 2025

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✍️ 64 stories

Brote und Wurst

Submitted to Contest #299

“Hello, am I speaking with Joseph Brummer?”The haughty woman’s voice, spoke with a high-class English accent, only a well-educated foreigner could articulate. Joe came from a working-class background, and the accent alone sent him back years to an unconfident boy. Aware of the limits of his basic upbringing, completely inexperienced and unfamiliar with the background of how this woman could pronounce his language (not hers) with such elocution and perfect pronunciation. Joe embarrassingly thought, he was still blighted, sometimes dumbfounded...

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Birds of a Feather

Submitted to Contest #299

Two long time neighbors met over the backyard fence. “So how's things down at the mill?”“Oh, you know how we millers are. We keep grinding them down and spitting them out. What about at the winery? Any good news there?”“Heard some good ones through the grapevine just yesterday.”“I can't wait to hear but I'll let you tell all of us at once when we get together over at the park. We plan on meeting between the telephone poles. We'll have a bird's eye view of the lay of the land and won't get our wires crossed.”“Sure, everyone can listen closely...

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Are you ready?

Submitted to Contest #299

Hey, honey, I’m home!I know it’s late, and you are probably wondering what happened.Let me explain.We had to have a meeting today about the number of workers who would be let go by the end of the month. Now, you know that my ass was on the line as it is, so I did not want them to think that I was getting soft on company policy. I had to go out there and actually meet with the crew and tell them that despite all of their hard work, the company would be downsizing and then, wouldn’t you know it, they got pretty angry with me and told me to get...

19 likes 17 comments 17
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My Mother Will Not Be Returning to Jupiter Anytime Soon

Submitted to Contest #299

When she was initially detained, we thought it would be a quick fix. My mother never has her proper papers on her. Not ever. Because she’s an engineer, she was one of the first contractors allowed to set foot on Saturn, and they spent seventeen weeks preparing her. According to her, most of that preparation involved having the correct papers on you when you reached the midway station. It was something like eight or nine pieces of paper that you had to have on you. My mother brought two and forgot the rest. She’s so effervescent that somehow ...

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Let Me Explain

Submitted to Contest #299

I swear it wasn’t my fault.Okay, yes, I was standing in the middle of the Queen’s botanical garden at three in the morning, covered head to toe in goose feathers, holding what appeared to be the missing ceremonial orb of Saint Winifred, and yelling something about the moon being a hologram. But if you just give me one minute—just one—I can explain everything.It all started with a pigeon. A very suspicious pigeon.I was walking home from work. Mind you, this was a normal Tuesday. No prophecies, no strange lights in the sky. Just me, a sad litt...

15 likes 3 comments 3
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Requiem for Birthday Dreams

Submitted to Contest #299

Today is my birthday. I am 44 years old. I am 64 inches tall, and I weigh 186 pounds. I am average height for a woman, and I am very overweight. And I don’t care. I decided I would take a page out of Zelda Fitzgerald’s book and turn my life around starting today. The choice is between these two new things: becoming a ballerina or a ninja. I have outfits for both and have trained for neither.Today I took the day off work from my retail job where I help small children stuff teddy bears with fluff and throw in a red plastic heart. Every now and...

14 likes 9 comments 9
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Investment Bankers Never Say Sorry

Submitted to Contest #299

Look, in the Hong Kong trading jungle, the investment banks, the traders, the dealers, nobody ever fails—at least, not out loud. Not Banker Benny “Big Beef” Lee. Here, if you make a bad call, you'd better have a story ready. If you so much as mention the word “mistake,” you might as well turn in your market badge, your karaoke mic, and your hopes of ever eating dim sum with the high rollers again.A baking-hot Friday in Central. Skyscrapers gleamed, tempers simmered, and Benny was about to make investment history—just not the good kind. Lions...

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Wrong Girl, Wrong Cat, Wrong Time

Submitted to Contest #299

Man, I hate mimes. Don’t you? Now, I’m not talking about a basic hatred of mimes. They are responsible for the worst day of my life. Or at least the night, which normally isn’t part of the day, but it is, so that's that. Its my story, and I’ll tell it how I want to. So, my name is Charlotte Bengley. I am an accountant, and a dog person. I mean, I don’t hate cats, especially after this one day/night, but I didn’t have one before this. My Puddles is my best friend, and he loves his momma. I used to be able to take him to work, and he kept quie...

13 likes 14 comments 14
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Bend It Like Grandma

Submitted to Contest #299

Mild, comic reference to sex. It all began with a suspicious little limp in my right leg — the kind that whispers, ‘Hello, ageing’. In 2016, newly retired and full of misplaced confidence, I landed in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand — a new country, a new city, a new culture, and a new currency that, thanks to my hopeless numeracy, made every purchase feel like spinning a roulette wheel. Exploring new surroundings on foot has never seemed a problem. Initially, I walked everywhere, rarely bothering to learn any of the foreign names of the roads...

12 likes 12 comments 12
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R.R. and Blaine.

Submitted to Contest #299

"Made it, safe on first!" Blaine had arrived home to his share house in the taxi he had hastily summoned. He glanced at his reflection in the mirror on his dresser. He was still flushed, bit bleary-eyed, plump, unassuming. His co-students in his final year of college had invited him to a party house to celebrate the end of first semester. The music had been throbbing, the wine and beers were flowing freely. Blaine had not eaten any dinner before he went, ran short of time again. Was that really an excuse? As his student pals had kept filling...

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Uncle B

Submitted to Contest #299

Dear Uncle B,I’ve been meaning to write to you for a couple of weeks now, but every time I sit down and begin this letter, things… get in the way. It’s been hard. And for good reasons, I might add.For example, yesterday I was walking to my car, had my headphones in and everything, and I could see an old homeless woman approaching me. She was wrapped in a tattered black shawl, her hair ran ragged, and her face looked like a pinched pastry. She was on the path directly in front of me and I had no choice but to walk right past her to get to my ...

12 likes 3 comments 3
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Spring Break in Nebraska

Submitted to Contest #299

From: Levi Jones <420itstimetoroll@gmail.com>Sent: Friday, February 7, 2025 7:44:39 AMTo: Professor Reyes< sreyes@smallvillecommunitycollege.edu>Subject: Agree to Disagree about Dwight (Sociology 100, section 54072)Dear Professor Reyes,First of all, your last lecture on meme culture totally resonated with me. I think memes are an awesomely underrated way of expressing emotions, especially for people like me who don’t really understand their emotions and definitely don’t like to use a lot of words.Speaking of memes--what if I subm...

11 likes 4 comments 4
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The Spy’s Excuse - A Tale of Deception and Discovery

Submitted to Contest #299

In the quaint Suffolk town of Stowmarket, nestled between Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds, lived a man named Dmitri Volkov. To his neighbours, friends, and most importantly, his family, Dmitri was a loving husband, a devoted father, and a dedicated employee at the local library. Little did they know, he hid a secret so profound it could shatter their idyllic lives.Despite his ordinary life, Dmitri harboured a shadowy past that he had kept hidden from everyone he loved. He often looked over his shoulder, haunted by the choices he made long ago. Y...

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~ Dead Things, Part 1 ~

Submitted to Contest #299

~ DEAD THINGS ~ ~ Part One ~“How lucky can a girl get?” Doreen Svoboda asked herself out loud. She continued on, driving her corvette over crunching gravel and through the open gates of Witch Hazel Acres. What was once a working dairy farm was now her sprawling estate. Cattle still roamed the outer grounds as she leased most of her land to the Blue-Eyed Mary Cattle Ranch next door. Next door in this context meaning six miles down the road. The 110 year old, 2 story farm house was completely renovated and updated with not only modern convenie...

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Cold Plunge Standoff

Submitted to Contest #299

"Hey babe! Hosting a little gathering Saturday—super chill, just 30ish folks and some mindful snacks!"I stare at Angela's text like it just sneezed on my phone. Thirty people isn't a gathering. It's a viral event with guacamole.I never fully re-entered the atmosphere after it. The Pause. The Great Global Timeout. That glorious, terrible stretch when pants were optional, solitude was patriotic, and nobody expected you to show up—especially not in person.Some people bounced back like overcorrected economies. They went to brunch. Hugged strange...

10 likes 6 comments 6
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