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Start or end your story with someone arriving somewhere for the first or last time.

Posted in Short Story on Apr 25, 2025

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✍️ 97 stories

The Final Journey of Thomas Hodgkin

Submitted to Contest #300

Jaffa, 1866Dr. Thomas Hodgkin was sixty-seven years old when he returned to the Holy Land.This was his second journey—and he knew, with quiet certainty, that it would likely be his last. The damp air of London had grown heavy on his lungs, and he no longer had the strength to pursue all the hopes that had once stirred his heart. Yet when Sir Moses Montefiore, his friend of more than forty years, invited him to accompany him on one final philanthropic mission to Palestine, Hodgkin did not hesitate.Sunlit waves glistened as the steamship ancho...

24 likes 8 comments 8
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These Streets Know My Name

Submitted to Contest #300

Theo didn’t want to go home.“Let’s get another drink,” he said to Mark, a co-worker and friend of almost twenty years.“I think if you have another drink, you might fall over,” Mark replied laughing.Theo shook his head, even though he knew that Mark was probably right.Theo stared over the railing of the rooftop bar and looked out across the skyline of skyscrapers, and city lights that sparkled, and cars driving to their destinations, and couples laughing and walking and talking and arguing on the streets below.He breathed deeply the smell of ...

23 likes 12 comments 12
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Flowers for Maribel

Submitted to Contest #300

Flowers for MaribelBy J.A. RoggieContent Warning: This story touches on themes of mental health (grief, aging, and emotional struggles) and substance abuse (mention of drug addiction). It also explores the loss of loved ones and the emotional toll of memory loss. Reader discretion is advised.Delph stood at the edge of the overgrown path, staring up at the wall of trees that loomed ahead like ancient sentinels. Their trunks were thick and gnarled, bark furrowed like old skin, each one soaked in the deep browns and soft greens of a forest that...

20 likes 9 comments 9
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The Haven

Submitted to Contest #300

This would be Clara's fifth visit to The Haven, and so it would be her last. No one ever returned for a sixth.A visit to The Haven was the one thing that they all had to look forward to as they stumbled through their workaday lives at The Commune, those who were over 35 years old anyway. It was a temporary respite from the dull and dreary confines of their daily existence; the constant struggle to work hard enough to stay ahead in the race against starvation and poverty and disease, the constant vigilance against all manner of physical threa...

20 likes 18 comments 18
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Merry Cruisemas

Submitted to Contest #300

Sarah had dreamed her entire life of taking a cruise. At age sixty, she could scarcely believe she was finally stepping onto the second largest cruise ship in the world, the Sea Witch, where she would be staying in a deluxe suite with her extended family – son, daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren. They had decided to forgo their traditional Christmas celebration and instead enjoy an ocean cruise, a “Merry Cruisemas”. Sarah thought that festive play on words and the idea behind it was ingenious. Instead of exchanging useless Christmas gif...

18 likes 11 comments 11
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First Confession

Submitted to Contest #300

Fuming, Sister Agatha slammed the desk with her hand. Everyone in the classroom sat up, bleary eyed, and stared. The subject, written on the blackboard, was ‘My First Confession.’ Sr. Agatha was well practiced at preparing first graders for this milestone. It was a big deal. She said, “Once again, thank you for your attention. Your first confession is tomorrow. If you’re not ready, I won’t be the one who suffers.” Her threat was not lost on anyone.One of the boys at the back of the classroom mumbled something and a wave of giggles spread thr...

18 likes 15 comments 15
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A Light Too Heavy to Carry

Submitted to Contest #300

When Liam yanked the truck door open, it groaned loud enough to make Anna flinch.She told herself it was just the cold morning air — not the way the sound hooked right between her ribs. Maybe it was the cold morning air.Maybe it was something else.The duffel hit the seat with a dull thump. Liam stood there a second too long, his hand on the door like he was holding onto more than just the frame.Ellie danced at his side, oblivious, still sticky-fingered from breakfast.She shoved a crayon drawing at him — another, this one a house with crooked...

16 likes 8 comments 8
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Haunted

Submitted to Contest #300

Sensitive content: Mention of self harm, attempted suicide, eating disorder, death, and suggestion of sexual assault. “That’s the window she fell from.” Katelyn is pointing up to the arts building where a dance studio is surrounded on two sides by floor to ceiling windows. I nod as though I know exactly which window pane she’s pointing to, even though there is absolutely no way to distinguish one from another. The arts building is one of few modern structures on the campus. Most of the dorms are old colonial houses made entirely of wood whi...

16 likes 3 comments 3
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Open Windows

Submitted to Contest #300

(Note: This story alludes to physical abuse and alcohol addiction)You can’t leave. You know that, right?Aubrey closed her bedroom door, a loud creak of protest sounding from its rusty hinges. She stood with her back against the wood, her eyes staring ahead at the baby blue paint peeling off the walls, comprehending nothing. The beer bottle had shattered next to her right ear and a ringing still lingered there. “It's ok,” she whispered, placing a trembling hand over her rattling heart, “just breathe.” Beyond the door, she could hear her fathe...

13 likes 5 comments 5
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I'm coming back

Submitted to Contest #300

I’m coming back. You never thought I would, did you? I never thought I would. I was determined that I would never set foot in that place ever again. But something has changed and here I am. I’m coming back, and you’re never going to forget about me ever again. You can be certain of that. I’m sure you all thought that once I’d gone, that would be the end of it, once I’d left the old town and the stinking old bodies that existed there. Those lingering bodies that shuffled and meandered the worn old streets. Holding the same conversatio...

13 likes 6 comments 6
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This Must Be the Place

Submitted to Contest #300

‘Work with me here,’ Robyn muttered to the lift doors. ‘If you just stay shut, we don’t have to go.’Jack motioned to their three fellow riders: a baby, a toddler, and a young child. ‘Yep. I’ll take being stuck in here with them over leaving.’ And he meant it.Maeve hammered on the release button. The doors snapped open. She charged into the hall, a mini riot. Toddlers don’t observe your ceremony, Robyn reminded herself. She doesn’t want to hold this moment into her palms, still and quiet, and of course she doesn’t: we teach children to burst ...

11 likes 3 comments 3
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Missing You

Submitted to Contest #300

Missing You My legs are bowed out, knees trembling. My skin is like that of a shar pei puppy. Pushing my walker slowly over the gravel, people stare at me wondering if I’ll make it to the raft. I have to, so I will. My grandson, a spitting image of me in my youth, asked the other visitors to give us a few minutes alone on the raft as this would be my last time. They were gracious folks. Gliding gently across the Kitchitikipi, I see the rich greens and blues of the deep spring-fed wonder. Below, deep in the center, lie dark, moss-covered log...

11 likes 4 comments 4
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Point of No Return

Submitted to Contest #300

Earlier this morning, once the key players had filed into the conference room promptly at ten o’clock with coffee cups in hand and sporting varying degrees of alertness, the team meeting between upper management, Project Management, Project Admin, and Accounting was called to order. The business at hand was as it is every Monday morning. After getting the requisite pleasantries and insincere queries with regard to how each member spent their weekend out of the way, the meeting commenced. There really is no need for discussion because the age...

11 likes 9 comments 9
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Memory Lane

Submitted to Contest #300

This story contains grief and broken family. Memory Lane People say that you can’t revisit the past but you can. That’s what a photo is. It’s a portal back into the past. When you stare at it you can be right back there remembering the moments of the day you took that very photo. The laughter and the joy that went with it, or the tears, maybe the hugs that occurred before or after it was taken. The past is there right in front of your very eyes, just waiting to take you back to a part of your past that lives in memory lane. *** Sheila loved...

9 likes 0 comments 0
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Mourning Murcia

Submitted to Contest #300

Picture this. You’re riding shotgun, speeding past kilometres of arid land, then dominoes of lemon trees, beds of sunflowers. There are remnants of walls, grey-white bricks wrapped with graffiti, as small as Monopoly houses beneath an infinite blue sky. There’s wind in your hair, sunshine on the dashboard and on your thighs. You’re Nora, and you’re leaving Murcia behind.Ignacio glanced over at her, eyes golden as resin behind his sunglasses, amber lenses projecting a sunshine scar across his cheek. Nora had insisted on paying him, but he’d B...

8 likes 0 comments 0
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