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Bob Faszczewski

Author on Reedsy Prompts since May, 2021

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150 Stories

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Smashing Down the Barriers to Greatness

Weekly Contest #255

      The young man opens the microwave door and, once again, spills the hot drink, barely avoiding scalding himself.  He realizes that, far too often, he has accepted incidents such as this as a normal part of daily life. They have left him stuck in first gear and too readily accepting the derision and mockery of those who either don’t understand his life or consider themselves exempt from human failure.      Those not condemned to suffer with the disorder with the relatively ...

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Tiptoeing

Weekly Contest #254

          For months the neighbor gossip mills operated at full tilt about the affair, or lack therof, between the ruggedly handsome Jason Hughes and the beautiful and sexy Karen Tollmyer.       Of course, the pair kept throwing logs on the rumor fire when, for four weeks running, the deep, throaty sound of the young stud’s eight-cylinder Mustang pierced the peaceful ‘round midnight air of usually quiet Harpersville.       ...

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Homerun--Through the Timeline

Weekly Contest #253

           Five decades away from the streets of his youth had done little to dampen Harry’s enthusiasm for the stickball games that had highlighted his teen years.           Like Mickey Mantle, swinging a Louisville Slugger at Yankee Stadium’s home plate, he used to step menacingly up to the manhole cover with his converted wooden broom handle waiting for Joey or one of his other pals to wind up and let loose with the perfect pitch....

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Who Lies Beneath the Headstone?

Weekly Contest #252

              After the funeral for Fred Harris the line of well-wishers among his family and friends stretched from the living room of his large Colonial home, out into the street and well down the tree-lined block.  Greetings and expressions of sympathy lasted well into the evening.      Since the family had chosen me to help manage the reception, I hadn’t returned to my home until well after 10 pm.      &n...

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What Behind the Door Lurks?

Weekly Contest #251

      As he opened the door of the darkened building and stepped into the glitzy vestibule, a loud sound echoed off the walls. He then saw before him a long, dark corridor illuminated on each side only by a series of book lights, one every few feet.     John’s girlfriend Jane had texted him a half hour before and told him to join her at the abandoned building, to which she had provided Google Maps directions attached to her text.  Although the place looked familiar to him, its age a...

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Blowin' in the Ether

Weekly Contest #250

             As I lay on the Assateague Island beach the sun’s rays drenched me in warmth as my mind wandered to far-off places.      I soon fell asleep, and my dreams took me thousands of miles south and west to East Maui's Waianapanapa State Park in the Hawaiian Islands. Back to the wonderful vacations my family had taken there during my teens.     Suddenly, a high-velocity wind blew sand across my face, carrying with it ...

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Returning the Volley

Weekly Contest #249

    As soon as the match began, Irina Ubetekov came rushing toward the net at Wimbledon, returning each serve with more power than she had put behind the thousands she had made during her entire 10-year career.     This tournament meant much more. It would put the final jewel in the crown on her climb up the summit of the tennis world, and she wanted to leave that world with a flourish on her record, avoiding the dreaded “40-Love” at all costs.      For she had made u...

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Home Run for the Real Player

Weekly Contest #246

     Stickball had provided some of the most enjoyable times of Harry’s youth. He used to step menacingly up to the manhole cover his gang used for home plate with his converted wooden broom handle waiting for Joey or one of his other pals to wind up and let loose the perfect pitch.       Then he would get a real piece of it and send the rubber ball flying down the block as he rounded the bases. He’d first touch the front door handle of his dad’s ‘57 Chevy, then the tip of the fire ...

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Bringing Back the Glow

Weekly Contest #245

       For hundreds of years residents of the Northern Hemisphere had romped throughout the summer wearing as little attire as possible in their local lakes and the world's oceans.       In 2929, though, the sun left the planet midway through the season and disappeared behind the haunting and oversized shadow of the Earth’s moon.     Solar eclipses had happened frequently, often more than once a year, several times during our home base’s long histo...

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GPS Into Another Dimension

Weekly Contest #243

          As my car crept along a deserted road in the Virginia-North Carolina countryside, the passing scenery reminded me of the forest scene from "Deliverance." To add to the negative atmosphere, I had agreed to allow my fellow Realtor, Jill McIntyre, to partner with me on the trip and act as my navigator–more on Jill’s sterling character and background later.     Back to the drive–the stillness on this Saturday night made me feel like a solo mortician closing up s...

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Shanghaied on Dry Land

Weekly Contest #242

               He opened the heavy door and saw a long, dark corridor bringing him to exhibits on sailing and piracy on each side. Strangely, the only thing lighting the way to each exhibit was a series of book lights, one every few feet.     Exhibits in the newly-opened Delmarva Maritime Museum had begun mapping out the story of ancient seafaring commerce and raids by buccaneers traveling along the Eastern Shore.    John h...

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Off-Road Adventure

Weekly Contest #239

             It started out as a pleasant jaunt along Route 50 East to Maryland’s coastline on the Atlantic Ocean.  Our trip began at 6 am to give us plenty of time to bask in the sun of Ocean City and later frolic in the waves–perhaps spotting a few dolphins or whales romping in the surf.         We planned to stop in one of the boardwalk eateries for a little pizza and adult beverages before heading back to our bed and breakfast in...

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Perfect Timing

Weekly Contest #238

          As John Jordan turned over the first shovelful of soil at the groundbreaking ceremony for his new insurance office in the Rehobeth Beach Coastal Mall he struck an unusually hard object.  As he reached down to retrieve what felt like hardened cardboard he said, “It looks like a book, maybe a journal or diary.”     When he turned the first page his hands shook as badly-smeared  ink scrawls revealed the entries on sheets stuck together by “dried blood...

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Run for My Life

Weekly Contest #235

 The many promises I had made to myself and my friends and relatives during my troubled youth included a vow to get into better financial and physical condition. On this beautiful Sunday morning, I continued the daily running routine I had begun about a month earlier.        As I gently jogged in the fresh air along the road, deserted for the time being except for me, I began to clear my brain of the disturbing sounds from the night before, punctuated by random gunfire, police chases and loud screaming...

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The Day Everything Stopped

Weekly Contest #234

    Struter Jones dashed to the corner–just in time she figured--to catch the 7:58 Fifth Avenue bus. As usual, she had timed her sprint to the bus stop down to the last second.         Quickly getting fed up with her go-nowhere clerical position, she did only what she had to do when she had to do it.        “Only in a holding pattern with this gig,” she thought to herself as she searched for the miracle job that would take her out of the morass tha...

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