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David Ader

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Dec, 2020

Stories (56)
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42 Followers
24 Following

56 Stories

1297 karma pts

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The Last Cast

Submitted to Contest #253

When Charlie Calisher was shoved into early retirement he made a promise to himself; he’d fish until he got bored. Boredom was not the goal. Boredom was a worry, an admonishment, a sentence that he was beside the point. He’d been at it since May and was still not bored. He’d had exceptionally good days when he’d land 23 fish, hooked, and lose, another seven, and extraordinarily bad days like when he caught nothing but a chill after slipping on a slimy moss-covered boulder, filling his waders with icy river water, and losing his rod, a $950 T...

10 likes 4 comments 4
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Busybody

Lilly stared at the jars of moisturizer standing like toy soldiers in front of her. She looked up from the copy she was reading, turned one jar around to read its ingredients, smiled sardonically, and with a red wax pencil made wide Xs marks on the paper.  “I knew she was making this up. There’s no ginseng root,” she said to no one in particular. It was her day job, reviewing articles for a fashion publication. She long suspected that the writers, mostly overly pretty women in their 20s, were more interested in life in th...

3 likes 2 comments 2
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Sliding Home

Submitted to Contest #247

Charlie O’Brien thought he heard the bell. He wasn’t sure; his hearing wasn’t very good anymore. A bell would mean it was 3:00 p.m. Not that it mattered. His internal clock was accurate. That clock told him school was out. At the janitor’s closet, his inner sanctum, he extracted the waxing machine. It had been there almost since he’d started working and worked like a charm, that heavy aluminum buffer. The old gal could still polish up a mirror finish. He’d replaced the pads more times than he could remember. Wool they were, origina...

11 likes 4 comments 4
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Rough Sailing

Submitted to Contest #240

 Nan looked toward the west again, where the clouds seemed to be growing an even darker shade of grey. The waves had picked up too, hitting the side of the small sailboat and splashing over the coaming as it slid down into the waves.           “Don’t you think?” she asked.           “No, I don’t think, and I wish to hell you’d let me handle this. Unless you want to be the captain!” Harrison pushed the tiller towards her, hard in...

13 likes 9 comments 9
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Little Ones

Submitted to Contest #227

The little children exchanged the mug each holding it with both hands to the count of two, just long enough to get their hands warm. They so wanted to taste its contents, rich chocolate, sweet, forbiddingly sweet, but they needed the heat as much as the chocolate. But in this cold, the dark cold of the alley, the mug would cool quickly and then they would drink, sharing the cup, taking one sip at a time. It was only fair that way.They thought the man who’d given them the hot cocoa must be an angel. He called himself Uncle Szymon, but he wasn...

16 likes 5 comments 5
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From a Deep Recess

Submitted to Contest #223

The panic erupted his sleep. It was a fire alarm going off in his head, a realization that he’d left a pot of soup boiling on the stove or the bathtub running, and he’d driven hours from home and had no cell service. It was none of those issues, though. It was worse.  Joe Boyle realized he’d failed to drop a course and tomorrow was the final exam. It was his last class in his final semester and how on earth was he still in it, how could he have forgotten? He tried to remember what the professor had taught in those first few ...

15 likes 4 comments 4
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The Urge To Go

Submitted to Contest #219

How long had I been there? Shaking, staring down at what I suppose is an elegant Persian carpet, just like the officer demanded. Waiting for what I didn’t know. It would be bad, of course, but how bad? The two who took me in had punched in my back, thrown me to the sidewalk. In the van I’d brushed away dirt from the street – I’m fastidious that way – and comported myself to be presentable. As if that would help. That damn officer. If he just yelled and slapped me more, that would be fine. When he slapped me, I put my hand to my face, I coul...

15 likes 2 comments 2
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In Counter

It was only a coffee. How much simpler could that be? Decaf with skim milk and stevia. They didn’t have stevia; they only had Sweet n’ Lo. No big deal, she’d said. Fine, the waitress replied. Fine, again. Why had she had to say fine twice? That was weird.              Jenn wasn’t that hungry, and she told the waitress as much. The waitress asked twice can I get you anything else?  And twice Jenn said, no thank you. Twice. The first time she said it with a smile. No thank you, I...

14 likes 3 comments 3
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Willoughby's March

Submitted to Contest #211

Willoughby clutched into the soggy ground trying to get lower. Around him bullets popped into the mud, splashing him. Thousands of them hundreds of thousands? How many men did they have? He was soaked from it all. There was a boom off to the left. Artillery. The boom just went on as if a whole line of cannons were firing in turn. He dug further praying the shells would pass over head. Then there was that smell, that sharp stench of burning Sulphur, acrid smoke, men so frightened they soiled themselves.  “Mister Willoughby!” He t...

7 likes 0 comments 0
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You Are So Very Welcome

Submitted to Contest #207

Ellen Berliner offered the caller a ready excuse that her system was incredibly slow that morning. What with the holiday coming up and Covid going around there were simply an awful lot of calls coming in. It rolled off her tongue like the lines from a well-rehearsed play. Ellen also rolled her bored eyes. “We’re experiencing unusually high call volume,” a quote taken directly from the Post-it permanently taped to her monitor. She apologized, per another Post-it, and moved to the topic at hand. “Now what date was the claim again?” An...

14 likes 2 comments 2
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The Feast

Submitted to Contest #205

          Leaving the market, Mabel constantly adjusted her heavy grocery bags to maintain a hold. It was a struggle, but she managed to find them a resting place against the soft protrusion of her ample belly. She also held an ear-to-ear grin anyone would see if it weren’t for those overflowing bags largely hiding her face.  She was going to have a feast; crab cakes, a lobster roll, a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, chosen because of its pretty label, coleslaw, fried-up sweet potatoes, ...

24 likes 12 comments 12
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Worth His Weight in Gold

Submitted to Contest #204

The saloon doors swung open followed by a frigid wind and a quick accumulation of snow. A rude chorus amounted to a demand for the stranger to shut the doors. He did so, taking his time, and brushed the snow off his fur hat and shoulders. In the heat of the room, warmed by a blazing cast iron stove, the melting ice on his long beard dripped to the floor. The saloon stunk of stale cigars, cheap whiskey, and filthy miners. “Well if it ain’t Stonewall Jackson himself,” said a black mustache with a man behind it. He was leaning ba...

19 likes 12 comments 12
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In Counter

Submitted to Contest #203

It was only a coffee. Could it have been any simpler? Decaf with skim milk and Stevia. They didn’t have Stevia; they only had Sweet n’ Lo. No big deal, she’d said. Fine, the waitress replied. Fine, again. Why had she had to say fine twice?            Jenn wasn’t that hungry, and she told the waitress as much. The waitress asked twice, Can I get you anything else?  And twice Jenn said, No thank you. Twice. The first time she said it with a smile. No thank you, I’m not hungry.  &...

15 likes 4 comments 4
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A Winter’s Walk

Submitted to Contest #202

           It was just the two of them, trudging along for what felt like an eternity. They walked that first night and hid the next day. At some point they’d given up on trying to hide; there was no one to hide from. The weather had been kind enough at the beginning; cold, not too cold, and kind of dry. Until today. A thick fog had come in, heavy and wet, and there was a rumble off in the distance. And flashes. Lightening maybe. Or guns. Probably guns. It was getting really cold, that d...

16 likes 3 comments 3
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C’est la Vie

Submitted to Contest #199

The ancient vendor lifted a plastic sheet from his wares that lay on top of an even more ancient, if that was possible, drab blanket. Ashes fell from his reeking Gauloises onto the faded US initials in one corner of the blanket. The old man looked up, his eyes hooded in the sort of contempt you’d expect from a dusty peasant trying to eke out a living with a display of mostly junk to a goofy, smiling, and obviously, American tourist. “Hi,” said Mark. “I mean ‘bon jour’” At least he was trying. The tourist guide said the French appreciated i...

9 likes 4 comments 4
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