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Frances Goulart

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jul, 2024

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51 Stories

664 karma pts

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THE BIRTHDAY GIRL

Dear Nancy,Yay! You opened my letter. That means a lot to me because it's August 5, and you know what that means. It’s my birthday! I’m eighteen today! And you'll always be the most important person in my life, no contest! Can you remember how special it felt, being eighteen? I am hoping you will sit down and read this letter all the way through, just like it’s a homework assignment, just like we're sitting next to each other. I mean, I hope you don’t just skip through it. Please take the same amount of time to read this as I am taking to wr...

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a life of crime

A LIFE OF CRIME “Good morning. I’m looking for Miss Kendall, Miss Cynthia Kendall. I’m….” “Of course, of course. I know who you are. Why did you use the buzzer? Most people can’t resist using my gargoyle brass knocker. It’s a beauty, isn’t it? Gargoyles were said to ward off evil spirits in the 1890s. Not that I need that kind of protection these days, not a simple middle-aged homebody like me.” “ Well, you never know what you’ll be facing, do you, Miss Kendall? Not that a gargoyle would be much help.” “Oh, call me Cynthia, or Cindy, if y...

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NOT A MONSTER

NOT A MONSTER “Purple Blob”. That's what they call me. It’s what they call us! I don’t like that name. It’s not a name at all, it’s an insult, it’s bullying! But it's what I hear whenever I leave the woods where we all live (or is “hide” a better word? ). I am not safe outside, with the other Purple Men, with the other, in their unkind words, with the Purple Blobs. Whenever I have to come to town on some mission, I hear those cruel words shouted at us by the townsfolk. Mostly from their children. “Purple Blobs !! Monsters.” They yell. ...

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THE LETTER

Weekly Contest #335

THE LETTER“Open it, Glenda. It’s been sitting on the table for almost two days. For godssake, It makes my fingers itch just wondering what’s inside! It must be something important, something serious. I mean to use old-fashioned snail mail. Old-fashioned registered snail mail. Let me get my old-fashioned letter opener. ““No! Keep your hands away from my mail, Cat. Remember, we may share an apartment, but the letter is addressed to me. ““Maybe someone you know died? If you open this too late, you’ll miss the funeral. Or the memorial or wha...

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GETTING TO EMPTY

GETTING TO EMPTY Maybe eating spinach worked for Popeye, but I am a 10-year-old American boy, I am no sailor, and I hate spinach. And pretty much anything else that looks or tastes like spinach! So this is why it’s there is real kitchen combat every night in our house. If I don’t “clean my plate”, my mother says, I can’t have dessert. And there won’t be any screen time for me (no phone, no iPad, no TV) either. “A growing boy like you, Timmy, needs a good diet to be healthy," she says.” A good plant-based diet.” Plant-based just makes me...

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MIDNIGHT CALLERS

Weekly Contest #332

MIDNIGHT CALLERS Knock knock knock! Now, who or what could be knocking at the door at this late hour?It was still cold, although the snowstorm had largely swirled to a stop, and just a flurry of snowflakes were drifting lazily past the big front window. Jezebel looked up at the clock. It was nearly midnight. The small paw was pointing to one, and the big paw was pointing to 12. That’s how Jezebel knew how inexcusably late it was to be knocking on anyone’s door. And who, or what, would be knocking at their door in the middle of winter? In...

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HELLO I MUST BE GOING

Dear Janys: I am writing you this letter, Janys with a Y (if that’s your real name), in the form of an old-fashioned snail mail, actually typed on an old-fashioned Royal typewriter (rescued from the attic), because doing it this way makes me, Scott, feel more in touch with reality. Reality, as I understand it, where people who care about each other (unlike people named Janys) don’t tell lies, lots and lots of lies, a dizzying amount of bald-faced falsehoods!. It is time to say goodbye to you, Janys, even though, from your point of view (wh...

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DAPHNE

Weekly Contest #329

DAPHNE It isn't often that you find yourself having a conversation with a tree. Especially a moderately tall laurel tree. But today that is just what I was having right there in the middle of the Sawtooth Botanical Garden in Ketchum, Idaho. On, of all days, Arbor Day in late April! Late afternoon shadows were beginning to gather, and I had skipped lunch because a staff meeting had dragged on at the university, and I needed some fresh air. But how could I even consider heading for home? Dinner could wait. It was Arbor Day, and here I was (ho...

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YOU CAN CALL ME KITTY

YOU CAN CALL ME KITTY “Up there. Way up there. Look, Mr. Kendall!”“Where are you pointing, miss? To the top branches? Anything is practically invisible at this time of night. And have you just been to a funeral, if you don’t mind my asking? All dressed in black like you are.”“ Pay attention. Yes, of course, I’m pointing to the top branches. Don’t you see them moving? There’s something up there. Something that wants to get down.”“Miss, it’s nearly midnight, there’s barely any moonlight to see by. My shift is almost over, and if it’s not a r...

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ORCHID OVERBOARD

Weekly Contest #325

“Ollie? Olivia? Ozzie”. The young girl in the striped sailor suit stared at the beach towel in her hands with the big embroidered” O” in the corner. . What did the “O” stand for? For her name? What was her name? There was a cool ocean breeze brushing her cheek. Her cheek felt hot and her head felt heavy. Where was she? And would it help if she knew? She needed help. Where to begin? How to save herself? She looked down at the beach towel again, where the big “O“ was embroidered. Next to it, was stitched an elegant purple orchid. That must...

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THE DIG

“Edwin Adams, whatever are you doing out here? It’s midnight. It’s near freezing. I had to wake up the cat and put my heavy winter socks on to come out here. What in the world? Have you gone mad? Why are you digging a large hole in the backyard?”“What business is it of yours what I’m doing out here, at midnight, noon, or any other time of the day? Mind your own business, Sylvia Meisner. I don’t have to explain my every move to you. And watch it. That’s my jacket and my tools you’re about to step on.”“Edwin, it’s pitch dark. Do you have insom...

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FAMILY SECRETS

Weekly Contest #321

FAMILY SECRET “Don’t rush me, Damien. Give me a minute... Just finish your soup. How is it ? “It should be the bomb. It’s New Orleans Chicken Creole.” “ The soup sucks, Steve. Too spicy, and where’s the chicken? And don’t change the subject. I don’t understand why you can’t just come out with it. Give me a clue while you’re warming up to it. Do you realize we haven’t seen each other in 3 years? What an example of brotherly love, huh?” “Yeah, imagine three long brother-free years. But let's not shit each other. It was three long year...

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GORKY OF THE WILD WILD WOODS

Title: GORKY OF THE WILD WILD WOODS You think you know everything! You also think you've seen everything if you are one of those two-legged two-armed humans. But you are wrong! For instance, you probably don’t have a single friend who is a ladybug (you can call me a ladybird if you like, many people do, who don’t like bugs generally speaking). And you certainly don’t know one with nine spots on her back, and definitely not one named “Gorky”! Yes, yes, why, you ask, brag about having a human boy’s name, a Russian word that means “bitter"?...

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AUSTIN K. BROWN, NO SECOND BANANA

Weekly Contest #318

AUSTIN K. BROWN, NO SECOND BANANA “You there in the third row. Yes, you, the tall dude with the fro….. Yes, you, son. Come on up here, come on, make it snappy. Time waits for no man, especially in the acting game. You want to be in show business or what?” Or what is right. That’s the way it started. Or I should say continued. My brilliant career as an actor. An actor on the stage. In the theater. In the movies. That’s what I wanted. But this was only community theater, and it was beginning to feel like a go-nowhere trudge. I was beginning ...

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THE DOPPELGANGER DILEMMA

Weekly Contest #317

THE DOPPELGANGER DILEMMA “IT’S Elizabeth, isn’t it? ? Or was it Liza? You were one of the Kellogg twins, weren’t you? You and Stephen. From Pittsburgh, in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood? ““Pittsburgh? Elizabeth? Stephen? Nope sorry, wrong on all three counts! My name is Madeleine Mallory. I’m from Portland, Maine. And I am neither a twin nor a sister to anyone named Stephen. Actually I was an only child. And I have never been to Pittsburgh. Why do you ask?”“My apologies , Madeleine, I hope this didn’t raise your stranger danger hackle...

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