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Gary Gallant

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Oct, 2024

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10 Followers
27 Following

15 Stories

252 karma pts

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THE HOUSE THAT BREATHED

Weekly Contest #372

The House That Breathed At 2:17, air moved under the bedroom door and touched my ankle. I raised my head. The furnace was off. The vents were quiet. Beside me, Ellen slept on her left side with one hand tucked beneath her cheek. She had slept that way for thirty-one years. Lately, she slept with the other hand near my wrist. Our house made enough noise at night that I knew most of it by location. The joist outside the bathroom gave a dry pop when the temperature dropped. The loose screen beside the laundry room tapped twice in a north wind. ...

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the door refused to close

Weekly Contest #330

tHE DOOR REFUSED TO CLOSE The door refused to close. It wasn’t locked. It wasn’t even latched. The wood had just swollen in the heat, drinking in the humidity of a Georgia August until the frame held onto the door like a fist. I pushed it. Hard. The shoulder of my jacket scraped against the peeling white paint, leaving a smear of gray dust on the fabric. Honestly, it felt personal. It felt like the house itself was inhaling, holding its breath, refusing to let me seal it up and walk away. I stepped back, wiping the sweat from my forehead wit...

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LOVE IS A FOUR LETTER WORD

Weekly Contest #290

LOVE IS A FOUR-LETTER WORD I lay there in the early morning semi-light, listening to Susan's soft breathing, feeling her body stirring. No, I thought, it’s too early. Sleep longer so I can put off what I have to do. Susan rolled over, naked leg across my pelvis, setting off a burst of desire. Soon enough, I felt her lips on mine, and we wordlessly allowed our bodies to rise in waves of heat, crest, and release, then slowly come back down. “Good morning, Susan. “I moved my body to rest on my side to be able to look into her eyes. Susan lay h...

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sometimes you don't see the things that change you

Weekly Contest #289

Sometimes you don’t see the things that change you Sarah Jameson listened to the staccato beats of the rain on the attic's roof. She did not like the way her 30th year started out. Two weeks ago, she had a party, followed the next week by a funeral. In between, her parents had been killed in a car wreck two days after her birthday. Sarah wrapped her plaid sweater more tightly around her shoulders. A dank, musty smell assailed her nose as she moved boxes around to clear a space. Then, she sat down on the attic floor in front of a large green...

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Bad Vibes

Weekly Contest #288

BAD VIBES Her screaming hit him louder than the thunder and rain. “I’m done with this; we are over. Let me out now.” “Janie, that’s crazy. Let’s go back to your sister's house, or hotel, I call it, because 10000 square feet, stables, horses, and a swimming pool the size of their tennis court is not a house.” ‘If you would get a good job instead of being a teacher, maybe we could have something bigger than that dump we live in,” she screamed, slightly less loud now. “Pull the car over”. Her face was red and scrunched up in anger. “ Now Melvi...

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tealeaves

Weekly Contest #287

TEALEAVES Greg Gibson finished his Earl Grey tea and went to work, soon getting swallowed up by the morning customers. Greg took the order for Table 4 to the kitchen and handed it to the cook. “He’s out there again, Mom, Sheriff Barnes.” “Sheriffs got to eat too, Greg,” said Norma Gibson. “Nothing to worry about” “I’m not worried. Mom, it's not me who he is trying to date. “ “Is his daughter with him? You and Veronica are both in the freshman class at the university. You should get to know her more.” “Next thing I know, you will want to go o...

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you never know a good thing until its gone

Weekly Contest #286

“You never know a good thing until it’s gone.” “One day, all the love you know will be gone”. Marcus Delorean read the passage out loud, alone, here with the gravestones. Once a year, he came to this graveyard to visit the graves of his wife and child. He said a prayer of remembrance. Then, he sat, inhaling the scent of fresh-cut grass next to the tombstones. Large oaks as wide around as a barrel and a hundred feet high gave him welcome shade this summer afternoon. Birdsong wafted soothingly from the limbs of the trees. He knew that no ghos...

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I Remember

Weekly Contest #285

I Remember I remember my grandfather had a plate in his head and an artificial eye. He used both when he played with his grandchildren. “Watch this,” Gampy said. He tapped on his head with the artificial left eye he held. We could hear the tap tapping, and of course, we squealed. “Gampy, that’s gross,” my eight-year-old self said. “Do it again.” Gampy tapped some more, then reached down beside his wheelchair and rolled his eye across the floor, the rolling sound loud on the old wood floor until it popped against the baseboard of the far wall...

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Mary

Weekly Contest #284

MARY A tourniquet wrapped around her arm like a noose, a needle dangling from a vein as she sat slumped, naked, leaning against the cold tiles of the bathroom wall. The needle and syringe hung like a hanging man, weaving slowly, back and forth and then fell, neck broken, to rattle on the bathroom floor Mary’s arm hung limply, attached to her jellylike body, as she coasted in a glorious, magical, unfeeling feeling, one that kept her coming back for more, to her a sacred space, with walls ever closing smaller. The periods of time she could get...

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starfish

Weekly Contest #281

Starfish Grant Long thought, " People are going to die tonight." It will be the coldest day of the year, and a nor’easter is expected tomorrow. He continued to spread salt on his driveway, hoping it would be the last storm of the year. He hated what the salt did to his vehicles. Sometimes, you forget how grateful you need to be. To even have a roof over your head is a luxury, he told himself in the mirror. Tugging on the collar of his shirt, he studied his face. It was closely shaven, strong, square, with dimples in his cheeks when he smile...

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THE SUICIDE SHOP

Weekly Contest #280

The suicide shop When I first saw Kevin Trask, he was almost naked. Perhaps fully naked in my mind's eye, but he was wearing the skimpiest of bathing suits as he got out of his pool, stretched, and toweled himself in the noonday sun. He could have modeled for any underwear ad; he was that chiseled, with long angular lines from head to toe. I was both disappointed and relieved when he put on a purple silk robe. How appropriate, I thought, for the king of his world. He had yet to speak despite acknowledging my presence with a brief nod. He wa...

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solitary

Weekly Contest #279

Solitary Henry Gibson walked the four corners of his confinement. His world was gray. The walls and floor were gray. His sink, his bunk, and his toilet were all gray metal or cement. He had lived three years in a gray cement and metal box. Supermax, they called it. Henry called it his gray coffin, and he had been buried alive. “Left, left, left, right, left, left, left, left, right, left.” Henry sang, his cadence perfect as he paced the gray eight-foot by ten-foot room. “You sing like a rooster crows, Henry, an intrusion on the silence.” “G...

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The Letter

Weekly Contest #278

THE LETTER Thaddeus B. Griswald heard the mail scrape through the slot and hit the floor. He glanced at the time on the ancient grandfather clock, turned his wrist over, and looked at the new Rolex. The times were the same. Thaddeus gave a satisfied grunt. He demanded accuracy. The mail was late. It was the second time this week. The postmaster would hear about it. He gathered the mail from the floor and returned to his big red leather chair by the fire, Gas, not real logs. He had switched after the house next door had burned down when an em...

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The Caretaker

Weekly Contest #277

The Caretaker I watched the old man rake the leaves under the ancient oaks. He shaped the leaves into neat, tidy piles, then scooped them briskly into giant, green plastic bags. Then he moved to the following graveyard plot and did it again, and so on, as we moved up and down the rows in the cemetery. “Do you ever talk to them?” I asked the old man “Sometimes I do. Sometimes, I think that they hear me, but there are a lot of headstones in the cemetery, and some days, I forget.” The old man moved slowly to the next plot. He moved that way, s...

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Wicked Is As Wicked Does

Weekly Contest #277

WICKED IS AS WICKED DOES Sabrina saw the terrified human up against the dead-end alley wall. She had herded him here to kill him away from curious eyes. She swooped down from the sky, a killer eagle on the kill. Stopping a foot above the wet, black pavement, she looked her hunted eye to dead eye. “Well, look at me defying gravity.” The soon-to-be-dead man did not respond; the terror on his face was enough. “Hell boy, that was funny; wicked is as wicked does.” She drove her teeth into the side of his neck, drinking deeply, savoring the flavo...

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