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James Barrett

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jul, 2024

Stories (22)

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22 Stories

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You Shoulda Heard the Whine from My Screamin Machine

Submitted to Contest #268

It was a hot summer night several years ago. I remember it like it was yesterday. I had too many beers. I shouldn’t have been driving. That’s not an excuse, just an explanation. Ralphie shouldn’t have challenged me in the first place, but he did. I was running my mouth about my new Mustang, and I guess it rubbed Ralphie the wrong way. Ralphie said his three-year-old Corvette StingRay would blow the doors off my new Mustang. Callahan’s parking lot was crowded with our peers. All beer drinkers and gearheads. I had to accept. The alcohol made i...

4 likes

Who Are You?

Submitted to Contest #267

The Planting Fields Arboretum is in Oyster Bay, smack in the middle of what is still known as Long Island’s Gold Coast. The mansions are mostly still there but are no longer occupied by the families that built them, namely the Woolworths, Vanderbilts, Phipps, Guggenheims, Morgans, etc. After the Great Depression, FDR and the Democrats made damn sure that sort of obscene distribution of wealth would never happen again, at least not here, not on their watch.Today, the mansions are planetariums, tourist attractions, and sites for the wedding re...

4 likes

Go Ahead, Make One More Change

Submitted to Contest #266

Three-fingered Jack Garcia. That’s me. Most lawmen and evil guys call me Three-Fingers. I am the most feared anti-hero on the planet. And the most popular. I was created by my former friend, writer Horace Lovestreet III. Horace is an Old West aficionado. He keeps a vintage Colt .45 in his desk. He pulls it out occasionally, hoping for inspiration that never comes.It all began one rainy night in Los Angeles. Horace was finishing a bottle of Jim Beam Bourbon, wondering how he would make a living now that the writing thing clearly wasn't workin...

4 likes

A Thousand Ways to Die in Costa Rica

Submitted to Contest #265

Follow a group of strangers touring a city on some kind of vehicle — a bus, a duck tour boat, a party bike… anything that transports passengers!A Thousand Ways to Die in Costa RicaAs the morning sun rose, my wife Linda and I were the first to climb aboard the small, gaily painted tour bus at the San Juan bus depot in the heart of Costa Rica’s throbbing commercial district. The bus looked like it had seen better days—a lot of them. The windows were all wide open.We had booked a three-day excursion to Playa Quesera beach on the Caribbean side ...

4 likes

A Casual Look

Submitted to Contest #264

Center your story around two people who meet at a wedding.A casual look, a little wink Can reveal just what you think …(The Six Teens, 1956) My name is Daniel Lassiter. Everybody calls me Dan. At least everybody did before the wedding. Since that episode, most people have put adjectives before my name with four letters. Still, it was the happiest day of my life and the strangest. All I did was answer the minister's question honestly. What was I supposed to do? Lie?I’m in my late twenties. I didn’t have a serious girlfriend. I didn’t have any...

4 likes

Bona Fide Hedge

Submitted to Contest #263

The accounting firm of Schwartz & Schwartz employed Leo Logan as a clerk in their local office. There was nothing remarkable about Leo other than the fact that his father, Zachery, had made a deal with the Devil years ago, where Zach would win more bets than he lost in exchange for sacrificing his immortal soul to the Devil upon his demise.               Zach was a cigar-smoking professional gambler, and because of the deal mentioned above, he could provide a mode...

6 likes

A Sixties Tale

Submitted to Contest #262

PROLOGUE The events I’m about to describe took place during 1967 and 1968. No one involved besides me knows the whole truth about what happened, and I want to keep it that way for reasons that will become obvious. Some of the names and places used in this story are fictitious. The events are real. Why am I telling this tale to you, a stranger? Because the prospect of taking this story untold to my grave is unbearable. Some of you may understand that what I did, I did out of love. Others may feel I should rot in hell for my actions. Each read...

4 likes