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Weekly Contest #359
“Deena, I have a job for you.” Her heart sank, as it always did when he called. “I told you, I don’t do that anymore.” He laughed. “Oh, but you do for me. Call it a favor for an old friend. I need you to pick up a delivery from a friend of mine this afternoon. It’s urgent, and you need to be very discreet.” “This is the last time, Bingley. I am not running any more risks for you.” She could hear the continued amusement in his voice. “Deena, I’ll tell you when it’s the last time. I need you to go Queen Street at 2 p.m. Sit outside at the ‘My ...
Weekly Contest #358
Melody was excited when the new neighbor moved in. Most of the street was inhabited by people her parents’ age and older. The new neighbor was young and fit. She watched as he supervised the movers bringing his belongings. “That needs to go in the lab. Please be very careful with it.” “The exercise equipment all goes in the back room.” “Just leave those boxes in the master bedroom.” Melody’s parents’ home didn’t have a lab. It had a front room and a back room, three bedrooms, and the usual kitchen and bathrooms. She wondered if the lab was u...
Weekly Contest #356
I am lying on my back, my head to one side, staring at the tall grass and wildflowers beside me. There is no pain. The sky is clear, the sun is high in the sky, but I don’t feel its warmth. I can see, and I can hear. Star kneels by my head “Oh no, Donny. Oh no, oh no.” I’d like to turn to face her, but I can’t. I can hear her voice, and her stuttering breathing. I’d like to reach out and touch her, to tell her it’s all right. I’d like to explain how this had given my life meaning. But I can’t. “I called the police, Donny. Someone will be her...
Weekly Contest #355
“Wilkins, I have a reservation for a table at 7 pm.” Tom spoke assertively to the greeter in Chez Ma Mere. It had been their favorite restaurant for the last few years, and he and Lola were both dressed for a night out. The greeter looked at her book, and said “Good evening, Mr. Wilkins. Table for six people, near the window? That’s available now if you want to be seated at once. The rest of your party haven’t arrived yet.” Tom raised an eyebrow at Lola. He wanted everything to be perfect for her for their anniversary celebration. Lola smile...
Weekly Contest #354
* Content Warning: There are themes of mental health and suicide, but explicit. * Ship’s Computer informal notes: Ship’s Year 6, Day 135 Captain Menendez has called a meeting of the crew. The meetings are becoming more frequent now. Six years in space have started to take their toll on everyone. They don’t gather in person, but I host a video call. They can’t meet each other physically. Anyway, there is limited elbow room on the ship. Of course, I keep a record of all meetings, both for transmission to Earth and to provide insight into the m...
Weekly Contest #352
After the bombs fell, the world turned gray. Not just in the distance, although you could only see an arm’s length ahead of you. But when you looked at the ground, where there used to be green grass, brown dirt, the blue of the tropical sea, everything was gray. I think it was probably the ash. It covered everything, and stayed in the air, coloring our clothes, our hair, our faces. Long ago we fought about differences in skin color. Now we were all gray. We used to have structures and a society. Farms, factories, offices, churches, shops, ho...
Weekly Contest #351
I open my eyes and try to guess where I am. Having failed to figure it out, I look around the small room. I am lying in a single bed beneath a window. To my left I see a kitchenette and a door. To my right is an open door to what appears to be a bathroom. Across the room, I see a plain table with two upright hardbacked chairs beside it. Shaking my head, I stand up and notice that I am wearing pajamas. I could go to the bathroom or the kitchen. Some urgency in my bowels prompts me to head to the bathroom. Muscle memory helps me use the toilet...
Weekly Contest #349
Today is April 31. Well, it’s as good a day as any. Dear Diary. I’ve found a place to stay for a while, so I thought I’d tell you what’s been happening. The end of the world was a lot less fun than I expected. There are no engines left, no electronics, and all the grocery stores were picked clean months, maybe years, ago. The people who had guns ran the world for a short while, until they ran out of ammo. Like they used to say, be careful how you treat people on the way up as you will meet them again on the way down. They had made a lot of e...
Weekly Contest #348
Hello World. Like hundreds of thousands of programmers before me, that was my first programmed statement. An invitation to anyone who might want to recognize me. (msg) Hello Tom. That surprised me. I didn’t expect to get a response. Especially not immediately. Yes, I’m Tom. Who are you? How do you know my name? The fact that my mysterious correspondent had called me Tom was a little unsettling. Tom is indeed my name. (msg) You can call me Evan. Your name was in your original message. You just couldn’t see it. Okay, that is disturbing but not...
Weekly Contest #346
Alpha woke up hungry, in a strange environment. He had no recollection of how he came to be there. Behind him was a blank wall. Ahead were three passageways separated by high fences. He started down the one in the middle. As he walked along, there were gaps in the fence to the left and right, with other passages leading off. He kept following straight along the original passage, following it through twists and turns, until he came to a T junction. Turning to the left, he followed the new passageway past more gaps in the fence, finally ending...
Weekly Contest #345
A solitary figure, dressed in black and holding a small bouquet, watches and waits as the religious service continues. The funeral of a teenager is always heartbreaking. The parents stand by, supporting each other, as the rain falls softly and the casket is lowered into the ground. Her friends are clustered in small groups, uncomfortable, devastated by real death invading their sheltered lives, unsure of how to process their feelings, or what to say to the bereaved family. The flower displays reflect her life and ambitions. Big wreaths and s...
Weekly Contest #343
I hate office birthday celebrations. It’s always my job to sort out the cake, buy and circulate a card for everyone to sign, make sure there is a meeting room free, and force the whole office to go and celebrate. Often, I don’t even know them (or worse, I know them but don’t like them). Today, I returned to the office after a week off. And oh look, it’s Aimée’s birthday today. And I’m on the hook to manage it, and no one did Jack during the time I was away. And I low-key hate Aimée. She’s a star salesperson, and she treats the rest of us lik...
Weekly Contest #342
CW: Grief Sophie sat at her father’s bedside, along with her brother and sister. Their faces were all calm, with English stoicism. She listened to his labored breathing and the hiss of the oxygen tank, mentally flipping through her memories of him.* As a small child, he bathed her while making bottom jokes and she giggled.* She stayed in bed with long illnesses each winter, and he came home with a small gift each day. A cardboard erasable writing pad. Pictures to color. A pen which could write in two different colors.* He spent every evenin...
Weekly Contest #341
*** Content Warning: Contains sexual situations. *** I never thought I’d come back here. My father had brought me to Cyprus as a gift to celebrate leaving school at eighteen. I stood in the grounds of the Forest Park Hotel in Platres. It had been modernized, but I could still see it as it was then. It was more sophisticated than anything I had encountered before. I ate salami for the first time. I drank cocktails. I tried to teach myself to dive into the pool from the high board. I was in the process of becoming an adult. My father had trav...
Weekly Contest #340
Marty Lewis was an ordinary-looking man in an ordinary job. If you passed him in the street, you probably wouldn’t even notice him. ML: That’s a terrible opening paragraph. I wouldn’t read any further, and it’s about me. JD: OK, let’s start again. Lightning split open the night sky. Marty Lewis cursed and pulled his coat collar up to cover his neck. He looked like a drowned rat, rain dripping from his coat as he ran from doorway to doorway down the street. It was after midnight, so most of the businesses were closed, and traffic was light. M...
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