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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jun, 2022
Submitted to Contest #341
We are thieves of time. We disrespect and deny the inexorable movement of the river of life. Ignoring the reality within which we must swim. Death does not cheat us. We cheat life and then we bleat and moan as we finally have to face the finite fact of our existence. Once, in the mists of my memories, someone told me that you can never go back. My recollection of this is limited to the words and their melodramatic delivery. I was left with the lasting impression that this phrase came from a film or TV series. If anything, this provenance add...
Submitted to Contest #340
I see it differently. I know, I know. You’re thinking that we all see it differently. And you’re right. Up to a point. After that? You’re wrong diddly-wrong-wrong. And we don’t like being wrong, do we? That makes life so much fun! The focus upon individuality when all that really works for us is our commonality. Oh, there is gold in the difference, but mostly there is conflict. Mostly, this is where it all goes wrong. Let me explain. Once, I was like you. Blind to the full extent of the human experience. Literally blind to it. Then someone ...
Submitted to Contest #339
The day was wet and grey. The promise of cold came drifting into the house and made Polly Trentham shiver. That sudden and unwanted gift reminded her of her loneliness. Being alone had become her preference. She found the presence of many of the people she encountered caused within her an asynchronous reaction. They carried with them a communicable discord that cast her adrift in their very midst. Polly struggled to find her people. Couldn’t discern between those who convincingly masqueraded as genuine and the real deal. She suspected that t...
Life was an awakening. He knew that now. And once he was awake, there was no return to blissful ignorance. The glass bridge to the fantasy he’d dwelt in had shattered along with his heart. He wished he could take it back, but there was only the now and the forward movement in the river of life. The past month had been experienced in a daze. Somehow he retained the pretence of what once was. Seeing everything anew was dizzying. His insides thrummed and shook. He’d gaze upon his hand and wonder at how the maelstrom within him wasn’t visible t...
The anguished Winter rain beats upon the window panes with an insistence that will not be denied. Behind the lamenting torrent is a wash of grey that paints the view into something it was never meant to be. There was a time when he would see beyond that grey. That time is now long past. There was once a hopefulness that he had always thought resided within the land itself. Now he realises that it was him all along. He wishes he could look away, but his eyes are locked upon that place that exists beyond everything. They drift and drift, takin...
Submitted to Contest #338
Some journeys are lived elsewhere. Deep inside and so very far away. Another life. Another world. When she returned to herself, she was beneath a roof and standing in shadow. There were voices nearby. As they receded, she thought it likely that they had been the alarm that had awakened her from another slumber of escape. A siren call for the pain that signified the reality that smothered and clawed at her very soul. She was wet. And she was cold. In the dark of the shadows she could see enough to know that she was smeared in dirt and that he...
Submitted to Contest #337
After the accident, I was different. I sensed it from the very start, but as is often the case, I suppressed this new knowledge. Didn’t know what to do with it. Easier to focus on what was going on around me. The major part of which was that my life had radically changed since my fall. My fall went way beyond whatever calamity occurred at the top of the stairs on that pivotal day. The stairs in question dog-legged around and once more around so that they were pointing in entirely the opposite direction to my downward travel. I must’ve hit th...
Submitted to Contest #336
This was as good as it got. Like taking candy from the proverbial baby. Dug liked that bit. What he didn’t like was that he’d had two newbies foisted upon him. That wasn’t how he rolled, even with a rep like his. At least guys knew why he’d ended up with his name. Dick had known the story and been suitably impressed right up until Spike had laughed and asked what the story behind Dick’s name was. He’d then mimed lewdly with his hand and a tongue probing his cheek in sync. Dug almost called it off until Dick shook his head disdainfully at Spi...
My role is very simple. I help people. I help them whether they like it or not. Their like does not concern me, it is the noisy buzz of a fly. There are far bigger things in this world and as a discord agent, I occupy my time with those things. This is my reason for being. If anyone were to ask me, I suppose I am happy in my work. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not a fixer. I’ve seen those lemmings on a quest to fix others. There’s a plank in their eye, yet they concern themselves with the splinters they see in the eyes of those around them. ...
Submitted to Contest #335
CW: Physical violence, abuse, mental health When Bill awoke that morning of mornings he knew nothing would ever be the same again. He could feel it in a part of him that lain dormant all his life. Its awakening both terrified and numbed him. He was covered in a cold sheen of sweat that made him feel unclean. Even the warming shower waters and bar of soap did nothing to address this. Worse still, he felt uncertain and lacked the confidence to face the day. Having dressed, he forced down a piece of toast. Helping it on its way with some tap wa...
The call came as Darren was finishing work. He was wondering about what to have for dinner. He wasn’t hungry, but he knew he should eat. The chances were that he’d head to the pub and have a liquid starter. After that, dinner was a boring necessity. Seldom did he muster up the enthusiasm to cook for himself. The food he made was rudimentary at best. Spending time on himself seemed like an indulgence. Yet another thankless task in a life lived alone since Tracy walked out and took the meaning to his life with her. He did not recognise the num...
Submitted to Contest #334
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a little boy who dreamed of his happily ever after. What this little boy did not realise was that he was already happy. As happy as a pig in mud. But he yearned for more for he was a little boy and he knew that one day he would be a big man. And this was a man’s world. A world where manly men built and fought and adventured and drank from big tankards that the little boy could barely lift. One day he would rub shoulders with those men. In a manly way. Muscle against muscle in a show of the...
That bitch named us! That’s what really gets my goat. She swans into our home. Takes over and ruins my damn life! They were my friends dammit! All of them! We had a good thing going and then good ole sweetness and light walks through the door and everything turns to shit. No good deed goes unpunished. I have those words going through my head over and over and over again! But why me? Why am I the one who has to pay. It gets my goat! Scapegoat! That’s what I am! And she had it in for me from the very start. I mean who does that? Walks into so...
The woods had been interesting. And a little bit emotional. Jill had heeded the warning about the danger that the woods presented and much to the consternation of the village gossips, most of which were of a certain age, she had entered the woods regardless. Or at least, that was what the supposedly concerned villagers thought. The all too loud bleating about it being on her head and the inability of so-called men of medicine to put old heads on young shoulders was the soundtrack to which she entered the dark woods. Woods that were dark des...
Submitted to Contest #333
Food was life. The very essence of how to live well. Joy and gratitude in the necessary. Revelling in the feedback that the senses provided as a meal was cooked. The taste of it centring a person in the moment. No past darkness. No future anxiety. She had known this, but had been derailed in a gentle, clandestine manner. The tracks had been removed and the engine that drove her had quietly slowed and drifted and become worthless and redundant as it strayed from its place in the world. She was lost. She knew this now. Could have done with kn...
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