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Jethro Pili

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Aug, 2021

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33 Followers
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150 Stories

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What You Have The Power To Do

The campfire had burned down to glowing coals.Above them, the stars stretched across the Gilboan sky in impossible numbers, unchallenged by city lights. Towering pines whispered with the wind, and somewhere deeper in the forest an owl called once before silence reclaimed the night.Jesse Carpenter leaned against a weathered log, turning a stick over the fire.Once, people had known him as the man who built bridges.Before that, simply another construction worker.Now...Now newspapers called him the Traveling Teacher.The title embarrassed him."I'...

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Seal of Confession

TRIGGER/CONTENT WARNING: Mentions of euthanasia and murder. The confessional at St. Augustine's was never entirely silent.Old wood creaked.Candles hissed.The ancient building settled with tiny sighs that sounded almost like whispered prayers.Father Wayne McKnight had heard thousands of confessions over the years.Children confessing stolen candy.Teenagers confessing lies.Teachers confessing pride.Parents confessing neglect.Some came weeping.Some came numb.Some came because habit had carried them there long after faith had gone quiet.When t...

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Storm on the Sea of Galilee

The first clap of thunder rolled across the hills just before Compline.By the time the final Amen had faded from the little chapel, rain lashed against the stained-glass windows hard enough to make them rattle in their lead frames.Sister Magdalene Mary smiled despite herself."It certainly has opinions tonight," she murmured.The elderly superior beside her chuckled."The Lord sends rain to the just and the unjust alike. Tonight He appears to be especially generous."The sisters laughed softly before dispersing.For Sister Magdalene Mary, life ha...

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Close The Distance

Father Lance Lake had learned, in five years of priesthood, that the hardest confessions were rarely spoken aloud.They were carried in silence.They hid behind practiced smiles at the parish picnic, behind steady voices during Sunday homilies, behind the calm assurance of a priest who knew exactly which page the funeral rite was on without looking.Everyone believed Father Lance was unshakable.Everyone was wrong.The parish of Saint Michael's settled into quiet after the Wednesday evening Mass.The last candles burned low.Mrs. Donnelly waved as ...

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The Old Lie: Dulce Et Decorum Est

The rain came down in cold, slanting sheets, turning the cemetery paths into ribbons of black mud.The man standing among the graves did not bother with an umbrella.Water soaked the collar of his century-old greatcoat. It streamed from the brim of his campaign hat and dripped soundlessly from his fingertips. He neither shivered nor blinked.He had forgotten how.A meadowlark landed atop a granite headstone a few yards away, studied him for a moment, then flew off again.Animals always knew.He stepped closer to the monument.It was simple gray gra...

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Kahu

“Kahu”The Pacific stretched to the horizon in quiet bands of blue and silver, breathing in and out against the black lava rocks. The trade winds carried the scent of salt, plumeria, and rain that hadn't yet arrived. A pair of green sea turtles floated lazily beyond the reef, and somewhere farther down the shoreline a child laughed while chasing retreating waves.Noah Kealoha sat alone on the rocks with an old canvas leash looped around his hand.The leash no longer had a dog attached to it.Three months.Ninety-two days.He hadn't meant to count....

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Camp Bear Point

Randy noticed the silence first.Camp Bear Point was never truly quiet. Even before registration, there were birds arguing in the pines, squirrels racing through branches, and the distant splash of the lake against the docks. But this was different. It was the sort of silence that made every snapped twig sound like a shout.He shifted the duffel bag on his shoulder."I still can't believe we got here this early."Esther laughed."My dad wanted to beat traffic.""He beat it by almost four hours."James checked the paper map they had been given after...

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Remember Me: An Allegory

The second floor break room had once been a cheerful place.At least, that was what Jesse Carpenter imagined.The faded walls still held the ghosts of motivational posters. Rusted lockers leaned against cracked cinderblock. Someone had painted a smiling coffee mug near the microwave decades earlier. The microwave itself was gone, stolen long before New Rome swallowed the former Kingdom of Gilboa whole.The vending machine stood like a museum piece.Empty.Broken.Its cracked glass reflected thirteen tired faces.Outside, rain drummed against shatte...

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Tea and Cakes

It was Eleanor Ashcombe's third Thursday in the parish before she discovered that churches had a remarkable ability to invent jobs no seminary had ever prepared anyone for.Peter had warned her."They'll ask strange things of us," he had said as they unpacked boxes in the vicarage kitchen. "Not bad things. Just... unexpected things."She had smiled while wrapping plates in newspaper. "Such as?""Oh, you'll see."Now she stood in the parish hall staring at six elderly women who regarded her with expressions usually reserved for royalty and compete...

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Where Everybody Knows Your Name

The Brass Longship was loud in the comfortable way only a favorite pub could be.It was June 30, the end of another frantic day at Viking News, and every booth seemed occupied by regulars escaping work, tourists admiring the carved dragon heads hanging from the rafters, and locals debating baseball, politics, and whether the fish and chips had somehow gotten even better since last week.The bartender, Liam, looked up as the newsroom crew filed through the door."Here comes trouble."Patrick McKean, editor-in-chief, grinned."You say that every Tu...

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Loving Jennifer

Father Lance Lake had long ago learned that exorcisms were not the hardest part of being a priest.Demons lied.People rarely did.The hardest battles were fought in silence, where no one applauded victory and no one saw the wounds.The chapel of St. Augustine Boarding School was empty except for the red sanctuary lamp burning beside the tabernacle. Evening sunlight spilled through stained glass, washing the marble floor with crimson, sapphire, and gold.Lance knelt in his accustomed place."Lord..."His prayer stopped there.Some days words came ea...

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Bacon Mac n’ Cheese

The first thing Father Tristan Greene did after locking the rectory door was set a pot of water on the stove.Not tea.Not coffee.Tonight called for something heavier.He reached into the refrigerator, retrieved a packet of thick-cut bacon, and laid the strips carefully into a cast-iron skillet. The familiar hiss filled the quiet kitchen almost immediately.Normal.Predictable.Blessedly ordinary.He loosened his Roman collar, rubbed at the red marks it had left on his neck, and watched the bacon slowly surrender its fat.Outside, rain tapped softly...

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Song For The Mira

I still remember that summer like it has its own weather system—its own tide that never fully went out.Back then, everything in Brookside felt too small to contain what we believed the world was. The houses sat neat and obedient on their streets, the school bells rang like commandments, and even the sky seemed folded too tightly over the town, like someone had ironed out the horizon. But we had found a crack in it.Or at least we thought we had.It started with Oak Island.Not the tourist version with ticket booths and polite guided tours, but ...

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A Hundred Fireflies

Principal Joel Gehrig left Brookside High with the kind of quiet that only the last day of school can produce.Not the quiet of discipline or tension. Not the sharp silence of detention halls or assembly pauses.This was a hollow, relieved quiet—the kind that lingered in empty lockers and polished floors, in erased chalkboards and the faint smell of disinfectant trying too hard to cover a year of adolescent chaos.He walked the main corridor slowly, his messenger bag slung across his shoulder. Inside it were three binders he didn’t really need ...

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Return To Neverland

As the sun began to dip below the horizon, casting long shadows across the backyard, Jeremy sat on the porch steps, his fingers idly tracing the wood grain. The air was thick with the scent of freshly cut grass and the distant sound of laughter echoed from the nearby park where children played. It was the last evening of summer, and the weight of nostalgia hung heavy in the air. He glanced at his childhood friends scattered around the yard, each one lost in their own thoughts, yet tethered together by memories of carefree days and endless ad...

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