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John Rutherford

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Mar, 2023

Stories (28)
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384 Followers
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28 Stories

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NECA Store

Submitted to Contest #340

It's raining; it's pouring,The old man is snoring,He went to bed and bumped his head,And didn't wake up the next morning. Chirped Big Bird. “For heaven’s sake; SHUT UP! Take the batteries out of that mono syllable toned garden gnome, he’s givin’ me a goddam earache and a headache. And you guys know what happens when I lose IT! Toys or not, dismantling you lot will not be painless!” hissed Derry through clenched teeth. “You ain’t that tough, you sorry excuse for a baldheaded clown, wearing your face on your arse, the best thing for you is the...

2 likes 0 comments 0
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Monika

Submitted to Contest #339

Has God started smoking today? He thought to himself. Using nicotine to drug and dull the senses to become grey and mellow. In these stressful days of existence for all of us living creatures; do deities get exclusion rights from the daily mundane and all the banal monstrosity of being, of existing? Are they immune to stress? Or do Gods get exemption rights from even higher beings? I wonder what a tarot card would look like foretelling an exception to a stress-free existence in this mysterious universe, in the infinity of time and space cont...

9 likes 6 comments 6
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Custom Sealed Envelope

Submitted to Contest #338

The custom sealed envelope didn’t slip from the pages of the old 19th century book in a classic and dramatic cinematic style; it was simply discovered by the turning of the page. Why the envelope was in the book in the first place would puzzle people endlessly. One of those unresolved mysteries that would baffle the experts of calligraphy, and all things found in extraordinary circumstances, in unexplained places. The custom wax seal held a circular crest with the small logo of a 15th or 16th century three mastered sailing ship, with the ini...

10 likes 4 comments 4
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Sade’s Orange Coat

Submitted to Contest #337

The orange fur coat radiated vitality and energy in contrast to the drab and colourless charity shop window display. It demanded the attention of every browsing passerby, even the blind would feel its radiating magnetic presence. Out of place in its surroundings, nonetheless a majestic, and magnificent display of bright inspiring colour, the orange fur coat shone and brightened not only the shop window display, but it also shone for longer in the memory of all the passing pedestrian traffic. When Sade passed the shop window on the way to wor...

14 likes 10 comments 10
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Streetcar named Discord

Submitted to Contest #336

“No – I will not elope with you! I cannot betray my family at their time of most need, my father the Sultan, and my mother, the Valide Sultan.” It was signed with an initial Z. The note was written in Ottoman Arabic. Kemal crumbled the piece of paper in his clenched hand, and then a fraction of a second later unclenched his fist. The movements, though subtle and unnoticed by the pedestrian traffic, reflected the many conflicting emotions inside his head, anger, frustration and sadness. It was the end of the relationship; his written proposal...

14 likes 6 comments 6
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Tarsus

Submitted to Contest #335

The head of the statue stared with a constant gaze into the darkness and the endless vista of time. It was a fixed stare created by a craftsman’s hammer and chisel; the genius of bygone days the artisan had captured realism from the hard impenetrable granite material. One could easily imagine the head once alive with thoughts, and fascial emotions now frozen in granite by the artisan. Without a body the appearance of the head with the stoney stare was highlighted as it lay on the bare dark dusty floor. It had been severed violently from its ...

25 likes 15 comments 15
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Prince Roger & Rex

Submitted to Contest #334

Some of the characters inspired by the children's story The Little Prince (French: Le Petit Prince, written by French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.) The Prince Roger of Peru crash landed in his personal hand-made rocket on a faraway planet in a faraway galaxy. He was on a mission, searching the universe in his quest to discover gold. He was unharmed in the crash landing, but his personal hand-made rocket was irreparable. Gold was everything to the people of Peru, nothing in the universe was more important. He could never retu...

15 likes 15 comments 15
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Zalo

Submitted to Contest #333

The anchovy peered upwards from his continuous feeding on the diatoms and dinoflagellates plankton and gained his fish eyed view. His laterally pointed eyes, did not fix their gaze on a single subject like humans do, which completely alters how he perceived all images in his watery world. In his captured vision that day was the resplendent view of the Golden Gate Bridge which overwhelmed his cone shaped vision, but there was a smaller shape, a much smaller form of a human being looking down from the rocky banks of San Francisco Bay into the ...

28 likes 8 comments 8
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Triton & Tug Tours

Submitted to Contest #332

Part of a Children’s story. Triton and Tug Tours It was the strange sight of the huge whale, most of its body floating above the waterline, and the small, tiny tugboat waiting alongside for the morning high tide to rise to its highest level, that had attracted a small crowd of passersby. People wandered down to the waterside to find out why there was a huge whale and tiny boat floating just offshore in the Black Sea. They assembled on the shoreline and shouted at Triton the whale with their enquiring voices. “Are you OK, great whale?" "Where...

19 likes 6 comments 6
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Simone

Submitted to Contest #331

The only constant was the street scene, a delightful spectacle during and after the rain, as the glistening wet paving stones reflected the dreamy complexion of yellow and amber tinge of the streetlights. It looked like the sugar glaze of a deliciously sweet toffee apple. The lantern shaped streetlights that had seen more than the conversion from gas, these guardian-like sentinels of erect ironworks were the mute witnesses to live actors and dramas continuously playing out scenes of life, but never with the prepared scripts of dramaturgy. T...

20 likes 16 comments 16
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Ciao Bella

Submitted to Contest #330

She looked like a picture, she was a picture of solemn innocence, but none of these descriptions fully reflect the circumstances at that moment in time for poor dear Bella! But paradoxically they did! She looked overdressed and out of place on the small jetty come side street overlooking the harbour. Sitting upon a stool outside a tiny wine bar which had irregular opening hours, with a nonexistent operating license, only ran as an abbreviation for the excessive drinking problem of the proprietor. Certainly not for the custom and patronage of...

25 likes 12 comments 12
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Billy Bunter - Dictator

Submitted to Contest #328

Greyfriars School is an English public school situated in the county of Kent, nicknamed the garden of England, the county of Kent is located at the bottom right – the southeast corner of England. The school lies on the river Sark, upstream is the nearby village of Friardale and downstream the market town of Courtfield. The county of Kent is near the coast: the fishing village of Pegg is within a mile (1.6 km) of the school. There are two other public schools nearby; Cliff House girls’ School and Highcliffe. Farther away are the towns of Lant...

19 likes 9 comments 9
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Nduvo

Submitted to Contest #326

When does a global community make a mistake that misinterprets cruelty as care, or rather looks on apathetically, an indifferent observer of planet earth, as another race or another species is exterminated or succumbs to genocide in the name of righteousness or greed? Answer: in this planet’s history often, but now it seems to be happening with more frequency of the unique inhabiting species, and with more rapidity. Only the brave and courageous dedicate their lives to fight injustice or cruelty, and paradoxically sometimes fight on the wron...

14 likes 6 comments 6
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Lilou

Submitted to Contest #325

He was lost; but lost in a benign way. When he had stepped out of his hotel located in the Saint Pierre district of Bordeaux, and let his legs do the walking, never mindful of any destination, without watching the time, and without any thought or precondition. Just walking in a state of emptiness, a blindness of mind, for any intended direction was a distraction. He pondered his many troubles, life’s burdens lay heavy each proceeding day, his head and heart ached, gnawing slowly on his soul. The Saint-Pierre district dates back to the days o...

26 likes 20 comments 20
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A crate too big, too heavy, too far!

Submitted to Contest #286

It wasn’t a single suitcase containing my family’s worldly possessions that created the epiphanic moment in my life. It was a wooden crate, a homemade crate, made with love and consideration to handle with care, a miniature pedal car. A birthday present. It was symbolic of so many changes at that time in my life, changes in many lives. A time of upheaval, which would never ever return to the previous pattern of life for so many; ever again.The surrounding support, comfort and security of a close family would be sacrificed, for higher ideals ...

33 likes 16 comments 16
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