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John Rutherford

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Mar, 2023

Stories (25)
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368 Followers
837 Following

25 Stories

3408 karma pts

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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...

2 likes 0 comments 0
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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...

5 likes 4 comments 4
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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 ...

24 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...

13 likes 17 comments 17
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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 21 comments 21
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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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AI or not AI that is interpretation

Submitted to Contest #280

“Hi Gemini – This is Randy Foakes from The Authors Forum; as the group’s administrator I've had an issue with your posting, and I’m giving you personally another warning due to you posting on the board an AI image. Your post has now been taken down from the group site. The post was titled – Having a Bad Day, and I’m just about to send a screenshot to your inbox. I kindly ask you not to send anymore posts with AI images. The group’s mantra is completely opposed to the use of AI in any creative form. If you continue to post AI images, we ...

45 likes 38 comments 38
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Caught in Time

Submitted to Contest #278

Have you ever had one of those déjà vu moments? It appears to us all at some moment in our lives. Sometimes it is so innocuous, we are caught in a fleeting and surprising moment, you can miss it so easily. There is recognition or pre-recognition of sorts. Now think again, have you ever thought about the worst possible nightmare situation that could ever befall you as a person. Well, ponder this as a possible living nightmare, being trapped in a time loop, a continuous déjà vu moment for breaking the laws of time, and simply because you were ...

33 likes 25 comments 25
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The Eidolon

Submitted to Contest #274

The Eidolon peered through the water reeds, which appeared like protective iron spikes preventing the early mists from climbing the banks of the lake, no breeze or gentle wind aided the soft wafts of water vapour to advance to the warmer land, the majestic globe of water hung back, sulking behind the dark mask of the day. The bullrushes increased the impression of a prison boundary, although their brown heads were disintegrating and eroding with age, devoured by the march of time. In the delicate milky half-light of the approaching dawn, the...

23 likes 9 comments 9
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