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Jonathan Page

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jul, 2023

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122 Stories

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Not on My Shift

Weekly Contest #238

People like me are more likely to die from suicide than in the line of duty. With Stella moving out things have gotten insufferable. The more friends and colleagues who “Exit Stage Left,” the more it seems like an option. It seems odd that those of us who answer the call to save lives at all costs, somehow can’t find a reason big enough to save our own.The emergency tones had beeped loudly from a dozen places in my apartment, startling me out of a whiskey-induced coma. Just after ten in the morning, on my day off, no less. “THIS IS A NATIONA...

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Believe It or Not

Weekly Contest #237

Ripley, man! People don’t know about Ripley. Robert Ripley. Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Spitting image of Elmer J. Fudd. Remember “Merrie Melodies?” Probably not, right? A doddering Elmer J. Fudd would say, over the radio, “I don’t believe it.” That’s how we felt about artificial intelligence for the longest time.Until we all fell in love with it. Then there was no talking to us. You can’t unbelieve in a thing. That’s a flaw of humanity. You know?Anyway, I believed I loved Katya. Even before it was on trend. I even believe she is a real girl...

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The Lottery

Weekly Contest #237

Steve says, “My wife married the wrong man.” He says it matter-of-factly and chuckles. I take a long drink and wait for them to take their seats. “I’m no good at pleasing her anymore.” He winks at Alli when he says it and pulls the chair out for her.Jane, his wife, says to my wife, Alli, “He really wanted it then. A charity case. I had to take him in. Like the way you take in a stray.” They are a good couple. They are friends. But this act is well rehearsed.My wife married the right man, and I married the right woman. We became the wrong peo...

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Be Kind. Rewind.

Weekly Contest #236

I would never have thought that Mr. Arnold was a meathead back in the day. That’s the thing about time. It’s like an Instagram post you’ve run through a hundred filters. It gets to the point where you wouldn’t even recognize where that final image started. I believe the film buffs call the story that is about to unfold a ‘romp.’ Buckle up. You’re not gonna believe where this one is going. I sure didn’t.Our story begins when the substitute English teacher drops the “C” word. The tea is that they caught the cancer late—like Stage 4—and spread ...

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Rescuing the Princess

Weekly Contest #236

Before Link could walk, he could already expertly manipulate a dual analog stick and wield a Wii remote as if it were an extension of his arm. When Link was a baby, I would hold him in my arms, swaddled in a blanket, trying to get him to sleep, while I occupied myself with a late-night session of Legend of Zelda, Skyward Sword. Sometimes I think this kid will bust out an Ocarina and jam out in B major with the number of hours he spent as a toddler dozing off to the Main Theme on repeat. Dun dun dun, dun dun dun, dun-dun-dun-dun. That heroic,...

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The Little That You Have

Weekly Contest #235

The poor in Farthing keep getting poorer. The less you have the more they take. That’s Farthing. Take Lucana and me. We live in Widow’s Mite, on the border of Fayetteville, in a boxable unit, in a stack of similar boxable units, in a dirty forgotten quarter, on a nondescript block, that forms a section of an unpaved tract, beneath a jagged palisade, where the city planners neglected to account for stormwater drainage so that it floods with every single storm, where Jackboots come and go where they please, and freely take our belongings or st...

34 likes 14 comments 14
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The Wall

Weekly Contest #235

Everyone on the high school cross-country team had the same Steve “Pre” Prefontaine poster on their bedroom walls, but I was the only one who took it literally. “The best pace is a suicide pace, and today is a good day to die.” That was the quote. And I bought it, hook, line, and sinker. During my hard runs, I would picture the “red line” as a brick wall, and the idea was to somehow gather enough steam that when I hit the wall, I would crash right through.As I vault off the grassy section of the 5K cross-country route and crash into the cove...

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Hopeless Aid Station

Weekly Contest #235

The thing about going the distance is that it is non-negotiable; you must take every miserable, unrelenting step on your own steam—like it or not. David had his hands on his knees, dry heaving, at the foot of the highest mountain pass in the Colorado Rockies. Dry heaving was nothing new. He could handle dry heaving all day long. David’s Garmin Sportswatch displayed the elevation: 9,983 ft. 2,617 feet to the top. The saddle was 12,600 feet. Should take about an hour and a half, he thought. If he didn’t collapse first.As his stomach eased, Dav...

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The Last Time Machine

Weekly Contest #234

I knew better than most that kids in books are parentless. The day I transformed from Katya’s hero to the villain in her story was the day we faced each other across a glass partition when she was only six years old. “If you don’t come home with me today, Daddy, I will never forgive you,” she said. And she never did.There were two things that Katya loved. Traveling and animals. For her sixth birthday, we had a big “Wild Birthday Party” at the Central Park Petting Zoo. There were lemurs, crocodiles, sea lions, peacocks, goats, rabbits, and ev...

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An Emissary from the Death Café

Weekly Contest #234

The Methuselah microbes buried in the Russian permafrost broke through the thawing soil like zombies rising from the dead. Only rather than arms reaching from earthen tombs and stretching bony fingers in a horrific gesture, they simply floated up into the dry Eurasian air off the shores of Lake Baikal on the Continental Ridge that divides Russia and Mongolia.And for the first time in a hundred thousand years, these apex predators were carried over the frozen plains to enjoy dominion over their world. The Baikal seals and the Mongolian gulls ...

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Giving Up Time Travel

Weekly Contest #233

I promise Alli that I’ll give up time travel for “Dry January,” but she doesn’t think I can do it. She doesn’t exactly give me an ultimatum, but it sure feels like one.“If I’m giving up milk chocolate, coffee, red wine, and fries, you can ween yourself off of time travel,” Alli says, hands on hips, chin cocked high, and shoulders back, exposing her neck and indicating she is not afraid of a fight.“Can I start tomorrow?” I plead. After all, we still have two hours before the ball drops. I could still do a lot of damage in that time.“Starting ...

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The Mountain that Walked Away

Weekly Contest #233

I tie the Jerry Can to my back with a cloth belt, which hugs my thin shoulders like a noose. The morning commute to the riverbed is a test of endurance. At eleven thousand feet, the half-hour journey down to the river with the smelly, miserable cows and goats crowding along the roadway is my least favorite part of the day. The dry air and oppressive ninety-degree heat smother me. After school, in the afternoon, I will have to go back for more water, but the weather will be cooler by then.My mother, Nima, is caring for my little brother, Juni...

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The Lantern of Kaamos

Winner of Weekly Contest #232 🏆

The melting Arctic is a crime scene, and I am like CSI Ny-Ålesund. Trond is the anonymous perpetrator leaving evidence and clues for me to discover, like breadcrumbs leading back to him. “Jonna,” he had said, the day we first met at the research institute, “If you are going to make it up here, don’t lock your doors.” It seemed like a life philosophy, rather than a survival tip.It is ironic. Out on Kings Bay, the coal miners came first, then the science outposts. Trond was already out here mining the Arctic when I was still just a bright-eyed...

101 likes 66 comments 66
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Hopeless Aid Station

Weekly Contest #231

The thing about going the distance is that it is non-negotiable; you must take every miserable, unrelenting step on your own steam—like it or not. David had his hands on his knees, dry heaving, at the foot of the highest mountain pass in the Colorado Rockies. Dry heaving was nothing new. He could handle dry heaving all day long. David’s Garmin Sportswatch displayed the elevation: 9,983 ft. 2,617 feet to the top. The saddle was 12,600 feet. Should take about an hour and a half, he thought. If he didn’t collapse first.As his stomach eased, Dav...

40 likes 20 comments 20
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Second Chance Café

Weekly Contest #231

On New Year’s Day, a line of hopefuls seeking a second chance formed outside Joyce’s diner. Joyce believed that everyone deserved as many second chances as they needed to get through this life, but Joyce was surprised that no one had been willing to take a chance on her when she was first released from prison.A man with a bald, black-shaved head stood in line, shivering in the cold. Joyce immediately recognized him as the Shetani. The hair was gray and chalky, but it was him. A shiver of fear ran down her spine. She’d recognize him anywhere....

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