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Mae Siu-Wai Stroshane

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Aug, 2021

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79 Followers
21 Following

29 Stories

877 karma pts

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The Ghost Adagio

Weekly Contest #368

Mentions suicide.Emily Choy slogged through the gray drizzle and black slush to the door of the Kenmore Conservatory, shivering in the March cold. She wished she’d worn her winter coat, but the weather app on her phone had said 40 degrees. It felt a lot colder than that. Oh well, this was New England. If you didn’t like the weather, wait five minutes and it would change.She tugged open the pink door and stepped into a wall of heat and noise. The stairwell echoed with ghostly instruments and voices as she made her way to the practice rooms in...

4 likes 0 comments 0
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The Blizzard

Weekly Contest #365

One afternoon in February, a nor’easter blew into the town of Heaven’s Door with bitter cold winds and treacherous snowfall, catching the weather forecasters by surprise.Joanna Fan sat playing the old organ in First Church, unaware of the danger she was in. When she had finished for the day at five o’clock, she bundled up and headed outside. Instantly the world vanished in a blinding whirl of white so thick she couldn’t see her truck parked twenty feet away. Cursing her own stupidity for ignoring the forecast, she turned to go back inside, o...

9 likes 9 comments 9
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Wings With Zings!

Weekly Contest #362

Trigger: mentions sexual harassment and attempted r*pe For sixteen years Joseph Beck had lived in a town that had mocked him. Clumping through the streets in his uncle’s old farm boots, wearing baggy clothes from the charity bin, struggling to hear the world around him–did he really want to show his mug there again?Apeman. Freak. Idiot. Those names he’d lived with for so long. Only Brandon called him “Apeman” now with a mix of contempt and affection. He was Joseph Samson Beck, successful portrait photographer and abstract artist. At home he ...

14 likes 8 comments 8
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The Bone Box

Weekly Contest #360

"If you can get past the bone box, you'll probably ace this class." Terry Mason bared his teeth at us as he handed around the course syllabus to the nineteen students in his Anatomy class. "Otherwise, you might as well take up Macrame 101." I looked around at the other students who sat on lab stools at benches around the room. They seemed to range in age from about eighteen to middle age, by their looks. One guy looked over the hill, with a gray ponytail and crows' feet around his dark eyes. I was twenty-five and hoping to get into nursing s...

14 likes 8 comments 8
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Immortal in Disguise

Weekly Contest #356

If you could bring your loved ones back from the dead, this planet would collapse under the weight of all the souls. But I do believe they’re all around us, in the wind and the rain, in the morning gold and the twilight blue. We can’t see them anymore but the veil between the worlds is thin. Every now and then the veil tears open and a soul slips through. How else can I explain what happened to me and those around me, changing our lives forever? I don’t know, but I’ll try. One steamy night in July, my eight-year-old daughter and I took a dip...

16 likes 6 comments 6
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Medusa

Weekly Contest #353

(Contains sexual and physical violence)There they go again, squirming and hissing on my pillow. I feel their hot breath on my neck and their tongues flicking against my skin. I don’t dare turn over on my back for fear of crushing them. Every time I try to fall asleep, they crawl across my skin and my stomach churns. Do you know what it’s like to live with snakes on your head instead of hair? No, I don’t suppose you would. I don’t think anyone would. I’m the only one cursed by that jealous goddess who thinks I asked to be violated by a lecher...

7 likes 1 comment 1
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Hungry Eyes

Weekly Contest #350

I don’t remember being adopted. It’s just a story, part of the family folklore to make me feel special and wanted. When I was a kid, I never got tired of hearing it. Before I started school, I would buzz around my mother like a bee while she ironed our clothes. “Mom, where did I come from?” “Jasmine, I’ve told you a hundred times.” “Katie Cronker says you got me from a dumpster.” “Katie is a silly goose! Dad and I adopted you from Hong Kong when you were almost two. We met your plane at Kennedy Airport and brought you home. Now you’re a Gree...

11 likes 8 comments 8
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A Stranger in the Garden

Weekly Contest #348

Joseph Merrick awoke in the light of Easter dawn, already excited. All through the dark days of Lent and Holy Week, he’d been looking forward to this day. While he loved Christmas most of all, nothing held more promise of eternal joy than Easter.In his short twenty-seven years, Joseph had already suffered more than most had in an entire lifetime. Jeering derision and cruel mockery had dogged his steps all through childhood. Then there were the years of horror in the workhouse, and traveling in the sideshows, baring his twisted body to gawkin...

13 likes 4 comments 4
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Beyond Heaven’s Door

Weekly Contest #345

On her first day at her new job, Joanna Fan stood at the front door of a white clapboard church in the shadow of its soaring steeple. She raised the brass knocker on the red front door, and let it fall against the wood where it clanked like Marley’s ghost, echoing in the pit of her stomach.No answer. She knocked again, swearing under her breath.Still no answer. She peeked in a side window and saw a shadowy form flitting about. She made a fist and rapped on the glass. After ten minutes of fruitless effort, she sighed and returned to the front...

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The Man in the Moonlight

Weekly Contest #343

One steamy night in July, a nurse and her daughter took a dip in their local pond, not expecting to find anything new and strange. They were wrong.A car honked. Stefanie shifted gears and reflected that changing gears described what she and Mai would have to go through now. It had been hard to say good-by to Mai three weeks ago, but now Stefanie could feel distance between them. "Sweetie, Cornwall Pond is practically in our back yard. Let’s take a quick dip and get some pizza after.”They left the highway and headed to the pond, past a rus...

16 likes 6 comments 6
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Missing Leaves

Weekly Contest #342

Bettina Brentano said to Joanna, “ I know of an author you might enjoy hearing. She’s an adoptee like you.”At first Joanna rolled her eyes. Everyone seemed quick to remind her of her origins. Born in Hong Kong to an unmarried waitress, Joanna had been given up for adoption at six weeks and left on the doorsteps of a police station. They had turned her over to one of the royal government’s orphanages. The Poh Leung Kuk had a mere two nurses to take of sixty babies. Their bottles were propped on pillows, and during the day they were tied to ch...

9 likes 2 comments 2
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Asphalt Dragon

Weekly Contest #332

She’ll be comin’ around the mountain When she comes…She’ll be comin’ around the mountain when she comes…” The old folk tune went round and round in Joanna Fan’s head as she peered through her car’s windshield, the wipers slapping an irritating rhythm that didn't quite fit the music. Rippling sheets of water on the glass made the road nearly invisible as she crept along at barely ten miles per hour.She’d been comin’ around the mountain long enough. Time for a hot supper and cozy bed.The day had started out warm and clear, but towards lunchtim...

11 likes 4 comments 4
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The Ghost Adagio

Weekly Contest #329

The Ghost Adagio: Emily Choy slogged through Boston’s gray drizzle and black slush, and made her way to the side door of the Kenmore Conservatory, shivering in the March cold. She wished she’d worn her winter coat, but the weather app on her phone had said 40 degrees. It felt a lot colder than that. Oh well, this was New England. If you didn’t like the weather, wait five minutes and it would change. She tugged open the drab pink door and stepped into a solid wall of heat and noise. The stairwell echoed with ghostly instruments and voices. As...

12 likes 4 comments 4
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Of Gods and Monsters

Weekly Contest #319

I am a monster, but I wasn’t born this way. I know the very thought of me fills you with horror and disgust. But spare me a moment and I will tell you my story.Do you know what it’s like to live with snakes on your head instead of hair? No, I don’t suppose you do. I don’t think anyone does.There they go again, squirming and hissing on my pillow. I feel their cold breath on my neck and their tongues flicking against my skin. I don’t dare turn over on my back for fear of crushing them. Every time I try to fall asleep, they crawl across my skin...

16 likes 10 comments 10
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A Love From Beyond

Weekly Contest #317

A LOVE FROM BEYONDDedicated to my Uncle Paul, whose singing cello led me into music If you could bring back your loved ones back from the dead, this planet would collapse under the weight of all the souls.But I believe they’re all around us, in the wind and the rain, in the morning gold and the twilight blue. We can’t see them anymore but the veil between the worlds is thin. Every now and then the veil tears open and a soul slips through. How else can I explain what happened to me and those around me, changing our lives forever?It began last...

10 likes 10 comments 10
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