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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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Weekly Contest #313
Contains implied racial epithets. On my first day of first grade, I was too excited to eat breakfast. I bounced around my room until Mama made me sit down and drink some chocolate milk. I couldn’t wait to put on my new Keds sneakers. I wished they were Air Jordans but she told me those cost too much.After breakfast, we walked up to the bus stop. Mama said the driver wouldn't go down to our house. The air was warm and Mama was soon out of breath. She was on the heavy side, but people said nice things about her shiny black curls. Even then, th...
Weekly Contest #257
Part IOne fair breezy morning in the time of good Queen Bess, a ship called the "Dover" made its way towards land after nearly being shipwrecked on a desert island. The sun warmed the sailors’ bare backs as they hauled on the ropes and raised the sails, singing lustily. A party of well-heeled passengers strolled along the deck and exclaimed at the wide expanse of clear blue sky and glassy water.Among their number was a former magician and his soon-to-be-wed daughter, a king and his son, and other assorted nobles. Prospero, the magician, had ...
Weekly Contest #221
In the basement of the Kenmore Conservatory of Music, the practice rooms are dark and gloomy, with radiators that clank like Marley's ghost and steam that clogs your lungs like molasses. Room 8 is the worst of all. The fluorescent lights flicker constantly, giving you a headache. But that's not the main reason no one wants to go in there. They say it's haunted. Year after year, some unfortunate students have to use that room when the rest are being used. They stumble out wild-eyed, barely able to talk. “It’s foggy and there’s a terrib...
Weekly Contest #164
Where I come from, people’s family names come first. Family trees trace long ancestral lines back to a home village, and those who fall from their branches become missing leaves.My father came into Hong Kong along with thousands of refugees from China’s mainland who were desperate to escape Mao’s regime. He could have been the first leaf to fall from an ancient family tree. I’ll never know.My mother was an orphan, also from Guangdong Province. Right from the start, then, I was a missing leaf from two family trees.My parents met at the r...
Weekly Contest #131
Therese Malfatti hunched behind a tree amid the crackling leaves and pulled her dog, Gigons, against her chest. He whimpered and struggled to get free, but she held him tightly. Her mother called, "Therese! It's time to go home!" "Hush, Gigons, don't let her hear us." "Young lady, if you don't answer me in three minutes, you'll regret it." Footsteps crunched on the path and stopped near Therese's hiding place. Then her mother went further along the path and disappeared over a rise. Suddenly Gigons leaped from Therese's arms an...
Weekly Contest #128
Welcome to this house, where my brother was born. Look around you at the comfortable room that my late husband the Baron has provided for me. Feel the warmth of the crackling fire. As my maid serves you fine tea from China, see the light gleaming on the polished silver and the fine Dresden porcelain we inherited from his mother.I never want for food or care. Yet who would guess that once I played for the crowned heads of Europe, sitting at fine gilt harpsichords next to my little brother as we wove tapestries of brilliant sound? Who even rem...
Weekly Contest #124
My name is Doctor Edgar B. Shallows, Jr. and I work in the ER at Cornwall Medical Center. We're down in what's called the Combat Zone, where hookers and drug dealers prowl the streets, suburban guys sneak into the peep shows and sex shops, and guns are as plentiful as cotton candy. You can practically set your watch by the police sirens. Our hospital specializes in major trauma cases. We're trained to spring into action with our lifesaving drugs, clamps and defibrillators, yards and yards of thread and bandages, and IV lines that can barre...
Weekly Contest #123
“‘Tis true my form is something odd But blaming me is blaming God… Could I create myself anew I would not fail in pleasing you. If I could reach from pole to pole Or grasp the…” One steamy summer day in Boston, Jared Mann stared into the mirror and practiced a poem for his audition. He managed to sail through the first stanza, but for some reason, blanked out halfway through the second. “Damn!” He closed his eyes and tried again. If I could reach from pole to pole Or grasp the ocean with my span…” Good! He was home free. “I would...
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