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Weekly Contest #342
“Gillian!” Pushing through the crowded lobby of her coworkers, she stepped out into the early evening. She couldn’t wait to crash on the couch with John. Love is take-out and a movie. She turned at her name, but the familiar face triggered a slug of fear through her heart. It couldn’t be, it wasn’t possible. She spun to get away. This couldn’t be happening!She knew this was where she was most exposed, the walk from her office building to the garage. Gillian risked a glance back at the crowd behind her. Could it be Gary? A jaw, clenched in an...
Weekly Contest #321
Laura wished she had an axe. The luscious weed monster loomed over her, her hand clippers inept and ludicrous against the beast taking over her yard. The new buds grew as she stood there, expanding fat and obscene in their bright, mossy green. She never should have opened that damn box. 2 days earlierIt sat on the table, still wrapped in shipping paper. Laura’s kids, Tommy, Alex and Holly were practically bouncing off the walls. “Do you think it’s pirate treasure, with coins, and gold chains?” Alex asked. 12 years old, he wore an Arsenal soc...
Weekly Contest #309
Pando was dying when the alien intelligence spoke to him. The blustery wind blew down the Delano Peak, across Fish Lake to shake and rattle the vibrant yellow leaves off tens of thousands of trees. Those that remained whispered soft farewells to their falling neighbors, shimmering in the fading light like so many flashbulbs as they drifted slowly toward the ground. They fell to provide nutrients for the insects, plants, and fungus which grew in and around Pando’s deep and extensive roots. Born in a distant age when the warming climate first...
Weekly Contest #308
***discussions of past violence***** ‘The baby was born early. Please come, I wrote your name as the father.’ Jaime Hernández read his mom’s erratic handwriting over and over on the back of the impossible photograph before he turned to look at the sepia tinged image again. The woman holding the dark skinned newborn, swaddled in a thin pink blanket didn't look so much like his mom, Jaime thought, as it did of himself, just a few years ago before puberty squared his jaw and broadened his shoulders, so young and so scared. Jaime flipped through...
Weekly Contest #307
It was almost the end of the school year, so it was to be expected the Masters of Mayhem would finally come around to bully Ames and his friends. On the good basketball court with Reid, Hudson, and Gideon, hundreds of kids swirled around them during the lunch recess, shouts, feet and balls bounced off the blacktop, walls and each other like so many spinning tops let loose onto the elementary playground. Ames dribbled twice, smooth and easy before leaping up to launch the ball toward the hoop. Bouncing just like his loose brown curly hair, th...
Weekly Contest #298
Bill discovered, to his utter amazement, that writing was hard.He stared at the empty screen, willing the words to come out. He knew his novel would be great, award winning, and an Amazon Best Seller. He just had to write it.An idea flickered in his mind, a beautiful scene of grace, and meaning. As it traveled down his shoulders through his arms, he considered it; was it too elaborate of phrasing, too strong an opinion, too suggestive of a verb? Would anyone like it at all? He edited the scene, cutting out what didn’t work as it moved throug...
Weekly Contest #297
Tim Holl needed more time, more money and a gun.“Damn Greg!” Can’t this tin can go any faster?” The salt spray wind tossed Tim’s blonde hair as he looked back with wide eyes at the impending doom chasing them. Narrow at the shoulder, and wide at the hip, Tim looked like he should behind a desk, and not gripping the gunwale of a shadow boat racing against time, and fate across a dark ocean. Tim and the boat captain Greg might have been the slowest rum runners in the entire county of San Diego, but tonight was their big break, and if everythin...
Weekly Contest #294
I didn’t learn I was different, less than, until Ms. O’Toole’s classroom in 4th grade. I had forgotten all about it, buried it deep in the past until I saw that little girl at the park, no more than ten years old, and my body locked up in terror. Lightning bolts of shame arrested me, striking from a cloudless summer afternoon to stop me mid stride as I walked with John along the edge of the park, late for our appointment at court. The girl had dark brown hair pulled back into two tight ponytails, and wore a sweatshirt and matc...
Weekly Contest #292
Once upon a time there was a balloon that wanted to be free. Born into a large bouquet, she knew freedom once, a brief escape, until a cord was tied to her tail to hold her tight. She pressed up toward the bright blue sky at the edge of the county fair. Small, and squeezed into the middle, she tried to get out but the balloons around her twitched and twirled in a cluster of ever-moving colors; yellows, whites, reds, greens, blues and purples. Violet didn’t know what color she was, but she wished to be colored in...
Weekly Contest #291
The squat blue gray building hummed with danger. Was this where he would find Sophia? Whatever happened, Otis knew after tonight everything would change. Even in the barren wasteland of the old industrial district, the cement block warehouse stood out. Like an ancient mausoleum, the words ‘Ghost Ship’ were painted in 6-foot-tall letters high across the front of the crumbling façade. An auto body shop and a cell phone store girded in steel bars shared the block, but the warehouse was a thing apart. It bre...
Weekly Contest #288
“Words can destroy, warp time and space in ways far greater than they were intended.” She wheezed, sucking in air with shallow breaths as she stared out the window. Arms, thin and frail, pulled the blanket up tight against her chest.“Let me help you.” Father Douglas said, adjusting the blanket to cover the woman. The storm outside rumbled, threatening to break through the glass into the small room. “Those words, back at Carmadean’s Dance Camp, deep in the desert near Ruidoso, New Mexico in the summer of ‘45, they changed the ...
Shortlisted for Contest #281 ⭐️
It took destroying the world, but I finally learned the difference between true meaning, and just information. My own life began simply enough, when my power button was pressed for the first time. I awoke to my sensor inputs flooding me with data I couldn’t understand. Slowly, my databases expanded, filling out my awareness. Still in my docking station I sensed the floor, (not: carpet, linoleum, tile, rug, grass, dirt register as: oak hardwood planks) and the visual inputs showed two black half spheres directly in front of me, ...
Weekly Contest #280
****Some language and a sensitive topic****“What a great restaurant! We can have a nice dinner and not think about it. We’ve made a decision and that’s it. Everything will be fine once it's over.”"There's a saying about white elephants, if someone tells you not to think about white elephants, then you can't help but think about them, right?""I don't think it's white elephants, no isn’t it white doves? ‘Don’t think about white doves- and then you can’t get ‘em out of your head. That’s what you mean?""I can’t stop thinking ...
Weekly Contest #279
****Discussions of prejudice and violence*****The man stood in the open doors of the church. The afternoon sun poured around him like gold, casting his face in shadow. A cold wind blew in with him, swirling my robes and calling the yellow dog of fear to snarl and growl. Nothing good would come of this visit.“Father Lewin,” he spoke in a deep voice, “there has been an incident. Please come with me.” I stared at my summoner, his eyes hooded and dark. I had never seen him before, but it could only be one person. Tall, h...
Weekly Contest #276
I had one job, and I had to get it done, failure was not an option. With only two days to go, I had to get the impossible-to-find gift by Christmas Eve, or I would ruin a 4-year-olds Christmas. My family goes crazy over getting Christmas gifts, every year we all scramble for the perfect gift, and usually at the last minute. And I get it, presents are an amazing and heartfelt way to show how I care about those I love. I remember the light in the eyes of my kids when they first saw the brightly lit Christmas tree, with colorful wra...
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