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Patricia Jablonski

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Sep, 2020

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9 Stories

271 karma pts

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Hold On

Weekly Contest #345

Warning: A violent incident. Hold On Mama’s asleep on the couch. Her cigarette’s burned down to ash in last night’s dinner plate. “Should we wake her up?” Jamie asks. “No.” “Won’t she be mad?” “I doubt it. If we get going, we might could get back before she wakes up.” At the corner we board the mall bus. A gray-haired lady with a big red purse in her lap smiles as we make our way down the aisle to find two seats together. We sit across the aisle from her. Jamie tells her what we’re doing, and she tells him how lucky he is to have such a...

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Close Call

(some possibly offensive language) Close Call The elevator doors opened. Mark watched as the four people he loved and trusted with his life crowded into the empty car and held the doors open for him. “Come on Mark, we need to celebrate.”He stopped half-way there, fake patted his pockets. “Go on, okay? I forgot something. I’ll be right behind you.” They booed him as the elevator doors closed. Back in the office, he didn’t turn on the overhead lights but allowed the pale beam of his desk lamp to lead him to the safe. After dialing the combinat...

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Character Assassination

Weekly Contest #266

Character AssassinationHe’s at it again, and the sun’s not even up yet. Take your hands off the keys, asshole. Breathe. This guy, he thinks he knows me. Making me dream about casting my net wider and breaking out of this crappy little burg. How embarrassing. Why doesn’t he know that’s not me, for God’s sake? After all, he set me lose on the page in this neat little town—one he thinks is boring—and then decided I didn’t fit in here. That I needed to be troubled—a malcontent. What a crock. There’s nothing wrong with this town. I mean, not that...

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Nothing In Common

Shortlisted for Contest #202 ⭐️

Nothing In Common If Cass’s mother could see her now, she’d die all over again. A few books and some questionable fashion choices stuffed into a canvas backpack with a broken strap, standing on the side of the Interstate, thumb out, her dark face squinting into the Florida sun. Traffic screams past her. The blowback from vehicles whooshing by nearly knocks her over. Her eyes are stinging from the sand and debris flying into her face. The roar of traffic is louder than she thinks a tornado must be. Dark clouds are moving in. It feels like...

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Sight

Weekly Contest #197

My mother said it was foolishness on my part and I was lucky nothing bad happened. My sister Danni said he wasn’t good enough for me and would have broken my heart. What both of them really meant was: A guy like that? What would he be doing with a girl like you? Because he was way out of my league, for sure. As if they thought I couldn’t see that. I was fat, not stupid. I saw him before we actually met; at least I thought I did. I work in the mall and was having lunch in the food court. He was standing nearby texting on his phone. My siste...

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The Good Old Days

Weekly Contest #120

Some sensitive material about racism. “Back in my day,” Bob said, “kids could play outside until dark and nobody ever worried about ‘em. In fact mothers would shoo ‘em out ‘a the house and make ‘em stay out playing, telling them to not get under foot. Neighbors knew each other and if a kid did something wrong, you better believe their mother would hear about it quicker ’n you could spit. Mama would say, ‘You wait until your father comes home.’ And then the kid would know what was comin’. The belt. Put the fear ‘a God in ‘em for sure. Nobo...

13 likes 4 comments 4
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In the Blink of an Eye

Weekly Contest #105

I. Ethel and Leo          A Brother in Cordelia First thing to happen, this strange woman calls up. “Ethel?” She says. I hardly have a chance to answer when she goes,  “I’m your husband’s brother’s wife and this foolishness has been going on long enough.” I wasn’t real polite then, and that’s not like me. I told her Leo didn’t have a brother, but after a bit she convinced me. According to her, Leo and his brother had a silly argument fifty-two years ago and they haven’t spoken since, bo...

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Cheryl's Funeral

Weekly Contest #95

Hot, angry, and impatient, I had wandered half-way down the tree-lined block, waiting for my co-worker to finish up. She had a few more photographs to take, and the open road beckoned. We had covered the Memorial Day groundbreaking ceremony for a much-anticipated seventy-million-dollar opera house and performing arts theatre in one of the poorest states in the country. My state of jadedness was at an all-time high. I have no gripe with opera, or the arts in general, but more than three hundred thousand children were living in poverty in thi...

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The Shell Station on Highway 41

Shortlisted for Contest #81 ⭐️

Donnie was in the convenience store paying for gas while Maddie sat in the hot car with the windows up. She flipped the visor down, took a look in the mirror, and cringed. Her lips were chapped, her hair limp—and none too clean—and she was starting to get a pimple on her forehead.  She watched the guy at the next pump tend to his Harley. He had filled the tank, making sure not to drip gas on it. He’d wiped the cap and replaced it, folded and stowed the rag, made sure his bag was bungeed, zipped up his navy blue windbreaker, climbed on,...

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