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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jul, 2024
Submitted to Contest #332
He passed by me this evening in the garden. He tried to smile but the tortured look in his eyes overshadowed any welcome from his lips. I looked back at him as he walked past me. I know this man. He wandered quickly beyond the oleander bushes and olive trees, then disappeared. The clouds above were gathering and darkening as they coalesced. I was too late to call out his name. Jesus, yes, that is his name, the holy man from Nazareth. No time now to catch up with him. My friend should be waiting for me down the path. I turned away to follow t...
Submitted to Contest #322
It was never meant to be competitive between my sister and me. But it was. Maybe because she was 3 years older, setting a torrid pace and me wanting to keep up with her. Maybe it was because she was a girl, and me, as an adolescent boy, was not going to let a girl get the better of me. I finally came to realize it was not the pace, nor her being the other sex that troubled me, rather it was her success rate at everything she did. However, my struggle to keep pace and succeed finally won out. How, and what eventually happened, was my sister’s...
Submitted to Contest #317
If I wasn’t on edge during the car ride to the venue, I was certainly full of anticipation when I finally arrived. With my wife by my side, we entered what was a quaint auditorium at a small casino. There were folding chairs numbered throughout the room. It just didn’t “feel” like the right place for “The King” to hold court. I had my doubts. Many gray-haired eighty-somethings filled the room. All were there to see Elvis Presley. Well, not exactly, it was an Elvis impersonator whose name is Dean Z. But the excitement was feverishly palpable...
Submitted to Contest #311
Is there a correlation between a lesson learned and the degree to which it impacts you? Secondly, do all lessons learned have value? At the time, I did not think everything through. Then, again, a seven-year-old never does. I wouldn’t call myself angelic, but I was far from being a delinquent. I practiced the Catholic faith religiously: obeyed my parents, never lied (sort of), honored my God, did not steal anything (although the temptation was there), did not eat meat on Fridays, went to confession on Saturdays, and attended mass every...
Submitted to Contest #304
After a day at work and a one-hour drive home, the last thing Doug wants to do is work on rewriting his clinical study. The sixteen-page manuscript is filled with corrections and comments from a journal editor. All the remarks and corrections are highlighted in red ink. To him it looks more like a blood bath on paper. He probably could have avoided a lot of editing if he sent his study results to a less well-known journal. But Doug feels his findings need to reach a more expansive audience of healthcare professionals. The Lancet seems an app...
Submitted to Contest #276
It has been forty years since I took American Airlines flight number 3282. It was just a one-hour flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco, but I cannot forget the impact that short flight has had on the last half of my life. I remember it was a typical summer day in Los Angeles. The sun was peeking through some cumulus clouds. The Santa Ana wind plied its way through the trees and surrounding buildings as if a warm blanket was covering the city. I had just spent two weeks with my wife-to-be in the quaint town of Ojai. The excitement and ...
Submitted to Contest #267
It does not seem that long ago, but it has been almost 70 years since I first met the “Bowl”. The Bowl. Every boy at Sacred Heart, our Catholic grammar school, had a nickname. Michael Bowles was his given name, and it took several weeks in our fifth-grade year before I learned about his secret. I remember it was in the middle of a typical Indian Summer when I first met Michael. The familiar warm breeze gently moved over the valley as if my mom had just covered me with a soft blanket on a cool evening. The smell of stewing tomatoes...
Submitted to Contest #264
Not much happens in the forest resulting in big news. But the much-anticipated marriage of Felix Frog to Miss Mouse is an exception. It was the event of the decade down in the hollow, not far from here. The wedding was spectacular however it was the reception that has everyone talking. The speech by Uncle Rat honoring the couple was the highlight of the celebration. It did not take Felix Frog long to propose to Miss Mouse. He was smitten with her ever since he first saw her selling cheese at the local church bazaar. He regularly pursued he...
Submitted to Contest #261
The grayish tinge of the sky, the chill in the air, along with a sliver of sun behind naked trees, always signals a lingering winter. As I walk the wooded path near my home, the south wind has announced its presence. It creeps past me, transporting brown, wounded leaves of the White Willows down the path. The helpless leaves pass in bunches, lithesome slaves to the wind. Down the path the leaves scurry. I lose sight of them as if they are banished into oblivion. I continue to walk past a few stragglers caught in the grasp of a fallen tree br...
Submitted to Contest #260
When someone yells "duck", one should lower his head, rather than turn around to see why he should duck! At least that is running through Doug's mind as he recalls the past few moments. Maybe he doesn't trust his classmate known as The Roach who yelled out that one word unexpectedly. Although the Roach and Doug have been classmates for almost half the school year, Doug keeps his distance from him. It was Doug's first year at a Catholic elementary school. He does not make friends easily. All his classmates have been together at the same sch...
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