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Ryan Brown

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Apr, 2026

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10 Stories

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The Exit

Weekly Contest #371

There is nothing quite like the moment when your exhaustion turns to slumber. Twenty-four hours of being awake have turned my eyelids to lead. Closing them to sleep is almost euphoric. Brrrrrrrrrt, brrrrrrrrt, brrrrrrrrrrrrrt!I wake up and turn the steering wheel to the left to avoid the ditch along the road. My car jerks too far and crosses the left lane and over the center line. Pulling the wheel right, the car swings back into my lane. A swift straightening of the wheel keeps me safely on the road. I nee...

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I Got You

Weekly Contest #363

“Doug, stop snoring. Doug, Doug!What the hell? I’m trying to sleep and wake up to this nonsense. If he’s being too loud just go sleep on the couch already. My mom gets louder, “DOUG! STOP! Wake UP!” Is he serious right now? Our bedrooms share a wall. I don’t hear him, so her annoyance can’t be worth all this commotion.More desperately now, “DOUG, WAKE UP! HELP, HELP, GREG, WAKE UP, HELP, HELP!” I’m wide awake. I jump out of bed and instantly am in their room. The smell is unlike anything I’ve ever encountered. A sour, sickly odor...

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Kool-Aid War

Weekly Contest #361

My home has become unrecognizable. I haven’t been back to Roscoe Village in years. My kids have no idea the freedoms, adventures, and trials we faced growing up in the 80s. My son, in particular, thinks he is street wise. His life consists of our subdivision and the places his mother or I drive him to. He’s lived a life of constant supervision. I lived a life as a free-range kid roaming the far reaches of the city either by bike or the El. Wandering so far from home never created the trouble that we found in our own neighborhood. W...

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Perfect Lawn

Weekly Contest #359

Sweltering in the sun was Bob’s sacrifice for his luscious lawn. It was the envy of the neighborhood, at least that’s what Bob believed. Every day, he spent hours caring for his span of greenery. Needing to take charge of every step of the process, Bob mixed his own grass seed blend. He ordered his seed from Heartland Elite Seed, the premier provider for grass seed, also the most expensive. The exact percentages of Tall Fescue, Kentucky Bluegrass, and Perennial Ryegrass he kept a secret. His lawn, the thick and crowded blades, radiated...

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Donny's Whisper

Weekly Contest #357

Billy Miller stood up to Donny. That was a big mistake. Donny is almost twice his size, but I guess you can say that about most people compared to Donny. Most 7th graders are about 5 feet tall and weigh 100 pounds. At 5 foot 7 and 180 pounds Donny is the biggest kid in our grade. There are only a couple of 8th graders who come close to Donny’s size. I guess Billy was tired of being picked on. Donny was only joking when he “accidentally” spilled milk on him. Everyone was surprised when Billy picked up his pile of ketchup-coated fries ...

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At Tabards

Birthdays are supposed to be special days. At least that’s what Bob thought. He was turning 50 and was celebrating with all of his wife’s friends. Bob’s friends had all moved away. He didn’t have a large group of friends to begin with, so when, one by one, they started to move or drift away, he was pretty much alone. He was grateful for the party and for the people that came, but he felt an emptiness that was exacerbated by being surrounded by the peripheral people at his party. Nancy had booked the party room of Bob’s favorite brewery...

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Road Trip

Weekly Contest #354

Family road trips are one of the loneliest moments a man can experience. We are headed to Gulf Shores, Alabama for spring break. Because of the pandemic, flying seems risky. Looking on Google Maps, it looked like the gulf coast of Alabama was the closest place we could drive to to get to the ocean. Technically, the east coast is closer to Chicago, but we wanted to escape the frigid air of March for a warmer, quieter locale. Leaving after the kids got off school on Friday, we figured we’d drive for about six hours to split the drive over...

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Mr. Sparks

Many years had passed since Theo got too involved with people. The last time he helped them, he was punished for his actions. He spent many years imprisoned for theft. He had stolen from his boss and given it to the people. The idea was to help them. They were cold, hungry, and living in horrible conditions. His stolen gift was able to loft them up from their destitution. Eventually, Theo Sparks was released from his prison. One would think that he would have learned not to meddle in people’s lives, but he had a soft spot for people....

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Sepia

You hear a lot about how horrible hell would be. I imagine it can’t be worse than where I am at now. They “liberated” me on a bright, sunny afternoon in April. Typical of Northern Illinois that time of year, the trees were flowering all sorts of shades of pink, white, yellow, and lavender-purple. With the windows open in my classroom, I could smell the colors. I knew the custodians would be upset with me for having the windows open. “Open windows mess with the HVAC system,” I imagined our head custodian complaining. I was sure an all-...

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Salt

Weekly Contest #351

Picking up the boxes of reports is the worst part of my job. The weekly reports are one thing, the monthlies are another, but the year-end reports are the absolute worst. As far as mundane jobs go, mine is the mundaniest. Working for Mallory University was supposed to be my big break, a stepping stone to a career. Instead, I’m stuck in the development office trying to get bougie wealthy alumni to give money to one of the most bougie schools in the midwest so they can crank out more bougie alumni. It’s a vicious cycle with no end in sigh...

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