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Ryan Brown

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Apr, 2026

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5 Stories

25 karma pts

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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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