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Stephen Massa

Author on Reedsy Prompts since May, 2021

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6 Stories

97 karma pts

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Regrets

Weekly Contest #369

Trigger Warning: This story contains scenes dealing with mental health, substance abuse, and physical violence.**************************************************************************************************I sat in the den chair, my bare legs sticking to the seat in the hot, humid air of a July night, knowing full well that it would hurt like hell if I tried to get up, the vinyl tearing away multiple layers of skin. I swirled the scotch in my glass, the sweet, smoky scent wafting upwards as I raised it to my lips.The familiar burning sens...

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You Think You Know Someone

Weekly Contest #259

Today was the day I was dreading for over fifty years. I never wanted it to happen, and yet here we are. I’m driving up to Bearsville from my little corner of New York City, from a borough you may have heard of called Brooklyn, from a neighborhood called Park Slope that you probably haven’t. Three hours (and two minutes, but who’s counting?) of my life I can’t get back. I was forced to spend three hours (and two minutes) listening to staticky radio since I forgot to pay my satellite radio bill. Perhaps forgetting is too forgiving a term - I ...

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Birds

Weekly Contest #258

Ralph Harwinton was a lonely man. Depressed, unemployed, and otherwise miserable, he walked along the trail path through a thick forest of deciduous trees, swatting gnats, mosquitoes, and other annoying critters that just wanted him for his blood, away from his face. To an outside observer, he resembled a madman. He looked up at the birches, oaks, maples, and ash, the latter having been devastated by that nasty emerald ash borer during the past few years, their bare limbs reaching the sky but providing no cover. The sunlight streamed down th...

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Salmon Park Sunset

Weekly Contest #144

Lisa stared at the screen, the image of the camera staring back at her. She always enjoyed photography and always wanted to do more. Her friends always told her she had a good eye, and her Instagram posts of landscapes and waterways always garnered lots of likes. But those were taken with her five-year-old iPhone, and she knew she could do much better if she only had a real camera, which is why she found herself staring at the online camera store’s website. She had lost her job recently which was a blessing in disguise, for sure. She hated...

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Susan

Weekly Contest #143

SUSANBy Stephen A. MassaSusan stood at the south-facing window, absorbing the sunlight streaming through the panes. She longed to feel the fresh air, but the cool draft penetrating the glass made her wish for much warmer climes.Her neighbors, stationary as much as she was, were similar in size and stature, if not in color. At the far end of the row, Julia differed from the rest, her purple and pink hues contrasting sharply with the yellows and whites of her peers.Susan was there the longest, not for lack of interest, but of cost. She was tal...

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The Choice of His Life

Weekly Contest #95

He sat, staring indecisively at the dessert cart. This was always his toughest decision - does he choose the cannoli or the eclair? His mother stared at him, disapprovingly. Charles’ weight had always been a problem for him, even before he was born. Fran had never liked her son, her youngest. She had wanted to stop at two, but her husband insisted on a third. She tried to resist but there was that one drunken night in New York City and nine months later, here’s Charles. The rest of the family sensed what was coming. The inevitable argume...

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