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Weekly Contest #282
Content warning: Themes or references to discrimination and race.“I’m sorry for how . . .” she started to say before realizing the meeting was over. Shana was standing with her arms open and a smile on her face.It took Andrea an unreasonable amount of time during the meeting to figure out who Shana Jackson was. How could she be so dense? She had met Shana just over a month ago. Seattle is not so big that you may only meet somebody like Shana once in your life, especially when you are both involved in community theatre.Andrea had been a Seatt...
Weekly Contest #280
The signs were all there for the educated eye, starting with the footwork, the timing, the breathing. There was no snap to his jab, no crack in the right hook that his opponents had feared in the past. His gloves were increasingly used to shield and defend places not protected by headgear. The sparring partner danced around the aging boxer, effortlessly throwing punches at the shoulders, head, and midsection. Jake knew what he was watching as the two men continued working the ring. He had been a trainer for long enough to recognize the decli...
Weekly Contest #145
He rolled under the covers of the uncomfortable king-sized bed, feeling the pajama tops bunched up around his stomach. He lay on his side, not ready to wake up, and considered the reasons to face another day in another city. What casino hotel is this? His wife booked the hotel. He couldn’t recall the name and decided he didn’t care. Is she here? He turned his head just enough to open one eye to see the silhouette of his still-sleeping wife contrasted against the gray shadows on the far wall. How long are we here? He couldn’t remember what sh...
Weekly Contest #131
Sam opened the Christmas present from his brother Hal, as his mother and the rest of the family watched with smartphone cameras ready for the final reveal. He removed the wrapping paper that covered a shoebox. Sam smiled as he opened the lid and saw 16 black stone pieces inside. Sam's wife said, "Tell us what it is." Sam put the lid back on the box and looked at his brother across the room and started to laugh. "Hal, I don't believe it," he said to his brother. "Before I go any further, I want you to open one of your presents," he said, lo...
Weekly Contest #129
He saw fragmented patterns in the snow of flickering white and dark shadows without definition or topography. The background vista of the valley below with evergreens and snow-covered granite outcroppings beyond the immediate landscape of the ski run was hidden from his eyes. He stood alone with his skis pointed across the terrain, ski poles planted on the side of each ski, looking to the world like any other skier poised for another run. The ski equipment and clothing were not the latest technology, except for the ski helmet, which was a gi...
Weekly Contest #123
I told myself to practice the longest and most difficult of my lines ten times in the mirror before I could go to the easy lines. She said practicing in the mirror was the best way to memorize while also getting used to having an audience. How I got myself into the role of a thespian in a high school play was still a mystery. I was sure Ernest W. Stanley, who I was cast to play in The Man Who Came to Dinner, would have sympathy for my bewilderment. The performances were all scheduled, tickets printed, costumes selected, and my name was in th...
Weekly Contest #122
"I'm here to get my book," Melissa Watson said as the man opened the front door to his home. The man stood in the darkened entryway of the house in the Greenwood neighborhood in north Seattle, holding the door as Melissa started to push the door open. He stopped the door with his foot and looked at the intruder moving out of the diffused daylight and closer to the threshold. He reached for a light switch with his free hand and seemed to recognize the woman pushing the door was not a stranger. "Maybe you should stop right there," he said as...
Weekly Contest #57
“What I hear you saying is you want to bargain with the Devil,” said the voice from a dark cloud. The man the voice was speaking to looked up at the cloud and waited for jeers and laughter from other voices to stop. “I never thought of it that way, sir,” Ken Noble Jackson replied hesitantly. It had taken him many years in human-time for this meeting, and he knew he might never get another opportunity. Ken thought he saw movement in the dark cloud, a silhouette of something large appeared to sit on a stone. It was a presence that d...
Weekly Contest #50
The Club members gathered in the treehouse, sheltered from the summer sun by the leaves of the large oak tree that cast shadows over their business meeting. The two-room treehouse was built around the broad trunk of the tree with recycled pallet material, two-by-fours, and exterior plywood. The names of the original designers and carpenters were lost in history. There was a plywood door hung on mismatched hinges with a gate hook latch, several window frames with no windows, and a roof that was designed to work around tree branches. The floor...
Weekly Contest #48
Detective Yolonda Pryor read to the suspect a list of Constitutional rights printed on a Voluntary Waiver form. She looked at the suspect’s Arizona Driver’s License and wrote ‘Larry Pickering’ on the first line of the form, added the date, pushed it across the desk, and handed Larry a pen. “You didn’t think I would talk,” Larry said as he signed his name at the bottom of the form. “Why do you say that?” Detective Pryor asked. “You were talking to the other police officer,” Larry said as he returned the pen. Yolonda looked at the suspect an...
Weekly Contest #43
I didn’t start life with a desire to become a burglar. There was no specialized training, apprenticeship, or even a tradition of the craft in my family. I cannot name one ancestor who worked even part-time as a burglar. Until I was sixteen years old, I did not realize burglary, larceny, and robbery were not synonymous. I grew up in Concrete, Washington, a small town in the north Cascade Mountains situated at the confluence of the Skagit and Baker Rivers. The original name was “Cement City,” but that apparently was too dry for folks, and they...
Weekly Contest #41
“Can somebody take the ice bucket out to the patio?” Payson asked, looking over his shoulder to see if anybody was listening. Payson was at the kitchen sink, refilling the ice trays with water. He saw John looking at something on the refrigerator door. “John, you got the ice bucket?” he asked, wondering how long John had been standing there.John quickly put his cell phone back in his pocket and said, “Sure, I’ll do it,” turning his attention away from the refrigerator. From the corner of his eye, Payson caught something going into his neighb...
Weekly Contest #39
- - - West Coast - - -“What a spectacular sunrise,” Sam observed while standing in his living room, sipping his morning coffee. The dark gray outline of the Olympic Mountains silhouetted against the early light shining through the window of the newly purchased West Seattle condominium. Their building was located along a street overlooking Alki Beach with views to the west and north.Sam and Ellen had not finished unpacking the boxes after their move from Atlanta the week prior. They first unpacked bedding, followed by boxes marked kitchen ite...
Weekly Contest #37
“Frankly, the password is printed on the bottom of the keyboard,” the lawyer admitted to the two police officers. “I know how bad that is, and the only thing that makes it worse is that a quarter-million dollars are missing from our trust account.”Senior partner David Young sat in an interview room with police Lieutenant Randy Brooks and Detective Yolonda Pryor, explaining how his firm had been the victim of a fraudulent transfer of money from the firm trust account to a bank in Grand Cayman Island. The Seattle-based law firm had over 300 la...
Weekly Contest #36
The advantage of Passover for a man of my former profession is found in the number of pilgrims crowding into the city. Jerusalem is the religious, cultural, economic and political center of the Jewish universe, which is why we work here. As a member of the Zealot party I would go on assignments during the day and often at night. A man in my craft has no time or taste for family life, leaving me free to respond to changes and demands. The Zealots did not acknowledge my membership because I was part of the enforcement wing of the party. The Si...
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