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Tricia Shulist

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2021

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128 Followers

17 Following

150 Stories

1772 karma pts

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The Fair

THE FAIR “So, doth m’lady come here often?” Jeremy smiled at his booth mate, Veronica. “Ha ha! Very funny.” They were manning a booth at a Regency Fair, selling locally brewed mead, a fermented honey drink popular during the Regency. Even though it was barely noon, their booth had been doing a brisk business. Seemed that the guests needed to get ye olde drink on early. Veronica and Jeremy were old hands at Renaissence Fairs. But this was the first time either one of them had participated in a Regency Fair. These were a fairly new trend....

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Missing Her Life

MISSNG HER LIFE “I’m not sure that you are in the here and now.” Yolanda opened her eyes, and looked up at Jen, her yoga instructor. Guilty, but she’d never admit it. “Why do you say that?” she asked Jen. “Well, because your face is all screwed up. Like this,” She twisted her mouth to the side, “And you’re tapping out some sort of internal Morse code with your fingers.” Yolanda sighed and sat up. “But it’s hard.” She had hired Jen to give her private yoga lessons at home. That way, she figured, she would be able to concentrate on the ...

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Of Stalks and Bonds

OF STALKS AND BONDS. It was late when I stepped off the bus. It had been a long day, an even longer night, and I was ready for it to be over. I looked around, sighed, and started the trek home. It was only three blocks, but it might as well have been three miles. I was exhausted, and I wasn’t sure that I could make it all the way home. I admonished myself for being so “budget conscious” and not ordering an Uber or grabbing a cab. But, at the time it seemed like an extravagance, and I’d felt fine. It wasn’t until I had been sitting in the bu...

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The Magic Library

THE MAGIC LIBRARY “So, what is it?” Jenna asked looking at the object in Noah’ hands. Noah shook his head, slightly. “I’m not sure,” he said, “I think it’s a diary or something.” He fanned through the pages, then opened the cover. “It belonged to someone named Benj Thomas.” He continued reading the first page. “The first date is August 14, 1989.” He turned the book towards Jenna, who read the front page. “Benji Thomas … why do I know that name?” Noah shook his head. “I have no idea.” Jenna took out her phone and opened Google, typing...

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Spill The Tea

SPILL THE TEA Ariel loved the summer. Her mom was home from work—she was a teacher—and they got to spend all their time together. And they went out to cool places—the Children’s Museum, the park, Mom and Toddler program, the library, and her favourite—Charlotte’s house! Like today! Charlotte was Mommy’s best friend. They’d known each other forever—at least that’s what Mommy said. Ariel knew that forever was a long time, which made her wonder how old Mommy really was. Charlotte and Mommy had gone to school together, and were besties. Ariel ...

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Lost Without Elliot

Weekly Contest #249

LOST WITHOUT ELLIOT “You have got to be kidding me!” Elle looked out at the lake. She was stopped at the mouth of a boat ramp. It was supposed to be a road. There was not supposed to be a lake. Slamming both her palms on the steering wheel, she swung her gaze to her phone. “You are a piece of crap!” She smacked the steering wheel again, and threw herself back in her seat. What if I hadn’t seen the light glint off the water? What then? What if—and it's a good thing I didn’t—I had trusted the GPS in my P.O.S. phone? EF! In frustration, ...

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Paradise Lost

PARADISE LOST “Where is he?” I asked. “Who?” replied Ramey. “Paradise.” He looked around, as if just noticing that our 70 pound Sulcata tortoise, Paradise, wasn’t where he was supposed to be. “I have no idea.” I looked at him horrified, worst case scenarios spinning through my head. “I asked you to bring him in, this morning before I left for work.” I walked to the back door, scanning the yard. Ramey looked confused. “You did?” “I did. You were playing video games. You said you would as soon as you beat the level.” “I did?” I wa...

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Our Bucket List

OUR BUCKET LIST I looked at the horse. The horse looked at me. I looked at the paper in my hand. Sign up for horseback riding lessons. Technically, I had signed up for the horseback riding lessons. I just hadn’t actually gotten on the horse. Yet. My pedantic soul said that I had fulfilled my obligation, but in all fairness I knew that just signing up and not riding, would be a cop-out. “Okay, let’s do this!” ***** When Emile and I had decided that horseback riding lessons were a thing, we’d been staying at a cabin in the Rocky Mountai...

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Livin' Your Best Life

LIVIN’ YOUR BEST LIFE “What’s going on?” Chris looked at his two friends, a smile splitting his features. “Nothin’” said Rita. “Not too much,” said Sammy. The three had been friends forever. They had attended the same elementary school, and were now in their last year of high school together. Rita was going off to university, as was Sammy. Both were smart, and worked hard for their grades. The same couldn’t be said for Chris, and that was, perhaps, part of the problem. Chris was stupid-smart — the smartest person in the room at any tim...

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To Hell With Eclipses!

TO HELL WIITH ECLIPSES! I could almost taste the excitement in the air. But I had no idea why. I looked around the house. There was no tree in the living room, so it wasn’t Christmas. Nobody had hidden any candy or chocolate around, so it wasn’t Easter. There were nothing scary out on the front lawn, so not Hallowe’en. Nothing was green, there were no fireworks, there were no heart-shaped boxes of chocolate lowering on the table. So what was happening? I sat back and watched. Everyone was excited. There was no running around, but there wa...

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CHEESE!

CHEESE! “CHEESE!” I clicked the shutter button. I felt a little weird saying “cheese” out loud because I was alone. But, hey, I wasn’t going to see any of these people ever again. And you always say cheese when you take a picture, right? I checked the time, and realized that I had to hurry, or I was going to be late with my meetup with my husband Max. He was finished with his session at three o’clock, and it was already two forty-five. I was a bit of a distance away from the conference venue, so I decided that public transport was the way...

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Arti

ARTI ‘This is crap!” Ryan pushed himself away from the desk, crossed his arms, and stared at the computer screen. “Perhaps you could consider giving me a better prompt. Telling me to write something about aliens is very vague.” “Shut it, Arti!” said Ryan, frowning. “Do you really mean that?” “Yes, I do.” As an AI, Arti was used to being the brunt of Ryan’s temper tantrums. A frustrated writer, he depended on Arti to do the heavy lifting in his “career”. Initially, Arti had tried to help him, but she’d soon learned that — what was that...

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There's No Place Like Home

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME CRASH! “Oh no! Oh no no no no!” I looked at the crushed remains of what was once the most important piece of the collection. I felt sick. ***** I’d been looking forward to today all week long. It was Restoration Day — the day that we examined a predetermined collection and decided whether or not the artifacts within that collection were aging well, or if they needed some TLC. And being the head curator and in charge of maintaining the historical “health” of the various collections, today was the day of the week ...

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My Shoulder Angel and Devil

MY SHOULDER ANGEL AND DEVIL They have always been with me, and they have always argued! Right from the beginning, bickering back and forth. ***** “You should throw that at Mom.” “Noooo. That’s mean!” “But funny!” “Noooo. You could hurt her.” “Yeah, but still funny!” SPLAT! I started to laugh, but was quickly silenced by the look my mother gave me. She stared at me, surprised, and a bit angry. “Alexandra! What do you think you’re doing?” She looked down at her shirt. “Why would you throw your food at me?” She put her hands on her hi...

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The Captain and The Petty Officer

THE CAPTAIN AND THE PETTY OFFICER Casha twisted the door handle, and pushed. It was heavy, but the door opened slowly. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she said, squeezing through the narrow opening. She was in! Thank God. She didn’t think that she would have been able to survive much longer outside in the storm — she was cold, wet, bruised and battered. And … She looked around. She was in the lighthouse. Not one of the new, automated ones, but one of the old ones that had been retrofitted. The weather was so bad and the sky so dark th...

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