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Wendy M

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jun, 2022

Stories (14)

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Library

132 Followers

43 Following

14 Stories

950 karma pts

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Family Values

Wendy M

Submitted to Contest #338

Douglas’s heart swelled with pride; his vegetable patch stood every chance of winning a gold medal at the annual produce show. The allotment bloomed with ruby-red plums, plump, sweet blackberries, and rows of fern-like fronds of juicy carrots. It was a sultry, mulch-scented late autumn day; when leaves squelched underfoot and caterpillars concertinaed their fat green bodies under old bricks and fell asleep. Hanging low in the sky, the sun prickled the bronzed shoulders of busy gardeners.Scraping mud from his Wellington boots, on the honed ed...

7 likes

I Think I Love You

Wendy M

Submitted to Contest #317

I Think I Love You There’s a poster of David Cassidy on my bedroom wall, between a white MFI wardrobe and a bookshelf with blue-spined Mallory Towers and my mum’s copies of The Chalet School. A pack of Dr White’s Number One’s is on my bed, and a girl wrapped in the pink candlewick bedspread is clutching her belly. Of course, I remember; nineteen-seventy-three. She’s me – almost thirteen and wallowing in the misery of her first period, and the isolation of a friendless child. David is as gorgeous as he ever was. ‘You haven’t chan...

21 likes

Family Matters

Wendy M

Submitted to Contest #261

CW miscarriage28th June 1978Hi TomThanks for the card and gift, it can't have been easy getting that posted. Pammy and the baby are doing really well. We've named her Annabel. No doubt it will become Annie or Belle by the time she goes to school. Can't believe I'm looking that far ahead, but the last nine months flew by. Hope you can get leave and come to the Christening. I'll let you know the date in plenty of time, so you can get a cheap flight, not that I imagine there’s much to spend money on where you are.All the bestDavid6th Nov 1...

16 likes

Le Bon Dieu

Wendy M

Submitted to Contest #255

         Winter limped into the late autumn day like a bedraggled pup looking for a warm fire and finding only an empty hearth. Squalling rain battered classroom windows, depositing sticky bronzed sycamore leaves and diverting the pupils' already limited attention.       Most of the children would leave the elementary school at fourteen; the boys to sweep swarf in dark grimy factories, the girls going into service or shop work, unless a dozen younger siblings mea...

9 likes

The Art Of Love

Wendy M

Submitted to Contest #242

James winced.       The gallery benches were solid and unyielding, something he should have remembered after 53 years. Misery bit at his sharp, protesting bones as he sat, tweaking his purple scarf. Visible but unapproachable, like an anxious aubergine basilisk.#       On his first trip to London, his parents had dashed him up the long rumbling escalator from the underground. The promise of a trip to see the guards parading in their smart scarlet tunics outside Buckingham ...

30 likes

For Emily Whenever I May Find Her

Wendy M

Submitted to Contest #234

    A gift, they called it, but would I have returned it unopened if I had known? I like to think I am better than that. The gift I give to you is untied. #        On the first day we met, you bought me coffee from a machine; so hot it scalded my fingers. My last coin had fallen from my aching, icy hand, rolled along the ground, and was under my supervisor's desk. She stared at me, daring me to crawl on my hands and knees, my skirt hitched up, to find it; tapping her pencil on the desk t...

23 likes

Moving On

Wendy M

Submitted to Contest #231

CW Mention of deathMy New Year's resolutions.Margery underlined the words, then went over them again with her black biro, as though making the words more dominant would make them harder to refute. She sat at the dining table, with a mat under her writing pad to not scratch the wood. You can't do anything important in a comfortable chair, or in slippers, she thought.1 Take down all the cards, before twelfth night.I’m being organised, Margery told herself, not ungrateful. There weren't that many cards, not as many as she'd expected, although e...

24 likes

Family Values

Wendy M

Submitted to Contest #218

It was a sultry, mulch-scented late autumn day; when leaves squelched underfoot and caterpillars concertinaed their fat green bodies under old bricks and fell asleep. Hanging low in the sky, the sun prickled the bronzed shoulders of busy gardeners. The allotment bloomed with ruby-red plums, plump, sweet blackberries, and row upon row of fern-like fronds of juicy carrots. Douglas’s heart swelled with pride; his vegetable patch stood every chance of winning a gold medal at the annual produce show.       &nbsp...

22 likes

The Last Of The Bright Young Things

Wendy M

Winner of Contest #212 🏆

Friday 7th October 1932 - Adelphi Hotel, LiverpoolDearest darling Herbert,What excitement we have had!  Mother and I boarded our train on Thursday. The conductor was a charming man. I swear he held my hand for just a moment too long. The weather was terrible, of course, but we were heading for the sun, and neither of us cared one jot. Then the thunderstorm started, which terrified Mother. She shrieked like she had seen a dozen mice with every rumble and flash. It was good fortune we shared our carriage solely with a group of nuns ...

132 likes

Girls Just Want To Have Fun

Wendy M

Submitted to Contest #211

           Bonnie swung the car around the hairpin bends with their views across the Carpathian mountains. She hadn't told Lulu about the car that went over the edge two weeks before but the remains were still there, wheels uppermost, and Lulu shrieked when she saw the taped-off area. The Transfagarasan highway had claimed another victim.       "The lake at the top is stunning, darling, worth the ride I promise."      ...

11 likes

How Do You Like Your Toast In The Morning?

Wendy M

Submitted to Contest #162

     Speed dating was just not Carole's thing. Not that she had tried it, but the thought horrified her.      How do you get to know someone in eight minutes? She wondered, but when her sister, Louise, suggested it after her eleventh failed date, she decided she had nothing to lose. Carole knew she was an attractive woman; her thick, brunette hair in its stylish bob suited her heart-shaped face. Her skin had a soft glow from the summer sun, and she used makeup sparingly to highlight her amber...

29 likes

You're Just So Intolerant

Wendy M

Submitted to Contest #153

Content warning: this story contains allergens!"I've thought about it, and it's chocolate.""Well that sounds good to me. Thought about what?""What you asked me earlier. Chocolate, it's a universal panacea.""I didn't ask 'what?' is a universal panacea. I asked 'what is?' a universal panacea. It's all in the inflection and the emphasis.""Oh, well you obviously inflected in the wrong place. That's so you. Nice pyjamas by the way. Are you comfy?""Yes, thanks. I could have slept on the air-bed, I didn't mind. I like your jimjams too, cute little ...

33 likes

The Sands of Time

Wendy M

Submitted to Contest #151

"I am your God and you shall worship me." He stared at his people balefully, this beautiful Abyssinian tyrant. None dared to disobey his wishes, afraid of the curse those vivid green eyes might level upon them. The people watched, quivering, apprehensive as the last stone rolled into place. Their God walked amongst them and had driven them hard. He ruled their ancestors for millennia, and they had bowed to his every desire, every whim. They had built this magnificent edifice for him, not knowing what they had created. A collective sigh a...

23 likes

Building A Dream

Wendy M

Submitted to Contest #149

     It had been his first substantial commission, designing the Bedford Hills Hotel, over 40 years ago. Like a gigantic wedding cake: sixteen layers of pure delight, and now he owned a slice. The top slice; the icing on the cake. "With a cherry on," he thought. They had named it 'The Robert Barrington Suite'. He was so proud of his namesake. For the last 20 years, he was the principal architect, then senior partner in the most prestigious design and build company in Europe. Now, he deserved his retirement, his music...

21 likes