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#152 Miracles and Oracles

We have little control over what happens to us, though there’s nothing more human than trying to micro-manage what will come next. This week, I want us to think about both the expected, and the unexpected; times when life throws positive twists at us — miracles, some might call them — or times when we try to predict those turns, for better or worse.

🥇 Winner

Foretold in Smoke

Winner of Weekly Contest #152 🏆

Content Warning: Mild foul languageMarie S. 5/5 Stars Vivienne is incredible! My life has completely changed since my visit. It’s like a light came on and she’s somehow unlocked all this hidden potential. She’s the best, seriously just go. Call today!Bradley J. 5/5Worth every penny. Highly recommend.Kevin R. 5/5 StarsI never thought I’d come to a place like this, but when I was at an all-time low, I just needed someone to tell me if life was worth sticking around for. I wanted to know if it ever got better. Vivienne made me believe that it w...

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⭐️ Shortlisted

This week's prompts

Write a story in which a miracle happens — or everyone thinks it did.

– 44 stories

Start your story with a character saying “I can see it now.”

– 36 stories

Write about a character whose life changes for the better.

– 47 stories

Set your story in an oracle or a fortune teller’s parlor.

– 65 stories

Write a story about someone whose job is to make miracles happen, literally or figuratively.

– 41 stories

Stories

The Healer of Bremen Township

Weekly Contest #152

1 “Who wants to see a miracle today?” The crowd, made up mostly by Bremen township locals and filled to its entirety with out-of-towners, murmurs a low clap. While folk like to talk about every Sunday being God’s day, it takes only a mildly muggy day to sap the Holy Spirit right out of them. “I said, WHO!” I give a slight pause for effect, “Wants to see a MIRACLE,” another small pause to really resurrect them this morning, “TODAY!?”  The mass clamors. With the loud jeers comes a collective surge of oxytocin, producing a feeling of w...

11 likes 3 comments 3
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A Bargain With Death

Weekly Contest #152

Kade Gunner was supposed to be dead. Billy had seen it with his own two eyes. The bright lights on a dark, rainy night. Had heard the tires screeching, the loud boom of the crash as the two cars had hit each other full force going well over the speed limit. Until there was nothing left but the smushed shells of two once pristine sports cars. The crowd had been silent at first, watching the ways the flames had started consuming the two vehicles, frozen by fear and shock. And then someone- probably Heather, Kade's prim and proper girl...

10 likes 3 comments 3
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When Your Luck's In

Weekly Contest #152

Elisabeth’s hair floated behind her, mesmerising Luthar as he chased after her down the hill. The smell of grass and wildflowers floated through the air and tickled his nose as the summer sun beat down on them both. She turned to him, that beaming smile of hers outshining even the sun itself. ‘Luthar watch out!’ The world turned upside down as Luthar realised he was weightless, trees, buildings and roads all spun in and out of his vision as he careered through the air. His arms flailed, trying to grab something, anything to stop his flig...

10 likes 1 comment 1
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The Mask

Weekly Contest #152

(Sensitive Content: Slight Gore, Skin Picking)What if I told you the miracle of eternal beauty was possible, and quite within reach? You’d jump at the opportunity, right? Everyone wants to be beautiful. No one wants to feel less-than. Tell me, how do you feel when you see someone with incredible, undeniable beauty, and see them fawned over for it constantly? Some may think to themselves, “I don’t care, I’m beautiful too.” But you can’t deny, deep inside, the boiling jealousy, the aching envy, the toil and pain of feeling like you’re less-tha...

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The Precipice

Weekly Contest #152

“My name is Stanley Menard, and I want to tell you that I can see it now. I can really see it and the wonder of it all. But let me go back to how it all happened.”  I grew up in a typical sleepy little New England town in the Blackstone Valley. There were two forms of religious paths to follow, catholic or one of the protestant teachings. In our small town of Uxbridge, Catholicism was the most followed form. Add to that the fact that my mother was the daughter of Irish immigrants. You can understand th...

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Vin and Val

Weekly Contest #152

Chapter 1: Vinny and Val “I can see it now.” Valencia’s sarcasm grated on Vinny’s already stretched thin nerves. It made Vinny automatically roll his eyes and walk faster, to get further away as fast as possible. His twin sister sure loved to push his buttons and to attempt to get him to snap.  “Vin. Come on, Vinny. I’m just kidding . Could you slow down?” Vinny sighed exasperated and turned to face her, her voice sounded apologetic . Vinny let out another sigh and crossed his arms, the muscles tightening and bulging slightly from the g...

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I CAN SEE IT NOW

Weekly Contest #152

I CAN SEE IT NOW “I can see it now.” She said over the phone. “There’s a fire on the next ridgetop over. It seems to be centered at John Wilson's ranch. We’ll have to hurry to get the animals out.” Sarah was always worried about the animals. As a park ranger assigned to the fire lookout tower, she took her job very seriously. She spent hours looking out over the trees through her binoculars and fortunately hadn’t seen many fires. This could be a big one if they didn’t get there fast enough. The other ranger arrived to relieve her so she co...

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The Case of Zaralyne Langster

Weekly Contest #152

The killer sat reading a book on psychic dreams. He frowned in concentration. Then, he thought of her, and her fear. The heat rose in him. No one will believe her, he thought. He’ll taunt her first, in her dreams. “I can see it now,” he said aloud, laughing at his own cunning.    Years ago, he’d learned through his troubling dreams, that sometimes he could hear the thoughts of another sensitive (as he called them). He once found himself connected with someone who had dreams of possible death. He thought about warning them, by subtl...

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The Masterpiece

Weekly Contest #152

“I can see it now,” Ms. Ray says as she stands over her defiant pupil. “What? a sea full of white?” “No Violet. Do you know what I see? I see a beautiful masterpiece.” Violet smirks at the optimistic teacher, whose sight was not aligned with hers. “Ok, mom. I’m ready to go. This teacher is losing her mind,” Violet says as she looks beyond the vacant canvas to see a familiar face. “Hush girl. I’m working on my masterpiece over here,” Violet’s mother replies as she stays focused on her more colorful canvas. “Oh my gosh. Everyone in here is cra...

10 likes 1 comment 1
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The Cup

Weekly Contest #152

   A series of clattering, clunking and banging rocked the kitchen. A lonely woman approaching middle age loaded her dishwasher from a rack bent out of shape from years of use. The sink was still full of culinary wares neglected from the last few nights. She began singing out of tune when she came across an odd receptacle. It had the shape of a human face whose craftsman made the common mistake of pushing realism into the netherworld of uncanny valley. It was an eyesore. The enlarged grin stared b...

10 likes 7 comments 7
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A Place Where Only the Things You Want to Happen, Happen

Weekly Contest #152

April walks the aisles of her favorite bookstore, carrying her infant daughter, Kelly. She loves to read and hopes Kelly will, too, one day, but she can’t afford any of these books. She is tired, overworked, and underpaid, and she worries she isn’t giving Kelly enough. Still, April shows her daughter the caterpillar mural in the children’s section with a smile on her face. A stranger approaches—an older woman, beaming at Kelly. “Look at her,” she says. “What a precious baby girl. A miracle.” April smiles politely, knowing the woman mea...

10 likes 8 comments 8
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The fortune-teller

Weekly Contest #152

They can be found all over the world. In every village, there is always at least one woman who takes pleasure in reading people's fortunes in teacups, coffee grounds, reading the cards, or predicting the future in whatever way. Some place advertisements in newspapers, but of course, there are those who do not advertise and who live on word of mouth. These are people who don't need advertising. They only use their gifts as a matter of friendship for certain beneficiaries and a round price of course. You come across them everywhere, people who...

10 likes 2 comments 2
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The Boardwalk Oracle

Weekly Contest #152

The Boardwalk The shuffling of wooden boards echoed and blended with the crashing of the waves.  The full moon, dusted with gray clouds, highlighted the deep cracks time had weathered.  "The sky seems almost purple tonight, doesn't Calvin?"  Kristi said, as they strolled the Boardwalk.  Slowly watching the carnival rides disappearing into the distance. "It's different, isn't it.  The clouds make it, I don't know, almost eerie."  Calvin said, making an ass out of himself with a crooked smile as he tickled her...

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Seer

Weekly Contest #152

I believe in miracles simply because one hasn’t happened to me. It’s easy to believe in something that no one is sure exists—there is no evidence to prove it doesn’t, after all. Hope is like that. It’s easy to have hope when the future is unknown, unfolding like the crumpled wings of a newborn bird. It’s like oxygen and clouds and the space between fingertips—something we can’t always see or touch, but know is there. I’ve always believed in the inherent unknowable mysteries of the world. I’m not so naive or egotistical to say that I have a G...

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TRUTH IS IN BLOOD

Weekly Contest #152

TRUTH IS IN BLOOD It had the appearance of a small temple, or rather a small chapel, surmounted as it was by a dome  that  resembled those of Palladio. The small chapel had been built by willing people of the town, with the collaboration of willing people of the nearby towns ( villages). Even from the beginning it was known it had been a place of prophecy , of predictions, that is , a kind of meeting place or club where people would go to ask about their future, yes, to have proph...

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