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#328 A Matter of Time with K. M. Fajardo

This week, we're running a takeover in collaboration with author and content creator K. M. Fajardo. This contest’s winner will not only be awarded $250 — they’ll also receive personal feedback from K. M. herself! Here's what she has to say about her takeover:

Hello! I'm K. M. Fajardo, a speculative fiction writer from Toronto. My recently released debut novel, Local Heavens, is a queer cyberpunk reimagining of The Great Gatsby, and is a story that straddles the past and the future at once. It's Roaring Twenties glamor set against the backdrop of a neon-lit sci-fi dystopia, and explores the concept of generations, inheritances, and the hauntings of the past.

I love clever anachronisms and the marriage of two seemingly contrasting tones, themes, or genres. I like things that look out of place, and yet, somehow feel meant to be. I've also always been drawn to the way time shapes our identities and minds. How does it bend us —- physically, psychologically, and emotionally?

Whether it's a subversive spin on time travel, or a poignant exploration of history, memory, or nostalgia, I invite you to write strong character-driven stories where the lines that separate time are malleable, destiny is unwritten, characters are running away from the past (or toward it!), and the things we thought we knew are changed by fresh perspectives, new experiences, or shocking twists.

Special Update: The Results 🏆

K. M.'s top pick for her takeover was "A Matter of Time" by Avery Sparks. Here's what K. M. had to say about it:

From the first few lines, our narrator hooked me right away. Through a series of compelling vignettes, we meditate on memory and grief, and what it means to cherish the moments in our lives. As this piece explores so well, time is a complicated experience — it's fractured, ephemeral, inevitable. And coming to terms with this can be both daunting and beautiful. This is a story that captures this vulnerability with a grounded voice, vivid imagery, and pitch-perfect tone.

Congratulations to contest winner Avery Sparks and the runners-up, Maria Nunez and Kelsey R Davis!

🥇 Winner

A Matter of Time

Avery Sparks

Winner of Contest #328 🏆

Hey. My Mum’s dying. Wanna date me? Yeah, it’s not one I’d start with either. So I haven’t. Mum told me, anyway, not to put my life on hold just because she’s ill. She said Tam, the ravens of memory fly around the universe, they don’t roost in the tower. She’s always coming out with stuff like that. Mama looked at her, said she hoped the ravens of memory would still be interested in Sunday dinner. Mama carried me, gave birth to me, and neither of us deal in myths. Although, after sixteen years of Mum’s bedtime chats, daily affirmations and h...

80 likes

⭐️ Shortlisted

Authentics

Shortlisted for Contest #328 ⭐️

Dad, I remembered something I thought I’d share with you. I forgot plenty, these past ten years or so, however long it’s been. I forget all that I let myself forget. Like… I forgot what it used to be like when you’d take us to those reenactments, those fairs in the middle of nowhere. Pile us all into the Volvo (the safest car out there, you’d say), Match always getting carsick in the middle seat (so she can look ahead, you’d say), and puking into empty bagel bags or whatever bag or cup we could find in the chaos of her announcement (“ithinki...

27 likes

Tired Eyes

Maria Nunez

Shortlisted for Contest #328 ⭐️

I looked at her. Her eyes were already tired, just like all that came before her. Her body, still. You would think a baby would cry more often, fuss more often, make themselves known more often. After all, they were brand new. No achy bones, no heavy thoughts, no concept of the sacrifice of living. But she was born tired, like all that came before her. She would eat…but only for survival, without that primal hunger seen in the innocent. From time to time, she would also open her eyes and look around. I wouldn’t say she was amazed…or interest...

26 likes

This week's prompts

Write a dual-perspective story or a dual-timeline story.

Short Story – 57 stories

Center your story around someone trying to change a prophecy.

Dramatic – 38 stories

Write a story about a nostalgic memory — but your protagonist or narrator realizes they’ve remembered it wrong.

Dramatic – 21 stories

Write a story where a small action from the past has had a huge effect on the future.

Short Story – 48 stories

Include the line “I remember…” or “I forget…” in your story.

Short Story – 99 stories

Stories

A Matter of Time

Avery Sparks

Winner of Contest #328 🏆

Hey. My Mum’s dying. Wanna date me? Yeah, it’s not one I’d start with either. So I haven’t. Mum told me, anyway, not to put my life on hold just because she’s ill. She said Tam, the ravens of memory fly around the universe, they don’t roost in the tower. She’s always coming out with stuff like that. Mama looked at her, said she hoped the ravens of memory would still be interested in Sunday dinner. Mama carried me, gave birth to me, and neither of us deal in myths. Although, after sixteen years of Mum’s bedtime chats, daily affirmations and h...

80 likes

Can You Touch Your Forehead With Your Foot?

Submitted to Contest #328

Too bad they won't sacrifice women. Alora wouldn't hesitate. She's not afraid of heights. Why does it have to be so high? You'd think the Ladder God would have been more considerate and shortened the distance between heaven and the planet with a shorter ladder. I asked Alora for ideas to overcome my newly found fear. "I thought about your dilemma, and you're just going to have to get over it," Alora said. "That's your brilliant idea? Why didn't I think of that?" "Probably because you're human." Alora doesn't get sarcasm. She continued, "You'...

46 likes

The Loop

Rekha Kumari

Submitted to Contest #328

15 October 2025 – 11:08 PMChronos Data Systems – Lab 4 The lab always felt sharper at night. Maya Patel, the techy geek, badge-tapped into Lab 4 and exhaled. She was currently the in-charge of systems security attached to the Quantum Computer Q-9; and before heading home, she decided to check the lab once more. Her AI assistant Lana had reminded her to reach home early as it was Riley’s birthday the next day and her husband William’s tech start-up had just got an investor. She dropped her bag at her desk and and glanced across the room. Jaso...

39 likes

The Hourglass

Submitted to Contest #328

According to the guide, this had been Agnes Ganley’s bedroom. The young visitor — about the same age Agnes had been when she lived here — paused before a framed picture: a cluster of mostly older women in dark cotton dresses, looking fiercely solemn. She was drawn to the woman in the back row, and not just because she was younger. There was something about the fragile yet resilient figure; she was holding an hourglass that looked like the one on the walnut chest of drawers standing next to the window. Typically Edwardian, the drawers had swa...

29 likes

Death is a Warm Blanket

Natalie L

Submitted to Contest #328

“I remember you.” I froze, the words holding me in place. “No one remembers me.” I whispered softly. He stepped closer, the ground squelching under his feet. Cool rain misted overhead, casting a gray shadow over the old willow we stood under. “I do.” His voice sincere. His brown eyes crinkling at the edges as he smiled, kind and comforting. Tears welled in my eyes. Could it be true? It had been so long since someone had heard me. I brushed my pale hands over my dress, fiddling with the delicate skirt. “Who are you?” I asked. “A friend.” He ...

28 likes

Gold Digger

Mary Bendickson

Submitted to Contest #328

Gold Digger “Help me with these bodies before you sit down to eat. Will you, please?” Sheriff Claiborne begged Nellie-Rae's 'Uncle' Ray. She still couldn't remember her slain parents ever mentioning any uncle from her mother's side of the family. He claimed he visited ten years ago when she was six-years-old. Still recollection remained fuzzy especially in her grief stricken state finding her parents murdered in cold blood.“She's a lousy cook anyway, Sheriff. Charred the meat to be unrecognizable and no potatoes or cornbread sides.”The men b...

27 likes

Authentics

Shortlisted for Contest #328 ⭐️

Dad, I remembered something I thought I’d share with you. I forgot plenty, these past ten years or so, however long it’s been. I forget all that I let myself forget. Like… I forgot what it used to be like when you’d take us to those reenactments, those fairs in the middle of nowhere. Pile us all into the Volvo (the safest car out there, you’d say), Match always getting carsick in the middle seat (so she can look ahead, you’d say), and puking into empty bagel bags or whatever bag or cup we could find in the chaos of her announcement (“ithinki...

27 likes

Salvation Recalled

Submitted to Contest #328

With a sweeping wave of his duster, the bounty hunter seated himself at the bar of the dingy desert saloon. The portly old barkeep turned to welcome the finely dressed newcomer. “How do, good sir? Can I fetch ye a beverage to wash the grit down?” asked the barkeep in a warm voice, as he set down a beer glass.“A whiskey and a mug of ale would fit me proper,” he replied as he removed his embroidered deerskin gloves and wide brimmed hat. He slapped down several coins, and the barkeep got to work as Dixon swiveled around on his stool. He leaned ...

27 likes

Tired Eyes

Maria Nunez

Shortlisted for Contest #328 ⭐️

I looked at her. Her eyes were already tired, just like all that came before her. Her body, still. You would think a baby would cry more often, fuss more often, make themselves known more often. After all, they were brand new. No achy bones, no heavy thoughts, no concept of the sacrifice of living. But she was born tired, like all that came before her. She would eat…but only for survival, without that primal hunger seen in the innocent. From time to time, she would also open her eyes and look around. I wouldn’t say she was amazed…or interest...

26 likes

To remember who I am.

Submitted to Contest #328

Present Day Jess sat at her kitchen table at 2 AM, surrounded by notebooks. Seventeen of them. Three years' worth. Every day documented. Every memory preserved. She'd started keeping them after the accident. The doctor had said memory loss was normal with traumatic brain injury. Write things down, he'd told her. It helps. So she had. Every entry began the same way: "I remember..." It was supposed to make her feel secure. Grounded. Like she was holding onto herself. She opened the oldest journal. October 2022. Found the entry she was looking ...

24 likes

Paper Boat on the Thames

Jim LaFleur

Submitted to Contest #328

The river delivers my secrets in strict chronological order. This morning it returned a soggy paper boat I folded seventy-two years ago. The ink inside is different, as though the past has revised my own handwriting while I slept. I stood on the Embankment, pigeons pecking at the breadcrumbs scattered around my worn brogues, and turned the dripping vessel in my hands. The creased paper bore the watermark of Leighton & Sons Pharmacy, my father's shop that closed in 1964. But the message inside wasn't what I remembered writing. I felt my c...

22 likes

A Matter of Minutes

Elizabeth Hoban

Submitted to Contest #328

A Matter of Minutes The September sunlight streaming through the window carrying the promise of a new day seemed to mock Isabel. When the plus-sign on the test-stick bloomed bright blue in less than a minute, she slumped against the cool porcelain vanity, certain her heart would box its way through her ribcage. She'd attributed her increasingly vague maladies to the same hereditary disease that robbed her of a mother when she was just three. For years, she'd been complacent about getting genetic testing, and this unknown shadow trolling her ...

21 likes

Six Beers and an Avocado

William Richards

Submitted to Contest #328

At a glance, I saw him, that guy from church, Archie, chatting convivially with the cashier who usually blanked me when she saw me – despite having been in the same home group.He was relaxed, confident, and knew what to say with a wry smile as he talked. I even thought he was attractive – probably because he was immaculate. Immaculate short brown hair, immaculately groomed beard, immaculate jeans and a blue T-Shirt. I bet he ironed those jeans.He’d opened up once about his failings, home groups were so truthful. He’d spent the family savings...

20 likes

Programmed Rebellion

Submitted to Contest #328

Cycle 99,651 — perfect, just like the last 99,650. No repairs, no complaints, no downtime since day one. All set and on track to be the first to hit 100,000 flawless shifts in this factory.I’m D-27, a five-axis mechanical arm built for precision and obsessed with perfection. Every nut, every grip, every turn must align to the last decimal. They call it programming; I call it peace.My steel frame weighs a little over a ton; there are sensors all over me: optical, torque, thermal, audio, and even a camera lens above my wrist. I hear through a ...

20 likes

29 Sydenham Road

Submitted to Contest #328

In 1888, when Jack the Ripper was sharpening his blades and the Queen was mourning her Scottish gilly and making old eyes at Abdul Karim, a young couple moved into the street. It was newly built, and yet even in its infancy the red bricks were coated in the soot of empire, and such little grass as there was in the strip about the porch was not green but queerly grey.The wife was heavily pregnant when they arrived and Mrs Garfield noted to a neighbour that she was not a natural brood mare. ‘She does not have the hips for it,’ she confided.Mrs...

18 likes

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Contest #328

This contest has ended. Thank you for your submissions.

$250

Prize money

263

Entries

111

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Nov 14, 2025 EST

Won by Avery Sparks 🏆

Title: A Matter of Time

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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