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

Posted in Middle School on Nov 1, 2022

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✍️ 44 stories

Tim Finnegan's Wake

Shortlisted for Contest #152 ⭐️

Ah, hello there an’ welcome, ‘tis yerself? Are ye well settled there?I sincerely hope this story finds ye well. And if yer not well, then I hope it finds ye nonetheless. It’s all about a poor man Timothy Finnegan, or Tim as we all knew him. Now Tim was born a gentleman, never a nicer man could ye meet. A gentleman surely, but as poor a blighter as ever ye seen. His father was a cooper. They don’t have many coopers these days, which is a shame. For those who don’t know, a cooper is a man who makes wooden barrels. They don’...

49 likes 48 comments 48
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What Really Happened

Submitted to Contest #152

Content warning: DeathWhen you came home from Vietnam in one piece, people called it a miracle. Not that you blamed them. Growing up, you attracted bullies and beatdowns like a magnet. You were never the biggest, the toughest, the strongest. You, who could loop your middle finger and thumb around your wrist and still have room. Quite a few bets were lost the day you stepped off that plane in Los Angeles, dressed in fatigues and feeling the way you looked.The homecoming was not what you had expected.At home your mother greeted you with a batc...

46 likes 52 comments 52
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One of the Abandoned Boys

Submitted to Contest #152

[Content Warning: Claustrophobia]East Side, London, 1889.Charlie sobs into the dark. He doesn’t want to be one of the abandoned boys. When Patch got stuck, Master Smith left him in there for a week until the landlord complained. They had to break the wall with a hammer to get him out. Charlie hadn’t seen it, but the other apprentices said they found him curled up like he was asleep, but all stiff-like. Patch didn’t sweep any more after that.Charlie’s knees are level with his chin, his head presses against sweltering bricks, and the brus...

32 likes 29 comments 29
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Resurrection

Submitted to Contest #152

Sonoran summers… Eight lanes of pavement boil and pop across the Mexico–United States border, and eight lanes of vehicles crawl slower than a walk, halting for several minutes at a time. Their passengers cool themselves by running the heat with the windows up. They roll them down only for vendors walking fearlessly among them, selling ice water, claiming it is clean. Shrubby trees wither tawny and crisp all through the unbearably blue-sky day. Then the sun sets without warning and it becomes almost chilly. Fires flicker beneath overturn...

26 likes 32 comments 32
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When Fear takes Flight

Submitted to Contest #152

In the early days of our marriage, I used to buy little gifts for Rachel all the time. I wouldn’t necessarily make a big deal of it, sometimes I would just be out getting my lunch and a colourful coffee cup, one of those reusable ones, would catch my eye and I’d pick it up with hardly a second thought. Other times on my way back home, I’d stop to get a bunch of whatever blooms were in season from the stand just outside the train station. But as time went by, the small impulse buys petered out and presents seemed only to be given on the set d...

26 likes 14 comments 14
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KARISHMA

Submitted to Contest #152

KARISHMA *PRESENT*                                                                                       &nbsp...

19 likes 8 comments 8
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A Miracle for Momma

Submitted to Contest #152

A Miracle for MommaBy Amy Lynn Jackson“I’m losing my mind, momma. Please help me!” The words rang through Amy’s mind as they pierced her heart and soul. Watching the despair in her daughter’s face and hearing the desperation in her voice was almost more than she could bear.“Please Dear God, teach me how to help my daughter.” This was a request sent upon a whisper and followed by a swig of hard liquor. Little did Amy realize that although her path was not straight, God heard her prayer. How He answered shook her to her core.It was a cold nigh...

18 likes 1 comment 1
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The Tree

Submitted to Contest #152

The physician pulled the drapery to the doorway and glanced into the room to the bed where the young girl was laying with the covers pulled up to her neck. He met the dark brown eyes, shaped into a plea. From the door he noted the droplets of sweat streaming down her brow and the deathly-pale complexion of her face and hands. He saw the rags with circles of red on the nearby table. The doctor released the drapeIt is schachepheth. The white plagueHow can you diagnose her from the door? Go in and treat herI cannot go in We are paying you for t...

16 likes 3 comments 3
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The Miracle At Bondi Junction

Submitted to Contest #152

We had been kicked out of our Airbnb. A tiny guest house behind a real house about a half mile from Bondi Beach. After Australia’s lockdowns were lifted, rentals were tight in the city. Another more desirable tenant had replaced us.Lately I had also begun to wonder if, instead of being here on the other side of the world, we should be in Brooklyn visiting my daughter in university, but the immediate concern at that moment was the day’s move to our new place of shelter.Two large suitcases stood next to us as we waited on the main street of Bo...

15 likes 8 comments 8
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Intuition

Submitted to Contest #152

Today it was a broken railing that caught and grabbed her attention. Most days it was roadkill. The grotesque bodies of whatever animals had been foolish enough to venture into the road. It always made her stomach do little flips. Her nose would fill with the smell of death, even though she knew that was impossible. There was no way the smell could reach her in here. She’d picture what the animal had looked like before, as if that would make it any less dead, any less mangled. Then she’d curse humanity for inventing such a destructive force ...

15 likes 15 comments 15
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The Miraculous Fish

Submitted to Contest #152

I died. For real. It wasn’t my first time. Like many others from the village, the Shaman brought me back to continue my life. He told us we had a purpose. No one gets sick here. They only die when their ancestors call them. That is how it’s always been. People from everywhere came to Shaman for healing. He even made house calls. We took his presence for granted. It was typical. People thrived. He told me, “You were asleep, Cricket.” “But this was not ordinary sleep…” Shaman nodded and continued hanging forest herbs to dry. I watched as he ...

14 likes 3 comments 3
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The Woman Who Could Find Anything

Submitted to Contest #152

So you’re probably wondering, who is that woman?  Well, that woman is my mother.  And as of last month, she is still my mother, but just not in that body anymore.  All the systems that had kept her alive for 92 years conspired together to decide it was time to call it quits.  And she was ready for that; well, as much as anyone feels prepared.  As she lay in her hospital bed I sensed her fear, but also her knowledge that this was going to be an exit.  It never is quite like you imagine it, I’m sure of that. One...

14 likes 6 comments 6
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Fighting an Impossible Fight

Submitted to Contest #152

TW: Swearing and gore. Danielle had fought monsters before. Compared to the giant beast before her the rest were harmless flies.             “I guess this is how I’ll die,” the knight said to herself. She inhaled deeply.             Blood rained from the red sky. The breeze from the monster’s mighty wings flapping chilled her bones. Scorpion legs that could carry a castle scuttled towards her.     &nbs...

14 likes 17 comments 17
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Ni

Submitted to Contest #152

“We want a shrubbery!” My eyes shot wide open at those words. My now wide open eyes were greeted with the sight of a forest canopy. Twas a beautiful sight, but one wasted on one such as I, at a moment such as this. Stop that, I told myself, you sound a tad pompous.  I resolved to calm myself and my language down, but only to ratchet it down one whole tad. I knew no other way. I rubbed my head. The rubbing of my head was of little help. This action of mine was automatic and it was in response to a perceived hurting that seemed ce...

12 likes 2 comments 2
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Negotiating

Submitted to Contest #152

Straw pursed between her lips, Pat gingerly sipped the blended mixture of powdered nutrients, milk and chocolate ice cream. The cold liquid pooled on her tongue for a moment as she held it there, willing the muscles in her throat to swallow. Once she finally did so, pain immediately shot to her jaw, radiating from the back of her bottom left tooth. She grabbed her cheek and winced. “Still hurts to swallow, Mom?” her daughter Hillary asked, walking in the doorway of Pat’s bedroom at that moment with a tray of assorted pill bottles, tissues,...

11 likes 2 comments 2
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