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Start or end your story with a character preparing for someone else’s big moment.

Posted in Short Story on Aug 29, 2025

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✍️ 31 stories

Static at the Edge of 29 Palms

Submitted to Contest #318

Neptune’s trailer smelled like burnt sugar and the last page of a library book. She was elbow-deep in cosmic frosting, dyed eclipse-blue and glittering with edible stardust, spinning cupcakes like small planets for someone else’s big moment. Outside, the 29 Palms sky simmered in pink and rust, the sun leaking over rusted car parts and prayer flags, casting long shadows that twitched like they had secrets. The desert had been whispering all morning. Neptune heard it in the hum of the generator, in the way the wind kept flipping her tarot deck...

29 likes 6 comments 6
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Surviving Saribung

Submitted to Contest #318

When the guy Mckenna was dating (if spending years hunting and fishing expeditions in northern Wisconsin and Canada could be called “dating”), replaced her with a wilderness expert from Australia, she found herself at a loss on how to respond.“Thanks for letting Logan take your place” is what Karl had said. Lately, he had been getting annoying with the internet’s latest advice of saying “thank you” instead of “sorry.”Worst of all, he thought she wasn’t 'knowledgeable" enough to guide their expedition to Nepal.Sabotage wasn’t her style, so pl...

21 likes 7 comments 7
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Always the Bridesmaid

Submitted to Contest #318

The zipper jams halfway up my back. Of course it does. I exhale slowly, careful not to let the sound turn into a groan. I hold my breath there, like I'm accustomed to — in my chest, under my ribs, behind my teeth — and try again. The navy bridesmaid dress bunches at the waist, stubborn tulle clinging desperately to itself. Even the dress can sense my nerves.There's a knock on the bedroom door, three fluttering taps against the dark oak. Wendy."Almost ready?" comes my little sister's airy voice."I'll be right out," I reply. My own voice sound...

17 likes 2 comments 2
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The Lantern Bearer

Submitted to Contest #318

Elara’s hands shook as she lit the final lantern. The flame caught—golden, trembling—and the glass dome filled with soft light. A hundred lanterns already glowed in the grove, strung between ancient oaks like a net of stars. Yet this last one—the lantern to hang above Kael—mattered most.“You’re overthinking it,” teased Maris, the healer’s daughter, as she adjusted a string of blossoms around the archway.Elara forced a smile. “He’ll notice. He always notices.”Tonight was Choosing Night, when the Guardians of the valley were anointed by ancien...

16 likes 6 comments 6
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So Sweet

Submitted to Contest #318

We share something special, the girls and I. Janet and Rene first came into my life last February, after a sleetstorm swept over Village Park and left the sidewalk slick and uneven with ice. The year hadn’t started well. I lost my job, then my benefits. Nothing was officially wrong with me—aside from my teeth and bladder.My doctor—chickenshit—never told me plainly. He worked with his eyes down and nose turned up at me, even while giving advice. 2007 was supposed to be my year. Change and progress were in the cards like never before. I found ...

12 likes 2 comments 2
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The Steel That Slaughters The Lamb

Submitted to Contest #318

To prepare is to steel oneself. To prepare is to practice smiling in the mirror, laughing, crying. What once took hours to perfect now takes only minutes. I have learnt how to act in this palace of gold and blood. I have learnt that lies we believe are as good as truth. The sacrifice is an honour, they say, and they take no criticism. From their risen balcony they hide behind the glare of the ground-kissing sun, so bright it hurts my eyes. I force them open and let the sting remind me where I am. They choose the name from a pot deep enough t...

12 likes 4 comments 4
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The Stolen Solo

Submitted to Contest #318

Mia stood in front of the mirror adjusting the alignment of the green velvet dress. She’d selected it weeks ago after a woman at the department store had pointed out how it “really brought out the green in her eyes.” It did. It also hugged all of her curves, and not in a trashy way. She looked polished and glamorous but not too glamorous. Tonight was the night. A reviewer from a large syndicated newspaper was expected to be in attendance, as was a member of the enrollment staff from the Juilliard school. Mia had been chosen to perform...

12 likes 4 comments 4
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Amelia

Submitted to Contest #318

Patented brown leather shoes squeaked down the hallway in a grating tone overshadowing the swish, swish of vestments. The offensive shoes drew Christine’s attention- ugly and dinged up. They were mottled from years of wear in rain or shine of the rapid swings in Ohio weather- having splashed through slush outside on the sidewalk flanking the church while shaking hands lingeringly with wealthy parishioners or the mud of field day before school blessedly let out.The hideous shoes hidden under bleached and pure white robes halted in front of on...

11 likes 2 comments 2
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My Dad, the Wedding Planner

Submitted to Contest #318

Prompt: Start or end your story with a character preparing for someone else’s big moment.My Dad, the Wedding Planner I arose at the crack of dawn. I scampered out of my bed knowing that the day would be spectacular and full of wonderment. Adrenaline was pulsing through my arteries. Today would be the climax of my preparations for this glorious day. I would make my daughter’s wedding dreams come true. Stella’s hand had been betrothed to a fellow I had long since considered to be like a son. It was especially easy to get close to Stanley s...

11 likes 0 comments 0
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The Recital of a Misshapen Showgirl

Submitted to Contest #318

She did not have a name that was her own; many before her were named the same. The name was in mythical books, in biblical books, in any other genre of books, and even on TV. The name was repeated again and again, more than a thousand times a day by people who did not know her, by people who were not her grandmother or her mother.Her grandmother was lying on the couch, her feet rhyming with each movement of her hands, threading another thing that she was not going to finish. Each craft her grandmother ever intended to make would become a dre...

11 likes 1 comment 1
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In Sickness and In Health

Submitted to Contest #318

I took a deep breath and gripped the podium as I looked out over the large group of people in the room. Everyone was well dressed, except for some of my grandkids, but that’s okay. Starting was the hardest part, but thankfully I’d been rehearsing this speech for a few days.I tugged at my collar. It was hot up here with all the bright lights.“I remember it like it was yesterday. She gave me a list of 3 things that I absolutely had to do.” I took out the faded piece of paper that I’d kept in my dresser for the past 63 years and held it up for ...

11 likes 2 comments 2
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Three Weeks At A Playhouse

Submitted to Contest #318

In 2023, I was meandering around the desert as someone’s wife. I had no clue what was going on, let alone what I wanted. I had tried to get a job multiple times over the years, but had absolutely no luck getting past the first interview stage. I couldn’t tell you why if you asked me. I felt worthless most of the time. All I knew was that my invisible disability made me feel, well, invisible. Who’d have thought, right? I got a call one day from someone I barely knew, but whose spouse was a friend of my spouse. We lived in a big little city. T...

11 likes 0 comments 0
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The Eulogy

Submitted to Contest #318

Christopher Jacobs was a loving husband, father, and stepfather who I was lucky to have in my life. He was a man of strength, and my mother and I loved him so much—“Screw this. I CAN’T do this,” I muttered, pushing my unfinished eulogy to the other side of my desk.I sighed and rested my hands on the back of my neck, staring at the paper. How was I supposed to craft words of praise for the man who destroyed me over the last ten years?My mother wanted something beautiful — a carefully painted picture of the husband and stepfather he pretended ...

11 likes 1 comment 1
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A Country Boy Can Survive

Submitted to Contest #318

My early youth was the best of times—and the darkest of times. Survival in my tiny world required grit and guts. When I was an eight-year-old boy, I could skin a rabbit and whup anyone my age who lived near about. I was fit as a fiddle and slicker than snot. But the innocence of my childhood was crumpled like a sack of potatoes. Skirmishes with my daddy caused emotional scars that have lasted a lifetime. The plain and simple truth could not be hidden. My daddy was a chronic alcoholic and a physically abusive monster. He was the boogieman! He...

11 likes 2 comments 2
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Paradox

Submitted to Contest #318

My eyes blurred with tears as I dusted the cobwebs from the empty totes I had dragged up from the basement. My arms ached from the digging I’d had to do to free them, pulling them out from under decades of memorabilia—like the brass-plated shoes my children had worn to first walk in, and the containers of military medals my once-young husband had earned, before his heart and lungs started protesting the chain-smoking he refused to quit. But worse than my sore arms was the pounding in my chest as I carefully stacked my daughter’s clean, folde...

10 likes 1 comment 1
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