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Write a story in which the first and last sentences are exactly the same.

Posted in Short Story on Nov 21, 2025

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✍️ 72 stories

Not an Ice Cream Dad

Submitted to Contest #330

“Congratulations! Its a girl!” Even through the haze of exhaustion (she had been in labor for over 24 hours at that point), Amelia heard the doctor’s words. A girl. She had just given birth to a baby girl. Amelia had looked down in amazement as a tiny baby wrapped in a pink and white blanket was placed into her arms. The little girl’s eyes were wide open, already exploring the world. Twenty years later, Amelia would get a call from Paris; her daughter, at the top of the Eiffel Tower, all of the city spread out below, and she would think of t...

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Calumnia

Submitted to Contest #330

June 31, 3042 Today, a boy cries out for his mother. And today, she hears him. I groan with equal parts happiness and frustration- happiness because I am that mother, frustration because it's 4 a.m. My ceiling Eye flashes lights and chirps words, bright, unyielding lights and too fast words. A voice chimes that is not my son's, "Wake up! Wake up, Mrs. Hardy! HPPA only wants what's best." I do as told, the shuttle lid sliding open above my floating cot. I look over at my husband’s cot to see his open as well. My feet hit unbreakable glass, wa...

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Second Chances

Submitted to Contest #330

“Is this why you’ve been missing class?”The young man stood in the doorway, head hung low, shoulders a little drooped. “Yes, ma’am,” he replied politely.“Well, come on in then and tell me what’s going on.”He shuffled the two steps to the chair and took a seat. Back then, I was only an adjunct at the local community college which paid well, but not quite well enough for me to raise three boys by myself on the one salary. I had two other jobs. One was a Sunday morning church organist gig, and this one was as mental health counselor in the ...

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My Wife's in Hell

Submitted to Contest #330

My Wife’s in Hell….By Edward Pereira Good night.One more!Ok – just one more….**************“My wife’s in hell. I’m here to get her out.”Grrrr, the ogre said. I don’t look at him too closely. Surface details confuse things, distract. You see things you can’t unsee, lose focus on the current goal, and…“Do I not have your full attention?” the ogre sneers through blood-stained teeth. “Cookie?” I display an open family size bag of sweetness. I eat one. Slowly.He takes the bag and lets me pass the front gate. Underpaid—unpaid, actually—and ogres a...

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A Familiar Sound

Submitted to Contest #330

Drip, drip, drip. Rain pours from the sky, striking the tiles of the roof, then cascading off them to fall to the ground. I sit perched on a bench, watching as streaks of water slide down the glass barrier that separates me from the downpour outside. I wait, alone and watchful, as silence wraps around me, embracing me like an old friend. To me, it is an old friend. The rain brings back memories. Bad memories. It was a day just like this when it happened. It’s ironic, really, because it was the storm that started the fire, and yet the rain wa...

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the door refused to close

Submitted to Contest #330

tHE DOOR REFUSED TO CLOSEThe door refused to close.It wasn’t locked. It wasn’t even latched. The wood had just swollen in the heat, drinking in the humidity of a Georgia August until the frame held onto the door like a fist. I pushed it. Hard. The shoulder of my jacket scraped against the peeling white paint, leaving a smear of gray dust on the fabric. Honestly, it felt personal. It felt like the house itself was inhaling, holding its breath, refusing to let me seal it up and walk away.I stepped back, wiping the sweat from my forehead with t...

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The Watcher

Submitted to Contest #330

‘The Watcher’s Watch, so the Dead can rest’Lazarus stood over the freshly dug grave. Rain drops trickled down his nose. He wished he had worn his all-weather coat. The thunder boomed over head. It was going to be a doozy of a summer storm. It was proving to be a cold and stormy night, but Lazarus continued to stand. He had no choice; it was his job. He was the caretaker of this cemetery and the watcher. Night after night he stood over the fresh graves, watching and waiting. Salt ready and grasping his ancient weapon, his Valuder.This ancient...

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Fortune’s Final Heir

Submitted to Contest #330

I lost it all, and they just laughed at me. I’ve disappointed many people in my life. Some I knew well, others I barely deserved to know at all. Perhaps one should expect nothing more from a life of gambling. A child born into a wealthy family, spoiled by comfort and reputation. My mother, Elara Zayne, built her empire with inventions that changed the world. My father, the man clever enough to woo her, used his connections to pull her genius out of obscurity and into the modern age. And then there was me. The youngest son. The man with money...

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My First Friend

Submitted to Contest #330

I had a friend; Her name was Barbara Stanley.Those words have lived inside me for as long as I can remember—warm, steady, familiar. A sentence that felt like a home.Barbara and I were inseparable. The way we met felt like a small miracle. I still remember that afternoon in kindergarten: I was sitting alone at the sandcastle box, quietly packing sand into a crooked little tower. The other kids played in groups, loud and overflowing with energy, but I stayed by myself, scraping castles out of loneliness.Until she appeared.She came out of nowhe...

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Renewal

Submitted to Contest #330

CW: Grief, illness, death It left a bitter taste in his mouth. There was nothing worse than over-extracted coffee, when you drank it dark. Micah pulled a stick of gum out of his bag and popped it in his mouth. From behind, he heard an earnest "tell Jacob hi for me!" He turned and glared at the barista, who waved him on as he tossed his nearly-full to-go cup into the trash and exited the cafe. A burst of peppermint hit his throat as he took in the chill of Seattle winter. Fifteenth and Thomas had the best shops, he thought, and the best peo...

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I remember the day it happened.

Submitted to Contest #330

I remember the day it happened. From the moment you were born, kicking and screaming into my life, everything sped up and refused to slow down. Holding you in my arms, seeing your perfect face, something changed, something I couldn’t control. Something beyond me, out in the distance out of sight. I left, I didn’t want to, someone made me leave. I drove through the winter night wanting nothing more than to return to you and your mom. My knuckles were white, my heart raced, and my mind spun in circles. I had to be careful; the roads were icy...

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The Wrong Ending

Submitted to Contest #330

I should’ve known better than to fall for him. Not because he’d done anything wrong, but because getting attached always scares me a little more than I like to admit. Still, as I climbed the stairs to Noah’s apartment that evening, I told myself I wasn’t here to accuse him of anything. I just needed clarity. Honesty. A conversation that would steady the strange feeling in my chest before it grew into something heavier. He hadn’t been himself for the last few days. Shorter texts, distracted calls, a last-minute cancellation the night before...

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The story of working.

Submitted to Contest #330

The values of ethics are important and vast beyond different cultures and identities with people who walk and live in the year of 2025; with that, there can come great certainty that there will be movements that shift the world for better or for worse, when people can come together and agree on the value of a certain ethical issue or a certain situation that they need to handle.One example of an ethical issue when I was at work in 2020 during the time of COVID-19. I worked at a Barnes and Noble Café; they sell everything from Barnes and Nobl...

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Just In Case

Submitted to Contest #330

It’s not the saying goodbye that’s hard. It’s the letting go. I tell myself, if I didn’t come to check the post, burglars would guess no one was home and ransack the place. Not that there’s anything worth breaking in for. Unless they like the smell of dusty cabbages or they’ve got a thing for incontinence pads and denture fix. Who knows, we live in a strange world. But I come to check. Just in case. When the front door closed behind me, I hadn't planned on staying. Just popped in to check the fridge had been emptied. The milk would smell ba...

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Beasts of Unburden

Submitted to Contest #330

It snowed until the body was covered good and proper. I saw the bloody trail arrowed towards the forest and tried to convince myself not to go after it. Yes, I had a shotgun, and no, I didn’t know how to use it well. I was made to reload, clean, and aim it at some coke cans a few weeks before, but been given no opportunity to release its thunder since. I couldn’t be sure what had killed the fox. My feet ached to go outside and after the mystery, so instead I got up to make a cup of tea to keep myself occupied. I distrusted the momentum the b...

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