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Write a story about someone trying to find the perfect birthday gift.

Posted in Short Story on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 19 stories

To You

Winner of Contest #1 🏆

Happy Birthday. When you see everyone standing in your kitchen, holding your wine glasses, and already slightly drunk, you do your best to moderate your response, temper the initial shock and annoyance in your face with a tight smile and a staggering step back. You clutch your heart and play into the moment. Worse still, the lights dim and you hear the song start up. Like a rickety train pulling out of the station, they drag the tempo so everybody can jump on. You strap in for the second verse. She emerges from the hallway, holding a gaudy c...

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The Gift

Shortlisted for Contest #1 ⭐️

 “You’ve booked the table?” “Yes, Pam.” “8:30pm? And you told them that we want the one in the alcove. If we get that table near the toilets again, I’m not staying. I’m sorry, Grant, but I’m not.” All the time she was talking, she hadn’t stopped moving. Her hairbrush in one hand, sweeping through her thick black hair as she walked. “I asked for the table in the alcove. Just like you told me to. Everything is going to be perfect. Don’t worry.” Grant was fixing his tie, pulling on the smooth-knit silk, hurrying away from the bedroom mirr...

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Claire's Left Hand

Submitted to Contest #1

Claire’s Left HandBy James S. Offenhartz Where to find a bioengineer, that’s the $64 question. June was about to turn 14 and she didn’t have a left hand. She never had a left hand except prenatally. I, her mother, told June my umbilical chord wrapped around her left hand and cut it off, but June didn’t believe me. She told me that maybe a secret abuser came in the middle of the night to try to abduct June and I grabbed June’s hand to try to stop the kidnapper and June’s hand had come off because I loved her so much. I showed her the hos...

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HU WANG

Submitted to Contest #1

HU WANGBy Andrew Paul GrellPrompt: Perfect Birthday Gift“Kyle’s turning 50 this year. I have no idea what to get him,” Pat failed to get across a tone of lamentation.“Why do you have to get him anything? He’s got everything he needs and could get anything he wants. He’s got a trust fund! Wanna get him something? Get him a pad and pencil to take inventory. Jesus.” Brenda ran into Pat at The Goblin’s Head, a bar popular with science fiction nerds and graduates of Dewey High. “Old people like reminders of...

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Leah

Submitted to Contest #1

Leah“And this?”, Joe asked with a thick voice .“That will be fifty, sir”, the man behind the glass counter said with an exhausted expression, adjusting the golden rimmed spectacles perched on his nose. He kept his eyes trailed on Joe, waiting for him to leave.“Come on buddy! This can’t be worth that much…” he exclaimed pointing at the clay doll display in front. The beauty was kept in an ornate cage of rosy glass, beneath which was inscribed the name “Leah”. She had a small Asian face, as pink as a rose, thin red painted lips and thick lashe...

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Perfect gifts!

Submitted to Contest #1

Lisa was so confused. It was her best friend’s birthday and she couldn’t find anything better for her.“Mom, can you help me?”“Yeah sure. What is it?”“It’s Bella’s birthday and I am not sure what to gift her.”“Oh, when is it dear?”“This Friday.”“Oh it’s soon. So do you have any ideas about gifts?”“Yeah…maybe like flowers or chocolates”Mom laughed.“Think outside the box. Gift her something that would remind her about you each time she sees it. What would Bella like? You know her better than me.” And mom went to the market.“Hmm… mom got a ...

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The Perfect Birthday Gift

Submitted to Contest #1

I can’t believe another year has passed and I am again at the point when I need to start thinking about my girlfriend’s birthday. Its three days away and being a procrastinator, I find myself in a quandary. What do you buy for a woman who asks for nothing, demands nothing and lives simply? What would make her happy, some jewelry, perfume, clothes or a quiet dinner for the two of us at her favorite spot?  I start to think it might be easier with a demanding girlfriend and then stop. Do other men suffer this malad...

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The Perfect Gift

Submitted to Contest #1

Jewelry. No, too personal. He’d only worked with her for six months. Jewelry would be creepy. He definitely wanted to avoid creepy. What about bookends? No. Who gives bookends? Maybe some type of clothing. He picked up a scarf. Not a winter scarf, but the kind that he’d seen women wear as an accessory. He looked at another and another, feeling the different textures, pondering the colors. No. Giving a scarf is like giving someone a tie. He wanted something that said, “Hey there. I am your friend and I’m not creepy.” Besides, he’d never seen ...

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Hope She Likes It…

Submitted to Contest #1

“Okay…” I sighed as I Sauntered down the toys aisle at Walmart with my little brother in tow. “Where can I get her a gift?”                 We were shopping for the third time today Cassandra’s mother had announced they would be holding her birthday party tonight. Of all times, Conner and I had to rush to get the bratty little girl a gift tonight. Like it couldn’t be next week or even tomorrow night.          &nbs...

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You are my perfect gift

Submitted to Contest #1

Liza was walking down the principal street, looking carefully into all the shop windows, asking herself, what would be the perfect gift? Since she and John met all they always wanted was to be happy, live a simple life, full of joy. John was the kind of guy who liked to be invisible. He brought happiness to Liza’s life after a really bad relationship, he just smoothly got into her heart and healed the open wound, without wanting anything else than her friendship. Well, we all know, that becomes more than just friendship. What would...

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A balance of effort, meaning and love.

Submitted to Contest #1

I browse through the shelves, my eyes tracing each object with interest. Could she want a new mixing bowl? She has plenty, and she wouldn't be so happy with me spending so much... Maybe a weighing scale...? She's never really needed one, so it might be useless...My mother is great. I know that most kids dislike their moms for being too strict or overbearing, but I find my mom to be amazing. She's attentive without being invasive, and she isn't too strict either. She gives me independence, something that I appreciate deeply, above all the che...

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Creating and Memories

Submitted to Contest #1

Store number four, or was it five, down. It was a bit early in the search to lose count, but after each great idea turned bust it was seeming like this search was going to get out of hand. Michelle’s was not the easiest woman to shop for. It was not that she had everything she wanted. More like what she looked for in gifts was something with meaning as well, at least on her birthday. So, this gift had to be perfect. That is practical and emotionally satisfying. So where to go from here? Driving down the road I see a sign for Lobby Hobby, a s...

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Party Pressure

Submitted to Contest #1

It's just another Friday morning. The kids are off at school and you're sitting at the dinner table with a cup of coffee and the newspaper. Your boss had given you the day off which means a 3-day weekend. You flip open the newspaper to check the scores from last nights game. The Yankees had been making a comeback and the inner sports fan gets riled up as you flip to the sports page. You guide your eyes down the page looking for the scores "Perfect! They swept the Red Sox! The streak continues!" Your wife walks in from the kitchen drying off ...

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To My Angels

Submitted to Contest #1

Magnolia grew up with her three sisters, the triplets, Cornelia Elodie and Faith.They were always very close and kept in touch even when miles apart. And today is the triplets birthday! Magnolia had been waiting for this day, it had been sitting on her calendar unmarked for months. I guess since it took so long to get there she forgot, because when she woke up the next morning she felt something was out of place. She checked her calendar and instantly remembered the triplets birthday. She couldn’t believe she forgot, for she was usually earl...

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The Perfect Gift for a Ten-Year-Old

Submitted to Contest #1

Peter paced through the Target aisles, trying in vain to find what he was looking for. He knew it was no use. He’d already been through each section multiple times, and still, he had no clue what to get. Peter groaned and rubbed his temples, where a headache was beginning to grow.  His younger sister’s tenth birthday was in two days, and Peter still had no idea what he should buy for her. As a sixteen-year-old boy, he had no idea what type of things tween girls liked. Dolls? No, she was too old. Makeup? Their parents would kill him. Art...

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