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Write a story titled 'The Wind in the Willows'.

Posted in Spring on Apr 26, 2024

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✍️ 47 stories

The Wind Harp in the Willows on the Mystical Coast

Submitted to Contest #248

Everything was connected, especially here in the wilderness life.Emma rode her red mare, Ginger, along the trail next to the creek. The wind under the forest canopy seemed to whisper of secrets and ancient times. She heard the air hum through the willow reeds like music from a harp. The rhythm of light rain pattering on the fir boughs, and the perfume of the fir needles, carried the essence of life growing and blooming.The windowless shack in the wilderness of 1898 where four skinny children lived with Emma’s Mama was already half ...

27 likes 23 comments 23
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The Wind in the Willows

Submitted to Contest #248

Lost in her thoughts, she sat all too long staring out of the bay window; her coffee turned cold, but she didn’t notice, nor did she care. Hours had gone by, staring, alone with the worst feeling she had ever known; was it grief? It hurt so deeply, she was certain there was not a word ever spoken or penned to describe it. Self-pity was a fairly foreign concept for her, yet somehow it felt acceptable and safe. Maybe she’d stay right here for a while, sad and confused; this was worse than grief, wasn’t it? Despair. No, not an effective de...

21 likes 12 comments 12
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The Wind in the Willows

Submitted to Contest #248

TW: themes of suicide and pregnancy lossThe way to my houseIs always the same but IWho live there am not:A matter beyond controlWhich of me there or missing-excerpt from Complaints and Celebrations, A Collection of Haiku and Tanka, by Alan RileyThere is only one leaf hanging in the maple tree outside my house when the police show up. My mother lifts the blinds at the window, breathes fog onto the glass.“What’s going on out there?” she asks.“It’s probably Alan next door,” I tell her as I upend the shoe bin in search of the panda stuffed anima...

21 likes 15 comments 15
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The Wind in the Willows

Submitted to Contest #248

When he found me, I was too weak and too hungry to run. I pushed myself up with trembling arms and slowly got up from the cold concrete floor of the barn and started putting the small towel away I had in my bag, asking him not to call the cops. The old man approached me from the doorway as a shadow from the early morning light creeping across the sky. He stopped about six feet away from me and slowly placed a tray on the ground. Then he turned and got a hoe from the wall and grabbed a bag of seeds and went back outside. On the tray was a bo...

19 likes 3 comments 3
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The Wind in the Willows

Submitted to Contest #248

I would lay flowers on the grave, if I could. You would like that, wouldn't you? You might be a little surprised... but you shouldn't be. You know I'll always put all my effort into making you happy.And that's why it happened, isn't it?I'm standing by the willow that lies by the grave, talking to you. I know you can't hear me, but I'm talking anyway. Besides, it sometimes feels as if you can hear me. The wind in the willow sends whispers that remind me of you. They sound like your voice. I wish I could hear it one more time – maybe I'll have...

17 likes 18 comments 18
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The Wind in the Willows (My true friend, Lily)

Submitted to Contest #248

It's so quiet here, isn't it? I can't even remember the last time I was here. The willow trees have grown so much since I was a little girl. I used to visit my grandmother in her little house here in the middle of nowhere. I get chills now; it feels like I'm finally home. I've spent so many years wondering what I wanted to do with my life, where I should be. Society puts a lot of pressure on us, you know? But here, where I'm alone in the willow forest, I can finally find my peace. No pressure, no gossip, no people always telling me what to d...

17 likes 9 comments 9
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THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS

Submitted to Contest #248

THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS He finds it difficult to tear himself away from the window and, even when something draws his attention, the ringing of the landline in the hall or the sound of his cell phone, back he returns, involuntarily, to the French window that looks out onto the vast lawn and the cluster of trees that border the edge of the grass and the beginning of the embankment that stretches down to the river flowing hurriedly past his garden. It was always the same when she went away. The first two days, he would almost revel in his so...

15 likes 3 comments 3
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The Wind In The Willows

Submitted to Contest #248

Trigger Warning: non-graphic torture/death--------------------------They say that The Wind tells you things, stories. The stories whispered in the breeze. They say that those who can’t bear to stay away seek it. Even knowing that The Wind wasn’t a solution. There wasn’t a fairy-tale ending for those associated with The Wind. Yet, being away from it was unbearable. So I will tell you the story of a little girl, who tried to seek The Wind.--------------------------In a little town, there was a little for...

15 likes 14 comments 14
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The Wind in the Willows

Submitted to Contest #248

I.                 Thin. Reedy. Willow shoots raised their heads to the sky as hands patted down the dirt base. Spaced two hand-widths apart, the tube-like yellows and greens of newly planted cuttings stood proudly, too short to catch the sultry currents."There," Mother sighed, unbending at the waist. Her palms, powered with rich soil, fed the roots of his hair.His brows wrinkled. "Mother.""Ah, sorry, sorry, A-Liu," she chuckled, and ignoring his attempts at...

14 likes 4 comments 4
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The Wind in the Willows

Submitted to Contest #248

The willow trees banked the length of the back of our property. Only a fence and those huge willow trees stood between us and the country club. Our horses used that area to graze on the grass on those hot summer days. I'm sure the golfers enjoyed peaking through and finding our four horses often stopping by to watch their games and pay a hello.Our home was a sanctuary to wildlife from a variety of birds that drew in bird watchers from far away. We had deer, moose, bald eagles, blue herons, beavers, pheasants, turkeys, raccoons, turtles, fox,...

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The Wind In The Willows

Submitted to Contest #248

People tell you that everything will be okay, that those little special moments will stay in your heart forever but their memory will slowly fade away. As you age, you forget, and everyone else around you dies until you die yourself, leaving a tombstone alone and forgotten. Why couldn't their memory live on? Why did we only live in the past, present, or future? Why was it one or the other when we can have it all at one time? Maybe it was too much for the human mind to handle, but for me it was the perfect balance. To bask in the sun for eter...

14 likes 3 comments 3
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The Wind in the Willows

Submitted to Contest #248

'The Wind in the Willows.' I never actually read the book but I remember the puppet series from when I was a kid. It used to terrify me - something about the stop motion was too uncanny for my eight-year-old brain. There were only a couple of episodes that followed the plot of the book, the rest I assumed were original stories written with the same characters, or parts of the book padded out for runtime.Although that one show scared the heck out of me as a kid, I remember the main story and the characters themselves fondly. What was it reall...

12 likes 2 comments 2
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Wind in the Willows

Submitted to Contest #248

Rania is running, and she’s running hard. Her legs ache, and her stomach keeps twisting, but she doesn’t stop. She has to make it to the willows.  Long, wavy blonde hair runs behind her, blowing furiously in the wind of her speed. The dirt is cold and hard beneath her feet, twigs sleeping in the dirt occasionally scratching at her legs. She’s surprised that she hasn’t gotten her hair tangled into any of the low hanging trees and branches.. Rania’s a gasping mess, her green eyes sparkled with determination. She just has to find the willo...

11 likes 2 comments 2
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The Wind in the Willows

Submitted to Contest #248

I carry the heart of the woman who electrified the world around me. Each time it feels heavier, like a weight dangling from my wrists. The tension yanks, separating me from her with each pull, a godforsaken reminder that she isn’t standing beside me. But she’s here. She sings with the birds who gently rouse me awake. She hoots with the owls who lull me to sleep. She rustles like the wind skating through the windchimes in the trees. When I call her name, she whispers to me. Help.I hear her voice every time I meet someone with the same name. M...

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The Wind in the Willows

Submitted to Contest #248

I can’t help but study the dirt beneath my mother’s fingernails as the blood slowly trickles out of her arm and into the smooth wooden bowl in my hands. I ate dandelion greens out of this bowl only a few hours ago. My knife–our knife–rests on the kitchen table next to her hip, its blade glistening in the full moon’s light. I realize this probably already sounds like some witchy-tale set in New England in the 1600’s, rather than an event taking place in a time of CT scans, smartphones and fake news.  That’s because we don’t exist. At l...

11 likes 5 comments 5
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