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End your story with someone saying: “What a day.”

Posted in Summer on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 40 stories

After the Rock

Winner of Contest #138 🏆

Humans can transform from solid to spirit in about half a second. I just found this out. Just a half-second ago.  I might be shocked if I weren’t so dead. “Huh,” is all I have to say about it. “Yep,” my wife agrees, equally shockless. She is standing beside me along the sun-baked shoulder of a two-lane country highway, and we are both staring down into the drainage ditch. At the bottom are scattered piles of junk — a nasty trail of breadcrumbs — all leading to a battered tomb.  The tomb used to be a car. For a while, it was our car...

269 likes 163 comments 163
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The Best Years of Our Lives

Submitted to Contest #138

Friends, faculty, alumni, and fellow classmates, good afternoon and thank you all for coming to my TED talk. Only kidding. Just a little valedictorian's joke to kick things off before we all disperse into the world to work at high-paying prestigious institutions like McDonald's, or, if we're lucky, Starbucks. That's also a joke, mostly. Peter Springer, if you're listening, I'll have two Big Macs and a venti cold brew.But seriously, thanks for coming out today. It means a lot to me. You all, of course, had no choice in the matter if you want ...

43 likes 54 comments 54
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Perseverance

Submitted to Contest #138

“What a sunny day! Let’s go on a walk.” The hairs on Mike’s neck stood up, delighted by this thought. His soft contentment radiated into the surroundings, making his dog’s bright eyes light upon a full-beam tail in a propeller spin. Bouncer had been with Mike for a decade. Having each other made them determined to add meaning to their lives. They knew each other like the back of their hand; they were family. Bouncer kept Mike going in his challenging times, as she was his anchor for innocence and kept him persevering during his many hard...

37 likes 116 comments 116
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The Free Man of Kyiv

Submitted to Contest #138

               “Have you seen my dog?”         Frightened faces just shook their obvious, disengaged response as they rushed past the young ten-year-old boy, trying to get them to stop. Strains of panic caused old and young to duck for cover with every sound of an explosion - whether it be close or distant. This was unrequited life existing in the shadow of the modern bear, who had flexed its muscles and stamped its authori...

14 likes 7 comments 7
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Do Your Time, Before Your Crime

Submitted to Contest #138

Was there no way to kill Alex, so he would stay dead? Jason leveled his blaster and shot again, hitting Alex in the center of the chest. Alex hit the lush, green grass of the park with a dull thud, and lay there unmoving. Jason waited, his arm extended straight out in front of him, his blaster unwavering. Around him, people scattered in all directions, screaming. He knew they would call the authorities, but it did not matter because he knew there was nothing they could do to him. Twenty years ago, after the death of his wife Ashlee, he ...

12 likes 5 comments 5
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Risky Beaches

Submitted to Contest #138

As a child, I worried grown ups in my life because I was too wild. Too impulsive. A kid with blond hair and blue-grey eyes (eyes that mirrored my father's), I nonetheless grew up in Africa, the land of wild animals and exotic spaces. My nature, unlike my look, fit the space. Today, when the promise of Spring peeks its head out of the cold in England, I rise-and-shine to the memories spent in a different sunshine. Like the day I almost ran into a hippopotamus and lived to tell the tale, for example. What a day that was!Ethiopia is a Land of 1...

12 likes 11 comments 11
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The Phoenix

Submitted to Contest #138

Lying semiconscious on my bed, I whispered, ‘Phoenix?’ I lifted one arm and stroked the air. But since there was nothing, only emptiness, my arm fell back on my bed. I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling as the sun’s rays penetrated through the window. Was that a dream, or was it reality? It was so, yes, so real. I saw everything so clearly. Not like I would dream it. I know I just said ‘phoenix’. So, what was it? Suddenly a weird, scratchy noise, like talons scratching over a wooden floor, had me look around, wondering … ‘Sorry, I am. ...

11 likes 1 comment 1
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The Black-Leathered Journal

Submitted to Contest #138

[This story contains sensitive content such as sexual and physical violence and suicide.]You had a bad day, you say? Wait till you hear about my day. In fact, you may have already heard all about it. Perhaps someone forwarded you a link to a news article, or you came across one while scrolling through your social media feed. I mean, if bad news travels fast, scandals spread like a pandemic. But just in case you are part of that one per cent of the human population who doesn't live for the likes and hearts of your followers and thus you don't...

11 likes 7 comments 7
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Dearest K.

Submitted to Contest #138

Dear K.,           I finally did it, K.. I finally made it to my mother’s home planet. It has been, well, what can I say other than full of emotions, especially the one day I’ve spent honoring my mother.           I don’t think I’ve ever told you that I’ve never seen the oceans, not even on our own world. Mountains and mountain lakes have been all I’ve known. Never adventured beyond them. Never felt like I needed to given the majesti...

11 likes 2 comments 2
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From Blades to Chains

Submitted to Contest #138

Two score men milled about in the dark, stinking chamber. Every few yards, a torch burned in a sconce on the stone walls to light L’Beira’s weaving path through the ragtag bunch of gladiators. Some sat leant against walls, bound by chains, and watching in sullen silence. Others, strutted about proclaiming themselves the alpha amongst alphas. One such boaster, bare chested and muscular, shouted to no one in particular that he had been victorious eight times in the coliseum. Some laughed and shook their heads, others shouted vulgar insults, bu...

11 likes 10 comments 10
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The Adventures of Mrs. Carrillo's Guinea Pigs

Submitted to Contest #138

Chapter one-The beginning… “OREO!!!!!!!!!!!!!” screamed Marshmallow. “Where did you put my chocolate-covered hay?!” “In the coniferous tree, in the backyard…” “We can’t climb dummy,” Marshmallow explains. “Or can I?... MWAHAHAHAH!!!!!!” whispers Oreo. “I heard that.” Marshmallow scolded. “ My little munchkins! What’s going on? I heard popcorning!” Asked Mrs. Carrillo, the owners of Marshmallow and Oreo. As Oreo immediately stuffs her face with guinea pig pellets, meanwhile... Marshmallow scurries into her chalet and practices her calligra...

11 likes 2 comments 2
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A LIFE IN THE DAY OF

Submitted to Contest #138

1973 wds               A LIFE IN THE DAY OF…              That August morning the milk in my cereal began to curdle and form little grayish blobs.  My tongue touched a painful sore on the inside of my mouth which I assumed was a canker sore. It was only 9 a.m. and the thermometer outside had already hit 90 degrees.             Opening the fr...

10 likes 1 comment 1
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Chocolate Bar in the Sun

Submitted to Contest #138

Chocolate Bar in the Sun Pat Spencer My father, Ubaba, worked as a guide at the Ilanga Safari Lodge in South Africa. He left before my sisters and I awakened, but never before tiptoeing in and kissing our foreheads. I would wrap my arms around his neck and wait for the warmth of his love to seep from my head to my toes as he whispered in our native tongue, “Jongani iintombi zam. Watch over my girls.” The times I failed to awaken, I worried how my day might go. That morning, Umama’s voice broke through my dreams. “Get up, my daughters. Yo...

10 likes 4 comments 4
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Must Remember to Drink More Water

Submitted to Contest #138

I woke up. Or did I? I wasn’t sure I’d even been asleep. But then I remembered a dream…..or was it a nightmare? I must have slept unless, of course, I was daydreaming, but a daydream is usually about something good, like a holiday or becoming a pop star.In my nightmare, I was neither on holiday nor was I becoming a pop star. I was, in fact, running away. Running from what I don’t know. Then I was on my hands and knees clawing at the little gaps in the pavement where moss and grass grows. I was tearing at the grass and the dirt flew up in my ...

9 likes 2 comments 2
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A day in the sun, not my favorite.

Submitted to Contest #138

A day in the sunIn my mind, I cursed the heat. If I cursed out loud, it was a venial sin, and I’d have to confess it. If I didn’t say it, I could fudge. It wasn’t an impure thought, and I hadn’t taken the Lord’s name in vain, anyway. A cloud bank slid over us for maybe a minute, casting a shadow. Just long enough to feel a faint breeze. Just enough time for me to finish my row and get to my thermos bottle. I poured the water into the little lid that was supposed to be a cup; it was warm and tasted stale.In August, in Southern Minnesota, peop...

9 likes 8 comments 8
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