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Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of happy short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

Happy Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. A good story doesn’t need a devastating twist. Nor does it have to plumb the darkest depths of the human conditions. These happy short stories might be exactly what you’re looking for in these uncertain times.

Happy Short Stories – Page 8

I Quit (Again)

Kristen Rose

Weekly Contest #341

I swore I would never come back to Freedom Frontier RV Supercenter.Freedom Frontier is not just a dealership.It’s an ecosystem.Derek is the general manager. He believes every problem can be solved with confidence and, if necessary, louder confidence. He only calls me when something is on fire. Sometimes literally. Frequently spiritually. Occasionally both.Max runs service. He is calm in a way that feels engineered. If something explodes, Max will blink once and ask for torque specs like we’re in a lab and not a building that smells faintly o...

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A feather, a fly, a fish

Weekly Contest #340

I’m swimming blind in the ocean, but I’m not scared. My eyes are open, but there is only darkness for the time being. I float on my back like a barrel. I can hear the waves close to me lapping over my torso, the distant ones crash faintly on a shore I know I’m gradually drifting further from. I feel my body go weightless, lift out of the water. I don’t drip, I’m dry as soon as I exit, I’m warm. It’s perfect. I hear words, but they’re not mine. “You’re were perfect Granda, champion of the world, and when I was with you, I felt like I was too....

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One Day At A Time in My Life

Weekly Contest #340

My mom got the superlative, “A smile for every occasion,” in high school. Her father, my Pop-pop, was in the FBI. There’s a framed photo of him, my grandma, mom and two sisters with Herbert Hoover standing in their living room hanging in my own. He met my grandmother late one night, patrolling the streets of her neighborhood with his partner. When they got to her house, his partner sat down in a chair. The seat was warm, so he concluded that there was a man hiding somewhere. He looked in the closet, found the man, and nabbed him.Mom grew up ...

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A Modern Fairytale(?) of Love (or friendship, we're still young)

Weekly Contest #340

I look in the mirror and sigh before putting my mousey brown hair into a sloppy ponytail over my t-shirt and plain jeans. I purposefully ignore the makeup my mother insists on leaving out for me every morning and head down the stairs to where my brother, Aspen, is waiting for me. He’s a senior and I’m a junior so he drives me to school every morning.“Hey, sis,” he says like a greeting, “are you ready to go to school? Mom left early for her lawyer job so if you want breakfast we have to make it ourselves.”I frown. “Her lawyer job? She’s a pro...

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Listening to the Mystical Peruvian Hairless Orchid Dog

Kristi Gott

Weekly Contest #340

*** Anya ---The morning that Gris, the Hairless Peruvian Dog from the Orchid Caves, began communicating with Anya, began with a blush of pink dawn.Their mystical wooden sailing vessel known as the Destiny's Dreams spoke with rushes of the wind in the sails and whooshes of the waves against the hull. They were nearing the islands of the huge, fragrant pink flowers but they could not see them yet. Ancient memories began to rise in Anya at the same time the sun floated up from the east. It was followed by a growing indigo sky, reflected by the...

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Pack Dynamics

Joshua G. J. Insole

Weekly Contest #340

Papa gasped awake, wheezing like a punctured chew toy leaking air.Cooper’s tail wagged, thumping against the bed. Papa never slept in this late; he was always off to WURK by now. He also tended to feed Cooper before then, but Coop wasn’t one to complain about getting to spend more time with Papa. Papa forgetting to remove Coop’s leash before collapsing also didn’t bother him. Life was wonderful when you stopped worrying about stuff. Oh, if only Papa could see how wonderful the world was through Coop’s eyes. A wonderful Papa, a strange world ...

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Crosspurposes

Weekly Contest #340

CROSSPURPOSES TACOHer eyes caught the light from the dining room hallway and glowed red. I startled before remembering the barrier between us—for she on the patio, and I was inside the house. The screen was open to the night air, cool and fragrant, desert breezes carrying the faint sweetness of far‑off, night‑blooming cacti to my paws.“Let me in,” she growled. The rumble was low, but the voice behind it was high and sharp. Fear prickled my spine, and I hid it by lifting my head a little higher.“NO,” I yipped. “I am the protector of this do...

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A dog's life

Michael Pettifer

Weekly Contest #340

A Dogs' Life Any moment now, Lycra clad, he will bounce down the stairs and burst in through the kitchen doors. It's Sunday. Of course, I sit up bright eyed and bushy tailed anticipating the run through the local wooded park - it's always enjoyable. (He never assumes I may not want to go, for him it's a like washing the dishes or shopping-part of the routine of you do 'that then and this later) Naturally, I enjoy my time out meeting his odd friends and fellow joggers as well as my fellow canine friends most of whom are friendly. While musing...

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The Only One Who Can

Jim Moore

Weekly Contest #340

Run.Don’t stop.Don’t slow.The air behind me still feels wrong, like the moment after a loud crash when your ears keep ringing even though the sound is gone. That hollow feeling. That space where something should be, but isn’t. Like a bowl that used to hold food and now only smells like memory.He’s gone.And I know who took him.I burst through the front door like a missile with paws, claws scraping wood, heart hammering so loud it drowns out everything else. The porch flashes past——and there they are.Ms. Agatha in her porch chair, perfectly st...

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The Marble

Weekly Contest #340

For the marble, the world rarely sat still. He was rolling along the floor at that very moment having been jostled from his place on the side table. The woman had put him up there that morning saying something about keeping him out of reach of the toddler. He wasn’t sure why though. The toddler seemed to want to play with him. And he wanted to be played with. It had been so long after all. But now he was rolling toward the couch, and he knew all too well what that meant. The room flipped and flopped smoothly. Ceiling. Floor. Ceiling. Floor...

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A Dog's Tale: Through My Eyes

Toni Papia

Weekly Contest #340

I wake before the sun, my nose twitching with the promise of a new day. The world is quiet, except for the distant hum of a car and the soft breathing of my human, Sam, curled up in the bed above me. I stretch, paws reaching forward, tail wagging in anticipation. The air smells of last night’s rain, damp earth, and the faint aroma of bacon, remnants of yesterday’s breakfast. My stomach rumbles, but I know better than barking. Patience is a virtue, or so Sam says.I listen for the sounds that mean morning, the creak of the floorboards, the shu...

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To Protect Her With My Life

Itzel Dominguez

Weekly Contest #340

TRIGGER WARNING: Contains Death My pet was doing it again. I woke up from my beautiful slumber, to my human blabbering on about who knows what. With her dark brows drawn together, she pointed her nasty finger at me as she yelled. I yawned in response, my tongue dangling out at my mouth opening so wide. I didn't have time for this. I stood up and arched my back into a stretch. At that, I heard an awe coming from my pet human. With my eyes still closed, I lowered my butt into a sitting position and started cleansing my pink paws. Then, I move...

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Nollie and Luna Have a Conversation

Weekly Contest #340

Nollie was racing across an infinite green lawn of grass, the rat was just with in reach, her paws were peddling faster and faster suddenly she was flying through the air. With a yipe she woke herself up. She loved the dreams where she caught the rat but she almost never had that dream, usually the rat was so fast, just too fast. Now she was in her own crate. She adjust and shifted. Then she curled up in a doughnut. It was dark and warm. She sighed and stretched her head out.Was it time? Where were the peoples? What were they doing? Did they...

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A Nudge in the Right Direction

Weekly Contest #340

My human thinks no one notices, but I do. When she cries to sleep at night, trying to refrain from being heard. The way she looks at herself in the mirror all funny. I don’t understand what she finds to be wrong with herself, she’s perfectly fine to me. I wish I could see a true smile on her face, I miss it. As I watch the family chatter and laugh at the dinner table, I study their faces. Me and me alone see them with their masks off when it is just me and them. I consider myself a counselor of sorts. They really should be paying me more in...

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DOC

Weekly Contest #340

Hey y'all my name is Doc. I am my mom's beloved Terrier. Haha, my mom just found out from my DNA that I have 18% Mastiff in me. My mom is some interesting woman. She walked around asking people what they think my breed is. For shock value she let them afterword know that I have Mastiff in me.When I say my mom is interesting, I mean INTERESTING. I mean she is fascinating in every way. She reminds me of a loyal dog.So, my mom named me after a black Jaguar. She took care of that wild cat in the Mojave Desert. When I say black Jaguar, I mean a r...

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