The Cookies I Didn’t Eat
The hospital cafeteria was quieter than it had any right to be for mid-afternoon. Linda and I sat across from each other at a small table near the window, coffee…[...]
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The Weight of Silence
At first, she didn’t notice it.Silence wasn’t loud. It didn’t knock or announce itself. It didn’t arrive with warning signs or sudden shifts. It didn’t come crashing into her life…[...]
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THIS LITTLE PIGGIE SHOULD HAVE STAYED HOME
About 1010 words As a city girl that married into a ranching family, I had to adjust to a different life style most of it revolving around some kind of…[...]
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Who Are You?
Linda and I slowly approached the red carpet stretched out before us like a tongue the entertainment industry uses to taste-test who belongs and who does not. Betty White was…[...]
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Young Lads and Ladies of the Night in Paris, 1963
Young Lads and Ladies of the Night – Paris, 1963 My mother took my cousin Billy and me as young teenagers to Paris for a couple of weeks in each…[...]
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Raising Matt
“Parenting: The days are long, but the years are short.”-Gretchen Rubin Jim Valvano was dying from cancer when he gave his acceptance speech upon receiving the Courage Award at the…[...]
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A Rare Dragon Made of Dreams
I knew him on sight. Rugged, muscular, disheveled, sad. Sunglasses hid his eyes. “You must be Grant.” I hugged him with all my strength. “I’m sorry, I’m so dirty. I…[...]
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Unspoken silence
Mara kept the blanket folded at the end of her bed, the edge lined up perfectly with the seam of the mattress. The pillows were stacked in the same order…[...]
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Where the Hand Falls
She is already seated when she notices the document. It is open, cursor blinking, the white of the page softened by the dimness she prefers when she works. The room…[...]
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the colors of sadness
They sat at the table in relational silence, comfortable yet somehow unfamiliar. The only noise came from a small TV on the far counter; the Hallmark channel again. Her mom…[...]
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A Library After An Earthquake
The nurse spoke to me with kind eyes. I looked at his name tag, but I couldn't read it. It was just a jumble of symbols and colors. And that…[...]
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Finding Frannie
The little grey tabby cat showed up on June 26, 2023, on what would have been my mother’s 99th birthday. My husband named the kitty Frannie and started feeding her.…[...]
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7086562214
After all these years, I still get the urge to call you, to talk about life and all the things that have happened thus far that you missed out on—my…[...]
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The Stuff of Tradition
Turkey fat, sage, yeast, rye. The man was preparing Thanksgiving dinner. Thoughts of perfection and indulgence entered his mind. An opportunity to create the perfect Thanksgiving dinner this year: a…[...]
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The Weight of Six Months
I was at work when I got the call.I sat at my desk, listening to Tamela Mann low in my headphones, staring out the window as the campus moved without…[...]
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A Living Weight
It is nearly midnight. We should be asleep. Especially me.Tomorrow, I will be married here on Phú Quốc Island, in this house, beneath the same ceiling fans that turn now…[...]
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Green Around the Gills
When Dr. Mary Winter looked around the labor suite and asked her next question, I knew my day had just taken a turn for the worse. “Where’s your husband?” “He’s…[...]
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A Little Blue Heart and a Vial of Nitroglycerin
What if liking never becomes loving? For Mary, love was a forbidden subject. Grief, though—that was a subject we shared. She was a widow, and I was a widower.Yet for…[...]
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“Y” is a crooked letter
“Mummy, what does blue taste like?”My son asks.As always, I am met with a constant bombardment of insistent chatter the moment I strapped him into his seat after picking him…[...]
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The Colour
“Same old gray sky.” I think to myself whilst going home after work. “Same old days, same old gray world.” I listen to my music, sinking deeper and deeper in…[...]
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Without You
CW: Death, grief I awoke again to stiff pains radiating from the back of my neck. There isn’t any time for me to dwell on it, though. The old wooden…[...]
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Euphoria of Ink and Color
Warm sand slipped between her toes as a cool breeze drifted along the coast. She sat atop her favorite bohemian blanket, an ice-cold coffee resting beside her, condensation sliding down…[...]
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The Red Carpet Ride
TW: Coercion, emotional abuse, drug use Something in the room had changed. The air suddenly felt thick, like moving in slow motion in a movie. Her altered, watery gaze focused…[...]
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Exceptionalities
Driving has always been my quiet reset button—the place where my thoughts finally line up instead of running into each other. The other day, I got in the car with…[...]
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Creamsicle Skies and Hidden Rainbows
It was an early Fall morning when I began scaling the eastern face of the Rocky Mountains with nothing but my bow, my wits, and a stubborn will. The mountain…[...]
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Greyed Out
Invisible. This is how I am feeling as I am looking out the window of a cozy neighbourhood cafe and seeing my own frowning reflection. I feel invisible, and it…[...]
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on a wingless plane
Studies. Research. Accolades. I decided to take a breather from hunting down the mob who stole my friend and concentrate a little on what's actually in front of me. Exams.…[...]
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The 614 Blues
The red eviction notice left on the door tasted like salt. It was sharp and slightly metallic. Behind me, the morning air was a heavy, suffocating gray that felt damp.…[...]
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The Purple, Yellow and Orange of my Stevie…
CW: Grief On April 10, my sister Jennifer's birthday, she picked up Stevie's ashes from the funeral home in Albany and brought them to us. It was so emotional and…[...]
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Mama’s Secret
Soft steps are heard in the garden, gingerly I hide. Looking from the bush, I see my mother. My love. Oh, how she is so sad. My initial motive to…[...]
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Can-Can Wonderland
What does that even mean? When I thought of the can-can I thought of the scandalous scarlet skirts whipping back and forth on stage showcasing ebony heels and a little…[...]
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What the River Leaves Behind
In the quiet Lowcountry of South Carolina, where tea-dark rivers wind beneath moss-draped oaks and memory lingers like humidity in the air, one woman begins to understand that survival is…[...]
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I Remember the Wallet
When my brother Jake and I were kids—twelve and eight, respectively—we lived in one of Montreal’s poor immigrant sectors. We’d been ice-skating at Beaver Lake at the top of Mount…[...]
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Chapter Closed
Six years had passed since the former Viscountess Alexandra of Pembroke, now the Grand Duchess Alexandra of Blackwood, had stepped foot in the chapel, the last place she wanted to…[...]
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All the lonely people
I confess that my contact with M has been reduced to an annual posting of the family newsletter. We live on opposite sides of a large city. Our lives have…[...]
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First Light
Before the flood, I spent most clear nights in my backyard staring at Saturn through a cheap 90mm telescope. Some nights the atmosphere was too unstable to focus clearly, but…[...]
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I remember those days
I remember la chanson the birds sang that day. The fallen leaves and all.I remember people talking about their days. the flight instructors who struck me the most, at least,…[...]
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your go-to café
have you travelled far far away and need to find your way back home, darling? this would be listed among the most humane situations, no need to be coy about…[...]
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Mission Zeus 5: The eyes of a scientist
Day 1,765 — First Entry I remember when things were normal. I was with my family, having dinner with Celine and the kids. Marcus had just won his baseball tournament…[...]
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Wedding Dress
The first person to notice the dress was the bartender.Not because he cared about fashion, but because he had spent the last hour watching the groom’s mother criticize every flower…[...]
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A Perfect Mother
I remember when my five-year-old daughter crossed a balance beam in gymnastics on the day Haiti suffered a catastrophic earthquake. It felt peculiar to be proud of my daughter in…[...]
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Two Rememberings
Reedsy Prompt for May 22, 2026Include a wake or funeral in your story where the mourners have conflicting feelings about the deceased. (1,760 words) Me: Well, we’re here. Not a…[...]
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Maybe I Should Keep the Mothballs
In my twenties, when I left the nest to rent a tiny flat, my mother, always practical, gave me a box of mothballs.“Keep them in your drawer to fend off…[...]
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Angel in a Yellow Dress
June 12, 2024 ~ Cagliari, Sardinia“” The charcuterie board was pushed across the counter to my husband’s surprise. He had gestured to the meats and cheeses through the glass counter…[...]
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How to Bake Sourdough Bread and Alienate Everyone You Know
Are you stressed out? Strapped for time? About three to five minor inconveniences away from total burnout?Now is the perfect time for you to start baking sourdough bread.Maybe you’re short-staffed…[...]
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They haven’t even won my heart and mind
I feel the JACKAL sway below me, the dust-red road unrolling in front and the stunted mahogany scrub flashing alongside. We pass women bent double under towering loads of firewood…[...]
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A Doorway on Lenox
Theo had been staring at the same sentence so long the letters bled together. Lineage in Postmodern Black Poetics. He mouthed the words once more, flat and sour on his…[...]
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The Bear Necessities of Contract Law
Goldilocks Lockwood v. Bear FamilySmall Claims Court, Woodland DistrictCase No. 2024-SC-0847Transcript of the Plaintiff's Opening Statement THE COURT: Ms. Lockwood, you may proceed with your statement.MS. LOCKWOOD: Thank you, Your…[...]
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THE COLOUR OF MOURNING
Jenna stood in the rain on the cliff path above Portreath. It was a soft, persistent rain, the kind that doesn’t fall so much as hang in the air, soaking…[...]
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An Inland Sea
emotional and financial abuseI am in my regular spot this morning, the navy blue chair-and-a-half, staring out at the big lake. From here, it looks like an inland sea, a…[...]
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The Blue After the Storm
April 23, 2026 - 6:20pmIt’s been gray and overcast today, which I honestly love. As an Arizonan living in Oklahoma now, I love the days where rain is expected. I…[...]
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My personal nightlight
A phone call wakes you out of your stupor. The caller was June, your shy but well-meaning friend. Though it was late in the evening, you wondered why she’s calling…[...]
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The Almost Emporium
“A person will have to give account for everything his eye saw yet he did not eat.”Talmud (Yerushalmi), Kiddushin 4:12 Don’t stand outside knocking! Come in! Welcome to “” where…[...]
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The Easter of Colors
I went out into the garden this sunny morning and saw that the yellow plum blossoms had opened, dazzling white flowers. The lawn was green and the leaves on the…[...]
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Call Your Father
The wall stared without question or expectation.There were scars hidden beneath its caked layers of paint, every one a silenced story consumed by the beige expanse. It stood despite them.…[...]
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Higher Power
Shaking his head, Booker read the sign outside the meeting. Attendees streamed by him and into the building. The sign read, ‘Welcome to our local chapter of the AA. Note:…[...]
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Echoes on the Canvas
Owen squinted, surveying the sea of people below. The crowd had come to mourn the dead. It might have been a joke if not for the art. To his right,…[...]
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The To-Do List
I rolled over in bed, still half-asleep, my cooling eye mask perched on my forehead, when a wash of sunlight slipped through the curtains and hit me all at once.Oh…[...]
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Clara and the Songs
They were going to kill her. Not on purpose; this wasn’t malice. It was love, of a sort anyway. It was both ironic and tragic. Which is just the sort…[...]
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The Secret Bluebells
My father died last month. Shortly after his death, my mother began to behave very strangely. She started to mutter to herself and tap the furniture as if waiting for…[...]
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The Gap Year
2014 Laura was more than a little unnerved the first time it happened. What would anyone expect, to be visited by a decidedly thirtyish woman claiming to be her future…[...]
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Under the Gold Lights
The ladder slipped before Miranda even had time to scream.One second, she was stringing gold lights across the barn rafters, the next the world tilted, wood cracked, and gravity yanked…[...]
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There is no Color
Withering willows and gentle breezes, leaves falling and moving seasons. Life once had a shape and an enchantment, but lately everything feels as though it's turned into ashes. The sky…[...]
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The Colors He Made
Kevin said he played guitar the way most people admitted things: reluctantly, eventually, and usually too late. That wasn't entirely fair. He'd said he played guitar *the way he admitted…[...]
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Goin’ Back to Cali
Jack and Sharon are sitting on an ice chest holding hands, watching their rods and the Pacific, when Sharon’s rod suddenly bends. She leaps to her feet, grabs the rod…[...]
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Black and Blue
Jen left therapy tasked with owning her triggers. Feeling overwhelmed already, she told herself, “You are only being asked to own them. That’s all. Nothing more, nothing less.” After all,…[...]
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That Boring Beige
Dear Bella,I remembered that day, exactly eight years after your death. The day I was standing at the edge of the bridge after my suicide attempt, cutting my wrist in…[...]
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His color is Vermilion RED
Owen W SullivanLife and Style At twenty-six years old, Owen W Sullivan works as a health receptionist in Baltimore. However, he is more into fashion, building his clothes around a…[...]
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Black & White
Someone had stolen the light out of this world. Someone ripped it from the Earth, from the trees and the water, from the fields and flowers. They stole it so…[...]
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See it with my eyes
Eyes shutStanding on the platform with her eyes closed, Myriam concentrated on the noises around her. Someone was coughing. A phone was ringing. People were talking about the newest political…[...]
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Red Dawn Rising
Poppy could ignore the three alarms that had already gone off. But she couldn’t ignore her Siamese cat’s gentle pawing at her face. She knew it was only a matter…[...]
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A New Life with Bright Colours.
A New Life With Bright Colours.I woke up early and looked out at the black night sky and I knew instantly that it reflected my life. I was living in…[...]
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The Color of Grief
I crushed the cigarette in the ash tray on my desk as I reminisced on the world that once was full of light, hope, dreams, and color. My God there…[...]
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About to Fall
A thick fog envelops Hyde Park as I ride my ginger pony around the deserted kiosk at Speakers’ Corner. Winter Wonderland closed last week, leaving its muddy footprint stamped on…[...]
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The Gods who sleep at the Seams
The Gods Who Listen at the Seams Analise kept a whiteboard in her apartment that she'd filled and erased so many times the surface had gone permanently grey.Her cacti were…[...]
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The white shadow
The sun shines on my hands as I open the little book, the one that starts with a simple drawing of a boa constrictor eating an elephant, the one my…[...]
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Black and White
CW: Police harassment They slouched in the flickering darkness, watching the final credits. For two hours, Mark Dirac had shared part of the universe with Blanche, breathing in her wild-rose…[...]
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Charcoal Drawing
It doesn’t all go at once, you know. Think August to October. At first, you see the tips of the leaves turn a crisp autumn color, then the green of…[...]
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Yellow, White, and Blue
Returning to the office after an accident makes you wish you were in another accident. In short, it totally sucks. Waking up at 6 am to get ready to go…[...]
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It Ain’t Easy Being Orange
I used to be bolder than others. Even the boldest of the bold could not eclipse my brilliance.I don’t mean I was unapproachable; I was and am as sweet as…[...]
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The Opening
IAccording to something he had once heard—perhaps as a child, perhaps later, perhaps not even from a person—the earth remembers what we forget, though the sentence had never settled into…[...]
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The Last Leather Straps
Mirror imageWith a jolt Keith sat up straight in his bed. Breathing heavily, he wiped his forehead. His eyes wandered to the alarm clock.3.39“Go back to sleep.”Sarah’s voice was barely…[...]
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The Water Takes Us
“If you go into the water, it will take your life. We are cursed to never enter the ocean.” My mother’s words echoed in my mind as I recalled a…[...]
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The Fire We Stole
The sky hung heavy over Bangkok, a dome of rust and sorrow. The sun was no longer a sovereign flame but a pale coin pressed against the haze, its brilliance…[...]
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The Forest Remembers
Knowledge truly is a curse. My leaves shake and shiver in the wind as a plea to my mother. But she does not answer. She has not answered in hundreds…[...]
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The Meadow
It shook its branches — scattering sparrow feathers and faintly yellowed leaves — and pressed its roots deeper into the earth, searching for pockets of moisture. Its crown, warmed by…[...]
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Glorious, For a While
Darkness is the home of our vague fears and anxieties, but it is also the home of the Gods. Our lives contain “accidents,” which only exist in our heads. What…[...]
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The Brother Who Let Go
First, I have to tell you I am alive and I have two brothers. One Near-And-Beating Brother, who holds my hand beneath the damp, green and life-bearing soil. Whose hurts…[...]
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