The Sound of Stories - FINALISTS

We had a lot of entries by students from Negreira, Ordes, Ribeira, Sar and Vite. Thank you very much to all of you for your stories, they were really interesting to read. High literary level too, so it was difficult to choose the finalists, but here are 15 stories for your enjoyment. Please, read and vote for your favorite!

1. The daily melody
Today it was also with me. It’s the daily melody that accompanies me a long time ago. A melody that mixes the horrible noise of the alarm clock or phone, with the soft sounds of the water of the shower or walk through the field. It’s always there, accompanying me, always faithful, day after day. Sometimes I wonder how I have come to this situation. And, suddenly, I remember: It’s the melody of civilization. It is the price to pay for living in it. And I stay quiet again. And tomorrow, as a merry-go-round, return to start.


2. Bad
This is the sound... the bad sound, this is the day... the bad day. I need to be clean today, after I am going to be dirty... maybe tomorrow. Before I need to have a dirty breakfast... like my life. Am I afraid...? No, not really. The phone!!!... the bad sound of the phone... Nobody answers, but it’s better, I am a bad man, and I have a bad goal today. It is the moment, people call me, maybe a good day for a bad day for somebody. I am a bad boy in a bad day.

3. Never alone
I’d always wanted my grandmother´s house. It’s cozy and has a small garden. Five months ago, I moved there. Since then I don’t live alone. When her alarm clock rings, I rise and we start our daily routine. I’m a writer and work at home because this house is very inspiring. But when she’s bored she plays around. She phones me or rings the doorbell. There’s never anybody. She makes me walk around the house like a cat and mouse game. I can hear my grandmother’s ghost steps on the bed of leaves going away through the garden.

4. Back in Wonderland
It's a sunny day. I'm with Alice, the Rabbit and the Mad Hatter. A lovely carousel goes round and round. The alarm sounds. Damn! It's Monday! I get in the shower thinking about the beautiful feather hat of the Mad Hatter, I prepare coffee while I´m thinking about the White Rabbit... I would like to live adventures every day in Wonderland...The phone rings, but it's too late. Who was it? Don't know... The doorbell rings. I open the door and... here's the Hatter. While I leave home the music sounds, the carousel appears and here I am, in Wonderland.


5. IN LATE AUTUMN (mixed feelings)
Another day, another lie
This time, I’ll dare tell you.
I don’t want to hear that voice, again.
HOPELESS, HOPEFUL
I’ll make this all just one dream!
Ding, Dong!!! Who will it be!!!
Can´t I cry my pity?
I can’t read, my tears hinder.
EXCITED, EASE.
I walk slowly, hearing a squeak in autumn.
The sun is still in the sky and shining above me
I feel like shouting, laughing, singing, loving....
I hear the child’s smile
ENJOY, HARMLESS

6. Sophie
From my bed I could hear neighbours going into the stony path to feed the birds. When the alarm clock went off I was still awake, in my head was beating the tick-tock of the clock and the picture of Sophie in the bath. I could still feel her blood running down my body while I was hugging her tight against my chest. Later chaos came; the phone and doorbell rang steadily. Quickly the house was full of people, dolls, toy carousels and sweets. I still don't quite understand how my wife could give birth to Sophie in the bath.

7. The signal
The silence of the room was only broken by the ticking of the alarm clock, but she didn't open her eyes. Later she had a shower, prepared a cup of coffee and drank it while looking through the window . It was raining. How long had she been hiding there? Days, weeks… The insults, the punches, his cruelty... resounded still inside herself. Somebody phoned her, but nobody uttered a word. The signal! The bell rang, she opened the door anxiously and walked along the gravel path towards the car. The cheerful music of a new life began to sound!


8. HopeAfter thinking of her all night, he knew there was no way back. The ticking of the clock was his only friend during useless thoughts. He turned off the alarm clock and woke up, maybe a hot shower and a hot cup of coffee would turn him back to reality. It was pouring, the sound of a phone broke the silence. He picked up but nobody answered, he looked at the door and the bell rang, he opened it hoping she was there. Love’s like being lost in a forest, hope is the music that allows us to keep dreaming.

9. Flying high
Like every morning for the last sixty years, Ana turned off her alarm clock and woke up; prepared to face another routinary day. While having her breakfast, the doorbell broke the silence. Ana picked up the phone but nobody answered. ‘Would it be the call which she’d been waiting for so long?’ After a while, somebody knocked on the door. Ana smiled; the moment had come! She opened the door and walked to the big circus tent. In the end, she would be able to fulfill her dream. Just little before she died, Ana would become a trapeze artist.

10. Oh Alice!
An alarm clock? Where am I? I see a bathroom, I take a shower, MMMMM smells good! Coffee, eggs, who made breakfast? Riiing! Hello!­, no one, ding dong, my red shoes knock on the floor, I find the door and open it, a chorus of birds greets me, a man with a long white beard looks at me, gives me a ring, smiles and goes walking on the grass, I follow him to a village, what is Gandalf doing in Oz if the music I hear is from another film?
ALICE, WHAT KIND OF MUSHROOMS DID YOU GIVE ME?

11. Lady Duplo
Lady Duplo truly thinks that her lucky number is two. For that reason she waited so long for today, the second of the second, to be the greatest day. Her clock rang twice and she went to take a shower and soaped herself two times. She let the phone ring twice before answering it and she prepared a bouquet with two flowers, but when Tom knocked on the door............ only once!......... lady Duplo worried............. but she, looking at him, felt doubly happy, because Tom, who will be her husband in two hours, made two hearts beat inside her.

12. Trapped
My heart’s beating faster than the alarm. A shower? What for? What I did has stained me forever. Now that he is absent, the coffee maker, the frying pans, breakfast time… everything turns so unfamiliar… The phone rings. My mother. She knows what I have done. No more blows now, no more cries. I get out. As I penetrate into the forest, the sound of the leaves makes me feel more alive. Am I free? Perhaps I am more imprisoned than ever. Trapped inside myself, entrapped by my conscience.


13. Destination unknown
The day everything was over began like any other day two years ago. That night, as usual, Leia barely slept. After switching off the useless alarm, she started her routine: a quick shower, scrambled eggs and coffee for breakfast… Then, her phone rang. Leia answered it, expecting to hear the voice of another agent. Instead, somebody hung up. She immediately knew what it meant, and the doorbell ringing confirmed her suspicions. She opened and no one was outside. Strangely calm, she took out her guns and walked into the forest. Maybe they caught her, but she wouldn't make it easy.

14. Yellowknife
“Morning awakening is the time I expect the most everyday. I love how Miley stretches herself to leave the warmth I breathe in. She moves into the bathroom and feels how water gives her a new, fluent, appearance. We left Tri-Cities under an unusual rain."

‘Jared, please, stop scribbling and answer the phone, will you?’ ‘Too late, no answer’ Someone’s just rung. Miley opened the door. Surprised, she could see an old man crossing the backyard. Miley´s (formerly Rayon´s) childhood spun one more time in the carousel. Stared at by his father, hieratic. He turned as pale as snow.

15. Synesthetic breath
These four windowless walls of my writing protect me from the stabs that sunlight settles on my ears, soaking me completely deaf facing the brightness of your lifestyle which blinds my eyes with just a clock whisper. I ask whether this faint hypoallergenic world of silence where I'm captive may become better than the outside world you perceive, in which you want to talk but nobody listens, where your steps make you the companion of death during the stroll to the end of everything and nothingness, where our worlds become the chilling smell of scream of the last breath.

LINK to the sound file that served as inspiration.