JanetthePlanet 66

“The Stranger” by JanetthePlanet 66

It is an ambiguous, unsettling noise that demands attention, and I pull the edge of the curtain back slightly. A muffled footstep on the concrete driveway? A shuffle of boots on the doorstep? But no-one and nothing; not a ring, knock or hello. Not another sound, not a sign of life. I should have questioned.Curtains exorcise the sharp sunlight pouring in through bay windows, and the lounge room settles back into peace. My child builds houses with coloured plastic blocks, and keeps a watchful eye that I have not escaped into the absence of sl...

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“Beautiful” by JanetthePlanet 66

Submitted to Contest #117

Everything is ready for the ritual; me, the nurse with the silver tray, and Dr. Edmund Powers. Everything is ready, but I have been waiting a full two hours to get inside the doctor’s office and get started. The nurse is bustling around, a crisp white vision of medical efficiency, carrying small metal trays, whose contents defy gravity and rattle without sound. She darts across the room and scurries into the labyrinth of unblemished walls the colour of lightly suntanned angels, and enters through a pristine, heavy glass door, then disappears...

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“The Wall” by JanetthePlanet 66

Submitted to Contest #114

“Do you want to do something fun?” She said.It was never my suggestion, but June Lilly was tall with long, shiny hair that sat on her shoulders the colour of swaying wheat. We looked up to her sapphire-eyed smile, haloed by the late evening sun, and when she snapped her fingers, we followed along like runty puppies yelping for attention. Everything about her was rich, evoked the perfume and grace of a palace garden.June, her family, lived in a mansion. In the spinney next to the Common, discreetly surrounded by oaks and sycamores, the flower...

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“What Happens in the Rain...” by JanetthePlanet 66

Submitted to Contest #112

The driver, unaware that his wife is watching, is enjoying the dark silence of the journey, sees a few drops of water on the windscreen. It is the first rain of the wet season.The woman, woken by the growing whine of the car’s engine, turns her head to watch the driver. Corkscrewed for hours against the headrest, her neck muscles tighten in protest. She touches her cheek. It is damp with saliva and bears the imprinted scar of a pillow’s edge. Despite discomfort, it has been a deep sleep, and she guesses they may have travelled halfway home.E...

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“My Mother's Dreams.” by JanetthePlanet 66

🏆 Winner of Contest #110

In her dream she is fourteen, running home from work on precarious little heels, down the paved street, as molten metal plip-plops around her, dotting the cement with perfect silver discs. Her mother lags six feet behind, following her footsteps, urging her to tread carefully. A V2 rocket launches overhead, triggering the timer in her mind. She waits in the signature silence for the rocket to find its mark, as it careens noiselessly through the night sky. “One,” she shouts, “Two. Three. Four.” “We have plenty of time, Lizzy, plenty of time.”...

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“Numbers” by JanetthePlanet 66

Submitted to Contest #100

NUMBERS We are all surviving the party so far, but the last knock changes everything. Warm conviviality has turned into sniping tension, and that also drains from the room as the door opens and the man bursts in. ### The dinner party starts well. “Here’s to the end of this virus.” I look around the table, through unsober eyes. I stand, raising the glass as red wine sways and swirls in my unsteady hand. Lifted high in the air, it greets the other glasses with soft clinks, sealing the toast in bonhomie. Everyone is standing. “To the end.” A lo...

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