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Janine W

Author on Reedsy Prompts since May, 2023

Stories (5)

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9 Followers

17 Following

5 Stories

78 karma pts

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Cold Plunge Chronicles: Letters From My Tub

Janine W

Submitted to Contest #301

I don’t know why people rave about cold plunging. I hate it—and yet, I do it. So often, in fact, that my cold plunge tub has started writing me letters.The first one arrived on a Tuesday morning, propped against my coffee maker:Dear Reluctant Bather,Look, we need to talk. Every morning you circle me like I’m a sleeping bear you’re trying not to wake. You do that little dance—you know the one—where you bend over, test the water with one finger, then immediately straighten up like you’ve been electrocuted.“Maybe tomorrow,” you mutter, clutchin...

0 likes

The Cove That Held Me

Janine W

Submitted to Contest #300

Some places you don't find—you claim. I was twelve when I claimed Pirate's Cove, Corona del Mar, California. A narrow inlet carved by time and tide, hidden between jagged cliffs and the restless Pacific. Today it's tamed—concrete steps with iron rails guiding the descent, the rocks worn from too many feet, beach towels, bold and bright, strewn like markers across the once-empty sand. But back then, the Cove was raw, sheltering, alive. A place the wind couldn't find. A place a child like me—lean, angry, light on her feet—could disappear into ...

5 likes

Cold Plunge Standoff

Janine W

Submitted to Contest #299

"Hey babe! Hosting a little gathering Saturday—super chill, just 30ish folks and some mindful snacks!"I stare at Angela's text like it just sneezed on my phone. Thirty people isn't a gathering. It's a viral event with guacamole.I never fully re-entered the atmosphere after it. The Pause. The Great Global Timeout. That glorious, terrible stretch when pants were optional, solitude was patriotic, and nobody expected you to show up—especially not in person.Some people bounced back like overcorrected economies. They went to brunch. Hugged strange...

10 likes

Innocent Heights

Janine W

Submitted to Contest #294

You ever notice how little kids can’t quite pronounce certain words? The letter R, for instance. Yeah, it didn't stand a chance. “Car” becomes “cah,” and “hair” turns into… well, “hay-woo.” And don’t even try throwing an L and an R in the same word. “Probably”? Good luck. You’ll get “pwobably” at best. Anyway, let me tell you about this date I went on. Nice guy named Eddie. Polite, easygoing, intelligent, and—most importantly—open to trying new things. Like snow skiing. Which, in hindsight, should’ve been my first clue. But back then I thoug...

5 likes

Blue Exposure

Janine W

Submitted to Contest #292

You live in a city long enough, you begin to understand its silences. The silence of the morning fog, thick and absolute, swallowing streets before the city comes alive. The silence she used to photograph with her father, both of them up before dawn, waiting for that particular blue light. The silence of neon signs in the early hours, their glow blurred on wet pavement. The silence that taught her patience. And then there are the other silences. That moment before a car alarm rips through it—the kind of moment her father called "the breath b...

7 likes