Josephine Harris

“Andrea en retarde” by Josephine Harris

Submitted to Contest #249

Andrea had the dream again. It always started the same way. It was a sunny day and she was in a hotel room packing. She had more than enough time to catch the flight to her appointment in another city. But then everything would go sideways. One delay after another.Only once did she manage to catch the plane, but it crashed. The descent wasn’t fiery and spectacular, the plane merely gliding quietly to the ground with no-one apparently noticing, let alone screaming; just another device to delay or stop her. At other times she’d become lost dri...

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“Once in a Lifetime” by Josephine Harris

Submitted to Contest #236

Once in a LifetimeI honestly considered it their fault and If I took precautions I wouldn’t catch it. I was smarter. Shows how much I know. Now I have the time sickness, popularly known as Nurse Ratched's Revenge.I’ve gone back thirty years, further than I thought possible and am stuck in normal time permanently. It's ironic, isn't it? given it's the time phase I'd lost everything to avoid.For me, normal time is tedious. Everything and everyone appears the same, changing infinitesimally from day to day. You know what they did yesterday and ...

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“The Day Before” by Josephine Harris

It was so terribly cold. Snow was falling, and it was almost dark. Ivan Patrenkov wiped away the ice from the window and scanned the horizon. The smith Novikov had assured him that the cart axle was fixed soundly, and he had more than enough provisions, so all should be well for his journey in the morning if the weather held and the horse Konstantin cooperated. Ivan had made this journey many times. From Vologda to Syamzha was a distance of just over 100 kilometres. Midway he would stop over in the city to rest the horse. Ivan woul...

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“On Reflection” by Josephine Harris

James recalled moving from the grunt work of manual labor to shift manager, where he’d made sure the machines kept running and the staff busy. Production was up, accidents were down, and everyone was getting along. He’d had a sense of pride and worked hard towards turning the job into a career, but that didn’t turn out the way he’d hoped. The family business was used to absorb and occupy the offspring. Useless buggers they were too, hired directly from school into management and didn’t give a toss. There was no talk of promotion for James. N...

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“The New New World” by Josephine Harris

Submitted to Contest #224

r/OuterSpace2000 - Posted by u/BaseTrekker 12 hours ago                    Anybody out there? I can’t sleep.Relief crew is overdue. We’re supposed to swap out every two weeks. They haven’t arrived and I haven’t heard anything. What’s worse is I’m by myself. The navigator got sick. They turned around and took him straight back home when they dropped me off. Ground control just says solution on its way. Hang in there. I’ve adjusted the heat...

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“The Dead Zone” by Josephine Harris

Submitted to Contest #221

Michael Horowitz prided himself on never paying for anything if he could get it for free, but this time got more than he bargained for.Michael stopped short at larceny, or so he thought, as he’d convinced himself that Internet pirating wasn’t theft. He loved to read, and justified downloading e-books from torrent sites on the basis that greedy publishers overpriced books; he wouldn’t know if the book was worth buying until he’d finished it; the publishers ripped off the authors anyway; and it wasn’t like stealing a physical book from a books...

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“Feed Your Head” by Josephine Harris

Submitted to Contest #220

Her bladder nearly let go with the boom and searing flash of light. Another peal of thunder came close on its heels rumbling and crackling across the sky, and then the torrential downpour kicked in. Tiffany was going to get wet one way or another. Fortunately, the relentless lightning lit up a stone bridge thirty feet in front of her. She sprinted as best she could to the abutment leading down. Scrambling, she lost her footing and slid on her backside in the mud, hoping all the while to be able to stop before reaching the wettest thing ...

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“The Brothers from Ohio” by Josephine Harris

Submitted to Contest #219

George Greig had a face that only a mother could love, ergo he worked at night monitoring a bank of screens. He was the watcher, not the watched. George observed the whole detention center from behind his desk; the timing of opened doors, the exit of the occupants and their strolls within floors, rounds of the guards, meals, altercations, returns to the cells, and then nighttime and lockdown when supposedly nothing else happened. The monitors alternated to show empty grey hallways. George prided himself on always staying awake despite t...

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“Black is Black ” by Josephine Harris

Submitted to Contest #218

Prompt: Start the story with the absence of a sensory detail (eg. silence when there should be noise).It's dark. Not time to get up yet. More merciful sleep. Awake again and still no sign of light. No stars through the window. No window. Feel like I have slept for hours. Time for work, but the world’s black. Feel for an eye shade, keenly aware that I don’t own one. My hand explores my face. Cogito ergo sum. I extend my fingers to the duvet but find instead the struts of a wooden chair in which I’m sitting upright. It’s quiet except for ...

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“The Time Travelers Club” by Josephine Harris

Submitted to Contest #196

I’d travelled through time before with no ill effects, but this was different. My lungs ached as I followed the others to the ‘Time Travelers Club proudly welcomes you. Wait here.’ signpost. All these terminus towns used signs in both languages, but it seemed odd to see the yellow smiley face. Surely they could have come up with something new after two decades.I set down my luggage and took a long breath. Nothing too unusual so far. Of course I saw no alien lifeforms; it was still humans throughout this solar system give or take a few m...

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“The Extrazirconial” by Josephine Harris

Submitted to Contest #193

Henry Morrison was out doing whatever it is that farmers do in their fields when he heard a loud buzzing noise above his head coming closer. The sound increased in intensity until his hair was flailing and he could feel the barley flattening in a circle around him. He could have sworn there was a helicopter or some other large flying machine directly above him, but the sky was empty.But then it wasn’t. A large bullet shaped metal vessel shucked off its cloaking and gradually shimmered into view. Two representatives of the planet Zircon ...

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“Sophia's Jaunt” by Josephine Harris

Submitted to Contest #192

When she came to understand English better, Sophia found it odd that the town was named Cherryfield, yet it advertised itself as the blueberry capital of the world. She’d come to the rural town from Sicily on the death of her husband to be near her son Michael and his family. She enjoyed helping with the children, but within a year the son’s job had changed and the family moved away to Washington State on the other side of the country. Sophia didn’t have another big move left in her so she stayed. As the only Italian in town, Sophia cam...

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“This Ain't Kansas” by Josephine Harris

Submitted to Contest #190

‘What do you call that thing when it’s a follow up to a book or a movie?’‘You mean… a sequel?’‘Yeah, that’s it. So I’ve been thinking about it. What we need is a sequel to that one about the girl, the dog, the tin man, the scarecrow, the lion, the two witches and a wizard.’‘A sequel to the Wizard of Oz? Are you crazy? You ain’t no Frank Baum.’‘I mean, isn't anyone curious what happened after? It’s all very well they got what they wanted, but sometimes things don’t work the way people think. You know, unintended consequences. That’s a very un...

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“Patrenkov's Folly” by Josephine Harris

Submitted to Contest #189

It was so terribly cold. Snow was falling, and it was almost dark. Ivan Patrenkov laid down his bundle to rest and scan the horizon. City lights appeared and reappeared behind the distant trees and wind. The city was far, but he could not stay. The coming dark and cold would consume him. He planted the stick in the ground to propel himself forward a step. If he could repeat that motion many times, he told himself, he would arrive. The makeshift cane found purchase on the frozen ground. He moved forward, his footstep obliterated by the keenin...

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“A Truncated Tryst” by Josephine Harris

Submitted to Contest #186

‘You should answer that phone.’ ‘It’s Jack and I don’t want to. I want everything to stay as it is. You. This place. Now.’ ‘But what if it’s important?’ ‘Nothing’s that important. There’s very few times in my life I’ve felt this alive. I just want to lay here until it gets dark and we use up the day. I want us to stay welded together like this. I can’t bear to change anything. See: the sun is moving down on the wall. It will be time enough for me to go.’ ‘But what if he’s on his way over?’ ‘He’s not. And if he was, he wouldn’t call first if ...

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