Rani Jayakumar

“A Not So Simple Cake” by Rani Jayakumar

Submitted to Contest #270

Note: This story contains sensitive content, including loss of life and mention of knives and cutting. 1. First get a bowl. Not the bowl Grandma gave you that time when she called you in the kitchen with her cane in hand, and asked you to get it from under the cabinet, the one you thought was not even a cabinet but just a false panel because no one ever opened it. Not that bowl, which has been superglued again and again until the glue cracks are a new pattern on the blue and white chinoiserie. Blue Willow, she called it before she gave it to...

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“Brave as You Believe” by Rani Jayakumar

Sensitive content: Death "Look, Cameron, look!" Sheena shouted, one arm dangling from one of the bars of the tallest monkey bars. Sheena was comfortable hanging there, as if she could have been a monkey in a past life, and one of her favorite things was to just swing back and forth on the bars, always pushing herself to go faster or to do a new trick. She's just learned to go across while skipping a bar in between using only one arm at a time, now she wanted to try it backwards, and show Cameron her new skill. Cameron shivered just looking a...

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“Falling Into Oblivion” by Rani Jayakumar

I don't remember it. I don't remember taking it. I don't remember being there. I don't remember falling from thousands of feet up into the air. I don't remember grinning into the camera. I don't remember the wind rushing past my body. I don't know how the photo got so popular either. Suddenly, my face, looming over the white clouds and blue ocean that are the earth, has become the most popular thing ever. Speculation ran rampant: Space sky dive? Digitally enhanced? Faked outright? Truly just real and amazing? Facial recognition identified...

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“People in Glass Houses” by Rani Jayakumar

"Shh!" Kiran whispered, much too loudly, her finger to her lips, stumbling over her heels as she tried to keep from giggling. "You shh!" Jay whispered back. They had managed to hide out in the bathroom after closing, and now the art museum was theirs for the evening. They knew the security guard's flashlight could find them at any time, but they could always feign being lost kids who were stuck in the bathroom and couldn't get out. Kiran opened the map, now crumpled and creased. "Where do you want to go?" She realized they hadn't really th...

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“The Cure” by Rani Jayakumar

Submitted to Contest #90

They said this day would come, but they never really believed it. When they started wearing masks, they said it would go back to “normal” eventually, but instead we reached a new, devastating normal. The world population is unsustainable - at nearly 20 billion, we are overcrowded. Forests are gone, except for a few rare stands constantly battling those trying to plunder them. We grow food in tall buildings hydroponically, and the question of being vegetarian or not is moot. Where would a cow graze? Who has the space for a chicken, much les...

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“Last Stop” by Rani Jayakumar

Submitted to Contest #90

The doors slid closed silently, and muzak piped in from overhead. Charles sat by the door, his jacket slung over his arm, the bag strap across his chest. He could see his reflection in the dark glass - the haggard face, grayed eyebrows, brown sagging skin. Years of watching and waiting were in that face. He flexed his hands open and closed. They had manipulated those controls, sliding forward and back, pressing and twisting, so many times.  He felt the buzzing under his feet, the telltale but tiny lurch that indicated the train woul...

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“The Best-Laid Plans” by Rani Jayakumar

Submitted to Contest #89

Isa was always making plans. On Sundays, she’d write out her week’s schedule in half-hour increments, including such mundane things as brushing her teeth and changing into pjs. She liked to write it all out, and envision her day down to the tiniest detail.  In the morning, she double-checked the list, which she had laid beside her alarm clock, and after her morning stretches, added any ideas that had bubbled up in her dreams. She put the things she would not do today either on her “Later” list or in an increasingly fat red journal tha...

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“The Babysitter” by Rani Jayakumar

Submitted to Contest #89

“Oh! There it is!” Jacy said.  Finally, she pulled out a golden ring, covered in mucus. She reached in again and pulled out several pieces of uncooked pasta, five lego pieces, three screws and a nut, six beads of different colors, a piece of blue string, a button, a red pencil eraser, and a spring from a pen.  She reached in deeper with her forceps and pulled out a hair clip. “Aha!” she said, “That should do it.” But he shook his head no and wailed. There was more.  “This might be uncomfortable,” the doctor said. The s...

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“Dive” by Rani Jayakumar

Submitted to Contest #89

She looked back for the last time, her heart thumping in her chest. And then she jumped. She felt the wind on her face as she fell, the breeze hitting her with a thousand needles, dragging her hair upward. She wanted to close her eyes, her arms splayed out, letting the world rise to greet her. To forget it all, and just stay here, like this, as if nothing had ever changed.  But she also wanted to see every single moment. So she peeled her eyelids apart, the light squeezing between them, the wind streaking tears that rose onto the ...

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“Every Fool Thing” by Rani Jayakumar

Submitted to Contest #87

I only kind of survived because I’m not on social media. After all the scares of recent years, I begged off, finding out too late that I couldn’t see my friends’ baby pictures or even yoga videos anymore. Everyone was not only completely online, but on just two major apps where they all shared everything - photos, videos, where they were, what they were doing, what they were going to do. The turning point was when the news media got on social media. Now it wasn’t news unless it was on Cheep or Lookbook. So of course, when some VP who’d had...

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“April Cool” by Rani Jayakumar

Submitted to Contest #87

On Mondays, Maureen drags herself to the mailbox. She peeks in with anticipation, then slits open the envelope right there in the lobby. Her face always falls as she tosses the envelope, folds up the pink paycheck and shuffles back to the elevator. She mutters to herself something about the price of dinner. On Tuesdays, Kasha comes down the stairs with Milo, his schnauzer. He’s the only one who’s allowed a pet in this building, he’s been here that long. He’s generally cheerful, with something jovial to say to me in his still-thick Polish a...

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“Fool's Paradise” by Rani Jayakumar

Submitted to Contest #87

Every year, Patty planned one major party. At first, it was just around Chrismukkah (her mom was Jewish and dad Christian), or New Year’s, big bashes thrown for a dozen or two of her closest friends and their plus ones, with drinks free-flowing and music that killed neurons.  Then she moved on to Thanksgiving, with a big turkey, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie, inviting all her family and friends, until the turkey was the one least stuffed by the end. From there, she threw chili cook-offs and barbecues for Independence Day, singles mi...

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“The Blue-Headed God” by Rani Jayakumar

Submitted to Contest #87

Kris didn’t mean to be a troublemaker, but that’s what he was. He was king of Sweet Mercy High, and everyone knew it, and loved him for it. He received all the privileges a golden-boy might - the teachers doted on him, letting him come in late, even flirting with him (irrespective of gender), giving him extra time on tests, not that he needed it. The lunch lady saved him the biggest slices of pizza and the last chocolate milk. He knew everyone’s first name and used it with impunity. The other boys looked up to him like a god. He go...

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“Nobody's Fool” by Rani Jayakumar

Submitted to Contest #87

I woke up already hyper-aware. Last night, I’d stuck a quarter to the floor with clear tape, and inwardly chuckled to myself that Zoe would find it and spend forever trying to scrape it off the hardwood. I left it just at that, waiting to see what opportunities might crop up during the day. She was always good for a laugh, and handled it with good humor. Raj, however, was the opposite. He and I have been facing off on April Fools’ Day for a decade. I’d neatly trim all his roses off, but reattach them so that they looked just fine until the...

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