SF Drabble #427 “Kaiju”

“They’re friends, see?” The little girl held the paper cutouts aloft to catch the light, and their silhouettes played against the concrete shelter wall. “She’s feeding him, and he’s saying ‘thank you, thank you!’”

“That’s nice, dear.” Her mother seemed intent on willing the ceiling to hold; dust drifted down as the room shook.

“Mommy, do you think the big monsters on the news want to be friends?”

A terrible noise — a bursting steam engine of a cry — reverberated down the stairwell. A soldier finally shut the door and bolted it. “I don’t think so, honey.”

“We should ask them.”

SF Drabble #426 “It Was A Pleasure To Burn”

“Twenty seconds.”

“You swear you did the math right.”

“Yes, for the love of… I have three post-graduate degrees.”

“Is one of them in math?”

“Somebody muzzle Helberg. Ten seconds.”

“I have two post-grad degrees, you know. One of them is in English literature—”

“I swear to God, Helberg.”

“—and the other is in Geology. Guess which one got me assigned to this sorry excuse for a mission?”

“Helberg, if there was a way to make it so you burned up while aerobraking but not the rest of us, I would do it. I mean it. Three… Two… One…. mark.”

Fantasy Drabble #346 “The Magic Hour”

“Abby.” She knew not to step any closer, through the door, into the room. The girl stood, motionless, palm outstretched into a late-afternoon sunbeam swimming with dust motes. “Abby.”

“I can make them stop.”

“We’ve talked about this.”

“It’s just so pretty.”

“Time isn’t yours to play with. It belongs to everyone. We’ve talked about this.”

The girl’s hand dropped, the beam brightened and whitened, the dust motes sped  their convoluted dance. “There. Normal. Happy?” She sat on the bed, pushed the hair from her eyes. “I’m not going to break it. You should trust me. You’ll have to, eventually.”