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Janja Polanec

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Apr, 2021

Stories (7)

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7 Stories

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The Winter's Vigil

Submitted to Contest #332

The Winter’s Vigil In the beginning there were Kindness, Beauty, and unconditional Love. God had blessed the Animals with so much of these gifts that very little was left for People. Perhaps that is why we, in our cautious human way, never kept a pet. For only a few humans are capable of unconditional Love. Mother said pets could be a handful, and Father insisted that animals carried diseases. Yet, despite these strict rules, that winter brought surprises. That winter bestowed upon us Love and Dedication. It was a cold winter—one that entere...

8 likes

Kriva

Chapter I The world had never seemed so vast, nor so heavy with omen, as in the summer when I came to stay with my grandmother. Her cottage crouched beside the ancient church like a pale, watchful sentinel. The church itself—magnificent, almost sepulchral—possessed two organs: one electric, which groaned with an uncanny, almost inimical hum, and the other powered by bellows whose ancient lungs had exhaled their last breath many centuries ago. The village was named Kamnitz in Styria, and I was five at the time. I loved my grandmother, and I a...

0 likes

Causa Causae

Submitted to Contest #328

Causa Causae Many, many years ago, when the afternoons echoed with children’s laughter and the sun scattered happiness into every corner of the world, there were three little girls who studied piano in a house that smelled of waxed floors and roses. Their teacher, Myra, was a woman of porcelain kindness, whose fingers moved across the keys like white doves learning to fly. Bella, Bianca, and I: three names that once rang together like a simple chord. We spent our childhood bowing before Bach’s Minuets and Telemann’s Gavotte, while the metron...

4 likes

The Haunting at Number 9

Submitted to Contest #327

The Haunting at Number 9 It was the autumn of 1979, the year the evenings in the town of Idrija came earlier than they should have.The sky seemed the color of mercury; glittering silver with a touch of blue grain. Mimi and Paula lived in a narrow apartment building at Number 9, a three-floor relic with concrete stairways that echoed like a railway tunnel. The apartment was cosy and stuffed with bobbin laces, laced tablecloths, embroidered pillowcases, and crocheted ornaments, each corner wrapped in a delicate web of their shared past. The...

8 likes

Born in Slovenia

Submitted to Contest #323

To be born in Slovenia under Enlightenment regime is a challenge. My grandfather coped in his own way. Being imprisoned by Nazi was a peace of cake. Living among Slovenians was quite a different story. Being declared a suspicious citizen, after refusing to donate money to Partisans because he was broke, he practiced to play a half wit. When anybody asked him any question, he would look into the sky, move his lips as in searching for the answer , stammer "ah" and "eh", until the the other person gave up and left. After a while this behavior b...

6 likes

A trip to Vienna with a Legend

Submitted to Contest #284

Capote’s introduction to a short story comprises the literature as: writing, good writing and the art. He does describe his efforts to reach a higher level in his endeavors. He does not specify how to create the art. In short: writing is like sculpturing, adding or subtracting the material or starting again.My best friend is Monica. A fair-haired, blue-eyed architecture student with dimples in her cheeks. We’ve known each other since the first grade.When she suggested a trip to Vienna, I was overjoyed. Onkel Otto W., her dad’s brother lived ...

5 likes

A Christmas sheep

Submitted to Contest #281

Today the weather is bitterly cold. It is the coldest day of the year so far. The freezing rain bites through my clothes when I struggle to reach the grocery shop, balancing on the icy sidewalk. It is Christmas again. I am going to buy a Christmas tree. It is time to be joyous, to celebrate with the family and reminisce.  Christmas has not always been a holiday. Back in the 1960s we did not celebrate Xmas. It was not encouraged to celebrate Christmas because religion was "opium for masses", according to Marx. Christ...

2 likes