Sense

The sixth sense wasn’t seeing dead people. It was seeing four dimensional space. Daria figured it out first, then she taught me. You just had to stare at something, like a chair, for long enough that when you closed your eyes you could still see it. Then with your eyes closed we could see into the chair, every level of wood grain, every puff of cotton in the cushion.

The seventh sense discovered was being able to “see” or “feel” the material/chemical properties of the stuff around us. We didn’t have words for it, so we called it “matting”.

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New Planet Discovered

Astronomers hunting for intelligent life scratched their heads when the first Earth-like planet was discovered by an eight-year-old, in her microscope.

Barely larger than a grain of sand, the planet roiled with oceans, teemed with animals, and sustained its own atmosphere.

Scientists invented nanoscopes to observe its intricate ecosystems. Supernose dogs were bred to analyze its microflowers. One DJ claimed his tracks sampled the tiny thunder, and a Michelin chef used flavonoids extracted from its miniscule herbs.

But each sensory experience just raised more questions than it answered.

Only the eight-year-old understood. Senses don’t show reality, they just interpret it.

Troglodyte by Mer PZ

Amorphous and dark, seeming full of fear rather than evil, that strange being existed swallowing every imaginable thing: thoughts, lives, words, future actions. It also swallowed times, and possible worlds and loved ones. Day by day it kept on growing, occupying more space and complicating the passage of curious passers-by. Until one day it exploded.

According to newspapers, among the remains was found, inert, a girl. “I knew her” a friend told me, “always in silence, she lived in her head the lives she didn’t dare to start. Her world became so big, it could no longer fit her body.”