Amongst my mother-in-law's hoarded treasures, a rusted Normal Rockwell tin weighted down ... [+]
Gillian O’Shaughnessy is a journalist with ABC Radio Perth. She was a finalist in the Bath Flash Fiction Award and the London Independent Story Prize. She lives in Fremantle. "Crash Landing at Elizabeth Quay" is part of Short Édition's series, The Current.
I arrive at the bus stop heading for work and see the moon has fallen from the sky and is resting in a crater where the Bell Tower used to be. I'm struck by how unimpressive it looks close up, beige and lumpy, like old porridge. "Nothing special," I mutter out of the corner of my mouth to a man clutching a briefcase nearby. "Pardon?" he seems startled. "THE MOON," I say more loudly. Perhaps he's hard of hearing. I smile reassuringly and gesture towards it, "NOTHING SPECIAL IS IT? NOT VERY "SILVERY?" I make the air quotes. He looks over his shoulder in the way people do when they think
