A warning: I'm not completed yet, but I feel like without catching my voice in the first page, I can't finish & rewrite the rest. I think the voice fits as a whole throughout, but that, without the backbone of the preceding paragraph, the first line is much too flowery and so changes the whole tone.

~4800 words

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It was always loss about which they busied themselves, hens and crows pecking miserably at pebbles in the dirt. Nobody spoke about work or children or even asked Janie if she were in high school, not once. In every city they lived, there was a different group of strangers, a different lead or prospect on her mother. Nine times they moved before she was eighteen, and her mother had only been missing for six years.

"Six years, five months, and twenty-two days," her father said at the beginning of the meeting. He checked his watch, not even feigning a joke. Janie closed her eyes in horror. "And eighteen hours, nine minutes."

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I liked this quite a bit. The first sentence painted a very nice image. The only thing I tripped on was "...a different lead or prospect on her mother." It was fully explained in the next sentence, but I read it a couple of times wondering what "lead" referred to. In retrospect, I doubt many others, if any, would trip on that, but I did. I suppose you could say, "...a different lead or prospect on her mother's whereabouts," but others here will probably protest that it isn't needed.

The only other comment I'd make is that there is not hint about it being a SF story. The doesn't bother me, but some may ask for that.

Good luck. I'd continue reading.

"Six years, five months, and twenty-two days," her father said at the beginning of the meeting. (Family? Business?)He checked his watch, not even feigning a joke. Janie closed her eyes in horror. (Mock horror?) "And eighteen hours, nine minutes." (This threw me out again. Was Janie speaking or her father? Careful about placing third party actions in the middle of speech)

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This is probably not particularly helpful but I think you should relook at the first paragraph and decide if you started in the right place. Maybe the father's obsessive count would be a good jumping off spot.
Also, don't worry about attaining a perfect opening until you have finished the first push to an ending. At 4800 wds you've got a ways to go yet.

I also stumbled with the phrase "or even asked Janie if she were in high school" Who's "they" and why do they care?

I think this has promise because the writing is easy to get into. And you have a good hook.

It doesn't present itself as SciFi. Had I opened this up I would initially thought this was some Grapes Of Wrath era storytelling. Does it need to imply SciFi? I don't know.

I think the first paragraph is well written and interesting but... it just doesn't seem to work. Hens, children, high school, strangers, mother, different cities, eighteen, missing six years; that's a lot of stuff to cram into one paragraph. Perhaps you would be better off cutting out a few things from that list to be included into the story late.

Also, "Closed her eyes in horror". Really? Horror? Is her dad about to pull out a chainsaw?'

Would Janie really miss people speaking about work or children? That sounds a bit like an adult POV.

In the first paragraph, nine-eighteen-six got me confused – my mind wanted to chase down the math. I didn’t know at this point that it was just Janie and her father moving about – were some of the moves with her mother too, before she went missing? Is Janie eighteen now? I don’t think you need her age since she is in high school.

I get the horror – younger teens are appalled by the weird, dumb things their parents do. But it would be more believable if she cared about the opinions of the other people present – other teens, a boyfriend, or someone she respects? It sounds like a group of strangers, all “grown-ups,” are at these meetings, so would she really care?