The short fiction of j hardy carroll
Fifty thousand dollars. After that, I quit listening. It was a lot of money for us, especially considering what we already spent. Mary Ann had been having troubles for more than a year before she disappeared. Her grades had slipped from As and Bs to Ds and Fs. After a couple months, we got a…
It was Pa broke down when the government man left. Ma was steel-eyed and cold. She gave me that look of hers, looked quick to Pa, slumped useless head in hands, then back over to me. She didn’t need to say anything more. I’d heard the what the government man said same as she had. If we didn’t take…
Gran stops him on his way out the door. “Just a minute. What’s that you have there?” He holds out the magnifying glass. It is a splendid thing, solid bronze, the lens hand ground to perfect clarity. It had been her grandfather’s. “And what are you going to do with this, may I ask?” “I…
This city is hard and getting harder. A forever throng of millions from every scattered nation, lined up chest-to-back, a herd of malodorous cattle on an island twenty-two miles long, forced to scrabble for whatever crumbs fall down from our masters’ table. Our masters sell the lie that we might one day join them. They advertise diamond wristwatches on bus stops to the…
Dearest Sventla, The snows have come at last. We have a few weeks’ respite from digging the canal, turning instead to indoor labors. Currently I am employed sewing emblems onto the thick woolen jackets worn by our military comrades in Moscow. It is not like when we were children. Here, the snows will so alter the landscape…
Getting away, she called it. We need to get away from it all. He thought it was more like bringing everything with them. Packing up the comfortable city life full of conveniences unimaginable a century ago, things like hypoallergenic pillows and gluten-free pasta. They brought their stove, their tent, their memory foam mattress, their propane appliances, LED lamps,…
“Does your life unfold like a map? You can’t see it while you’re in it. A gnat trapped in the clockworks cannot tell you the time.” He stares out the window at the unchanging city, the ever-changing sky. “Too busy dodging the gears and avoiding getting crushed, I suppose. It’s your move.” “Am I to believe you…
Her stories are all half-stories. She remembers the wall but not the door, the journey but not the destination. First names or last names, but never both. Nothing is true, nothing is false. The priest is summoned. At her confession, she will not completely recount her sins. He cannot absolve her. She gets up from kneeling and walks to…
Join the Royal Flying Corps and Share Their Honour & Glory, the poster had said in tall blue letters. Lies, thought Peets as he strode across the slushy grass in his boots and helmet and leather flying coat. The only glory was a cheap, easy kind you only felt at first when you wore your wings and…