The short fiction of j hardy carroll
My father told me he spoke to ghosts as easily as people. Coming from him, this did not seem crazy. He mentioned a conversation he’d had that morning with his grandfather, retold the joke he had heard. The fact that his grandfather dropped dead on the golf course on an April day in 1927 was of…
IN THE END, he stopped talking about it. Nobody had believed him, and one old friend had gone so far as to question his sanity in print. There was was a savagery in the piece that make it more like betrayal than incredulity. And it was incredible, the more so in that out of the millions of camera phones…
The Subadar sat cross-legged on the floor of the dugout. The Germans had spent twenty-three of the last twenty-four hours lobbing shells at our trenches, and the sudden cessation made Captain Floyd nervous enough to send a scouting party into no man’s land to see what was up. The rest of us waited. I was…
I read about how infantry guys in WWII were envious of the Air Force crews because they flew their missions and went back to bases in England, whereas the infantry experienced total war 24/7. Ah, technology. I’m in the infantry, but on detached service to an agency I can’t mention. We sit in a dark room in…
Sewing shirtwaists nine hours a day, Monday through Saturday for seven dollars a week. There was more than five hundred of us on the ninth floor. Bosses told us we was lucky to have jobs at all, bunch of dumb Dagoes who couldn’t speak no English, and women to boot. That Saturday afternoon, one of the foremen was careless with his cigarette. The…
I had never been allowed in his garage. None of us had, which might have been strange with anyone but him. Aunt Nora said he’d been this way since his brother died, way back in the war. Secretive. Solitary. The funeral was held despite the rain, since we are above all a practical family. Aunt…
“It’s not fair. You just did what they asked you.” She holds my hand in both of hers. “Why are you the only one being punished?” “I was the only one who got caught.” Her eyes brim. “The sacrificial lamb.” “It’s only for two years. Maybe less. You know how overloaded the justice system is.” “It’s prison, Wade.…
“The King is dead. Long live the King.” Hoskins hoisted his nearly empty pint, looking hopefully around for somebody to notice this and offer to refill it. “The king ain’t dead, you bloody sod,” said Smith. “He’s bleeding abdicating. To marry that American tart. The divorcée.” “I seen her picture in the papers,” added Woodcock. “She’s a…
The sea knew his secret. He had that night turned his back on God forever, given his life to the Devil. It was God who bade Gustavo to slide the body of his brother over the side, to pray for his salvation and commit him to the deep. Gustavo had tried to obey, had recited…
I’d looked forward to the outdoor yoga class in the park through the entire winter, so I didn’t feel bad about taking the second donut, saying “why not?” to the dessert tray. I was at my heaviest weight, but kept myself from usual despondency by visualizing a midsummer me, lithe and fit from yoga classes and sensible…