The short fiction of j hardy carroll
Vulture A noncombatant, he wasn’t exactly a coward. His parents were Quakers. He, bungling, washed out as a medic the very first week. but the Navy had him regardless, and he stayed back on the boat when the Marines hit the beaches. They knew he was bad luck and did not say goodbye. …
” “No, I don’t feel like it. You guys go on without me.” She picked up the remote and accidentally unmuted the TV. The sound was sudden, deafening. “HEMORRHOID REMEDIES, THEN YOU …” She fumbled the phone while she thumbed the remote. “Sorry. No, just the TV. Hotel TVs are always so loud.” She nodded…
“You brung her the ice tea like she ask?” “Yes’m.” “Then go on out there and sit. You know she likes to talk about the cars goin’ by.” “Do I have to?” We went through this every Sunday. Gemmie would make Aunt Ethel an ice tea and tell me to go sit with the old lady on…
not so old to yet be sick of yourself the everyday way you do things leave them wanting, whoever they are take in an old tom because you cannot bear to come home to an empty house, you leave his balls on so he sprays and sprays until you lock him out sit in an empty…
Most disagreements boil down to simple differences of opinion or taste. Perhaps manners. When it’s over, you will remain friends. With Ky, arguments always went too far. It was life-and-death with him, everything a struggle. Being his friend was a trying experience. As is so often the case, this weakness was also his greatest strength. Unquestioning loyalty to friends, tenacity…
“What do you want?” His eyes crinkled above the grizzled beard. “Another of them beers, for starters.” I pulled a can from the six-pack and handed it to him. He sipped, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, set the beer on the tarp. He peered into the sky. “Looks like we’re just…
Bob was seven years sober when he drifted out onto the lake, thought about turning his boat over. Seemed like a good idea and he didn’t feel like waiting for a better one. I drift now over his same lake, once a river canyon now dammed by industry and the needs of leisure. My skiff…
” “I thought you guys wasn’t supposed to pick up no hitchhikers.” Now that they were in the diner, he looked older than he had in the parking lot. “No, them days is past. Rigs now, well you just gotta see it. It’s like an apartment. Got a microwave, satellite TV. Even a bed.” He…
Book Review: Hawser – by J. Hardy Carroll September 2, 2015 by Norbert Haupt Lieutenant H. Hawes does not like his first name. His friends call him Hawser. He wants to be a pilot but does not make it in pilot school in the military, so he becomes the next best thing: a bombardier. He is assigned…
“This was it?” “Yes. The fourth floor. You cannot count the times your grandmother would carry the bags up those stairs. Hundreds. Thousands.” The girl looked up the block. A group of Puerto Rican teenagers sat on a stoop, boys and girls both wearing the same white t-shirts and baggy khaki pants. A boom box thundered…