The short fiction of j hardy carroll
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…
She’s back from the hospital. For the first time in twenty-five years, she’ll be home for Christmas. No more touring. I suppose I knew what I was getting when I married her. She was fond of reminding me herself. In truth, it was when I saw her play that I truly fell in love with…
If it is true that God speaks in irony, then my story is a case in point. She was the Loyalist and I the agitator, yet it was I who stayed. It was my activities which called attention to our family, alerted the authorities and, ultimately, incurred their wrath. She, who loved her country right or…
A woodcutter was working in the forest. He swung his axe without ceasing, for he was a proud man who did not believe in weariness. Soon, he had felled every tree within reach until all that was left was The Ancient Giant. Generations of woodcutters had refrained from cutting this colossal tree, which had a girth…
I’m sure you saw the newsreels. The whole damn country watched ’em. Hundred-foot tall ape climbs the Empire State clutching a dame in his sweaty mitt, swatting down the Army’s planes like they was flies. Oh, they got him all right, and then come the intellectuals from the college wanting to study him, the reporters looking for a…
Think about 1908 for a second. This is the year the Model T debuted, the year the Wrights finally unveiled their flying machine to the public. Theodore Roosevelt’s hand-picked successor William Howard Taft was elected as president. The Dow closed at 60.7296, a solid recovery after one of the many panics. In 1908, there were…
Cleo woke to the headlights rolling across the doorway as a car pulled off 66. She roused herself, stretched her sore back. A man climbed out of the car and came toward her, keys jingling. He wore khaki coveralls and a cap emblazoned with the Texaco star. “We’re not open yet,” he said cheerfully. “You by yourself?”…