The short fiction of j hardy carroll
Gulder waded through the muck and swatted at the spit of flies hovering around his face. New Netherland. Such a grandiose name for this shabby place, but that was Stuyvesant all over. Pompous and self-important, quick to take insult, and––above all––immensely ambitious, Stuyvesant’s first action upon landing was to read the proclamation declaring himself Director-General…
“The sweat lodge is a ritual of purification. It’s like being reborn.”
Paavo hurried, knowing his uncle Hillar was a stickler for punctuality. Uncle Hillar stood beneath the flag, the thermos tucked beneath his arm as always. And as always, he tapped his watch with his finger. “Oh, come on,” said Paavo. “I bet it’s not even two minutes.” Hillar shook his head. “On time is on time, and anything after…
Darius squinted against the glare of headlights bouncing off the rear-view. The man tapped a heavy flashlight against the driver-side window. Darius rolled it down. “Officer?” he said, trying to keep the fear from his voice. “Hell boy,” said the man behind the flashlight. “I’m the sheriff. You blind?” “My apologies, Sheriff.” “This sure is…
Saturdays we got up even earlier so as to get the chores done before setting out. If Carl’d stayed sober Friday night, then the delivery would be ready. That hadn’t been the case for months. It was just getting light when I got to the still. Jody was already there, wrapping the mason jars in…
Disbelief at first. Then anger, outrage. How could somebody do this? What kind of person? Then fear. What if I’d been home? What if they come back? A sense of violation. I didn’t know this person. They left traces, like an opened can of Coke that I didn’t know I had. Maybe it was from…
Every weekday I take the 8:08 Churchgate slow train from platform number two in Borivali. At 8:40 I get off the train at Mahalaxmi. At 8:45, bus number 154 arrives and I arrive at my office between 8:56 and 9:04. There have been four occasions in the past twenty years when I was late because…
Longwood House, the only residence on the island large enough to accommodate the Imperial Retinue, has proved unsuitable. Rats scuttle along the hallways with impunity, the acrid tang of their urine and copious droppings in every room. Ever the soldier, he seems oblivious to such discomforts, instead nursing a private resentment because Governor Lowe refuses…
He stood in the sun listening to the train as it pulled away, its busy huffing inconsequential and even ludicrous when considered against all this landscape. It stretched for miles, dusty under an immense sky, the wrinkled hills seeming to waver in the hot air. He stared at the platform, where, moments before, her suitcases…
You men, he said, meaning us. Bleedin’ pongo inspecting us like a proper sergeant-major, looking at the shine on our buttons and the laces on our boots. Ain’t been here a week yet and I’d wager this soutpeel paw-paw is sending cables back to England about how he’s solved all the colony’s problems, calling us…