The short fiction of j hardy carroll
“Your coffee is getting cold.” “Thanks.” He picked it up, sipped it. “I had the strangest dream. I was Superman’s son. They named me Superman, Jr. and made me dress in the red and blue suit. I had to wear it to school. The cape was always in the way.” She started laughing. “That is…
Some say it was glorious, that the Goryani were heroes welcome everywhere. This is nonsense. We were hunted like rats. You do not remember, but Bulgaria after the war was full of informers. This was not done out of love of the communists, nor even out of fear, but to settle old scores. The greatest…
I know this place. Of course. You have been here many times. Countless. But why am I here again? You do not remember? Is that world you cared so much about already gone from your recollection? It seems like a dream I had as a child. You have said that before. How do you feel?…
Dear Father, Firstly, you must not believe what you have read in the papers. I am no mastermind. That said, I was not unwilling in this venture. You know me. I am not a fool to jump with both feet into crazy schemes. You also know how desperate the times are here. General Malgawe’s men…
“I believe there is truth in the saying it is an ill wind that bloweth no good,” said Maestre Rodrigues. He was garrulous for a sailing master, but Diogo Fernandes did not mind because Rodrigues seldom required an answer. Besides, he was right. The cyclone that had blown the Cirne off course had brought them here, wherever here…
I don’t recall the picture, only that it starred an actor who was young and handsome at the start of his career fifty years ago but was now an aged relic. Dark thoughts in the darkened theater as I watched the folds of wizened skin beneath the famous chiseled jaw, pouches beneath the steel-gray eyes. Projected…
I was born in Mingo County, near the town of Matewan. My family was all coal miners. After them Baldwin-Felts men killed Pa and Uncle Jess during the strike, Ma wanted to leave West Virginia. I talked her out of it on account of our family being five generations here. In a new state we’d…
It’s not the place. She kept telling herself this, but it wasn’t helping. She swallowed, the acrid taste of bile in her throat. It was cold on deck, the wind’s icy fingers prying open the buttons of her coat. She gripped the steel rail as she watched the bow cleave the black water. The motors’…
“Mr. Rains?” There was no answer. The assistant knocked again. “Mr. Rains? I have a message from Mr. Wallis.” “Read it to me,” said Rains from inside the dressing room. “It’s sealed, Mr. Rains. The message is for you. From Mr. Wallis.” “If Hal wants to give me a message he can come down and…
At first I denied it, telling myself autumn was coming early. Leaves can begin to turn in July. It had been a dry spring. But there were the birds. In the three weeks since coming here we hadn’t seen a single bird. I took up the satchel of food I’d scavenged from the deserted grocery.…