The short fiction of j hardy carroll
The dew lay heavy on the grass, the lowering clouds a harbinger of afternoon thunderstorm. As previously arranged, the boatmen and surgeon turned their backs to the principals, for these affairs were now a prosecutable offense. Van Ness produced the walnut case, a fine set of Wogdon & Barton’s finest pistols. Pendleton selected one and…
George greeted me with his usual smile, ushered me up onto the shoe bench as he got out the tin and rag, his long fingers deft and surprisingly unstained. “You still got any shoes with me?” he said, peering up. “I know I had those oxfords.” “No, you finished them last month.” I looked at the…
They will not trouble him here. This has become his place. He will tell no one about it.
“Who is that man in all the pictures, Mama?” “He was your grandfather.” She grips her purse. “My father.” “Your daddy?” “Not exactly. He was with my mother for a while, when she was young.” “Did I ever meet him?” “No. He died before you were born.” “But you knew him.” “A little. He wasn’t…
By the middle of our second year it was down to us and two other teams. Five continents, sixty-odd cities and countless towns, villages, hamlets and burgs. Every step another piece in the puzzle, every discovery a link in the chain. The journey changed us. Who we thought we were. It’s hard to explain. When…
It took Mama a while to notice, becuase that’s how Mama was. She mostly noticed how she felt about things, and was quick to tell you. The house is too cold. The stew is too salty. It was always something else wrong, not her. She paid attention to the world around like it was a movie…
Dimwitty knew right away that he wasn’t cut out for the military, but he wasn’t cut out for much else either. His Uncle James was a rear admiral and pulled some strings to get him in to the Coast Guard. Basic was a cakewalk and next thing he knew he was on the USCGC Burton…
I wait at Jack’s for my client, glad he’s late because I can have one or two more doubles before we get to business. The shakes were bad this morning, so it took more than usual for me to feel like myself. I see him come in, shake his hand. I suggest a drink before…
I take my coffee out onto the front porch to watch the neighborhood go about its morning. I don’t know my neighbors’ names, but I know their weekday routine. The red Volvo full of kids, the bike commuter with the metal clips on his trouser-legs, the old woman across the street feeding the swarm of…
He led me blindfolded onto the quay. “I know you bought a boat, Seth.” “Humor me,” he said. We walked across the dock, the boards tilting and bouncing. “Ok. You can take it off now.” He stood on the bow of a gleaming sailboat, grinning all over his face like the boy I’d married. “Ta-da!”…