The short fiction of j hardy carroll
They said it was the law that turned him out of the house. They lied, saying he could have stayed if it was up to them. They didn’t exactly blame him for her death. They just didn’t want him around as a reminder of her decline. He blamed himself, of course. For a while he…
“Like a drink?” Without waiting for me to answer she handed me a beading glass. I took a sip. “The good stuff. And in the wedding glassware, no less.” “I thought you deserved something special after the day you had.” She gentled the back of my neck like I was a skittish horse. “My man.”…
“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…
In which an unlikely set of circumstances leads to the creation of an entirely new art form.
Most of the high-end stores on the Mile use iPads. Supposedly the retail slaves all carry them around so they can ring customers up without needing to go to the counter, but the real reason is they think an iPad makes them look like the rich fucks who shop there. Chip and me had it…
“I appreciate Eretz Yisroel,” she said, “but not Medinat Yisroel.” He raised his eyebrows over the black glasses frames. Aside from the tan, he looked exactly as he had in Brooklyn. “A difference you see? Please,” he said, beckoning. “Enlighten me.” She saw she had offended him, but this was a cherished opinion, a debate…
“If it was a war,” Susan argues, “Then where are the bodies?” “Perhaps they were eaten. Maybe they rotted. I don’t know.” Dr. Thrang stays out of it, busying himself taking samples and looking at them through his spectrometer. “I think it was something else,” she says, folding her arms. “Nuclear war would have destroyed everything.”…
Algar worked his shoulder. The wound was painful, but the bleeding had slowed. With some difficulty he shucked off his woolen jerkin. He took a deep breath, uttered a prayer and waded into the haelwaters. The cold was stunning, but he braced himself and went to the center of the pool. The boil of the falls fell fierce…
Her hands shook as she fumbled out her keys, the pizza box wedged between her arm and the doorframe. Once inside, she set down the box, and locked the deadbolt and chain, checked the windows. She grabbed the leftover wine she’d brought home from Saturday’s disastrous blind date and drank straight from the bottle. She opened the…
He had one of them names with Zs and Ys that sound different than it’s spelled. Folks called him Malarky. Mama said he run that store since she was a girl, and probably before that. She never went in there except in greatest emergency. Said his prices was too high. Said he looked at her funny, told…