The short fiction of j hardy carroll
“Should be a good turnout, Father. With the snow.” Father Loris squinted up through the window at the swirling flakes. A gust of wind rattled the glass. “Better add more water to the soup, then.” Sister Claire placed the bucket in the sink and turned the tap. “What I mean,” she shouted over the thundering…
“Explain it again,” she said, looking up at me with those pale green eyes unique to our family. “Please.” “The physician and the surgeon will make me comfortable first.” “How will they do that?” I smiled. “They have special physic. After this, they will take me into the operating theater where they will take out…
The vigil over, I stood beneath the streetlight and thought of what I’d witnessed inside. Each of us weaves a net of our experience and gleaned information, of our opinions, our likes and dislikes. We cast this net throughout our world, trapping only that which the net will hold. Everything else slips through, and we,…
Quite a crowd of us had gathered by the massive front door when it was swung open by a grinning James Mulroy. Though just fifteen, he had a mind as spry and quick as a young fox and thus was our leader “Remember, only the stocking frames,” he said. “It’s symbolic, like.” We jumbled into…
I was just getting her set up when Crabs come around to tell me I was wanted in the office. There was a new fella behind the desk, a kid. He told me Butler Amusements was taking me off the wheel and putting me on the kiddie-boats. There had been complaints, he said. I should…
His voice was so deep it set the glasses to rattle on the table, and when he laughed his eyes were almost swallowed by his jolly cheeks. But it was when he sat down at the piano that he come really alive. You’d never think fingers so thick and calloused could move like that, drift with…
Jeannie sorted through her change purse, counting out nickels and pennies to pay for the milk. She would have rather had a Yoo-hoo but remembered all those School House Rock songs about nutrition. Funny how things can get stuck in your head. She had just enough, with three cents over. The man behind the counter smiled.…
I sit on the bed waiting for Noni to dress me. My medium-focus glasses don’t give me a clear view of my feet, but I know they are purple and swollen. I just turned 97. I don’t know why I am still here. I never took especially good care of myself, never had any particular joie de…
October 28, 1906 Remanded into custody, State Facility at Cedar Grove: one Johann Blück, clockmaker of Paterson, New Jersey. Johann’s mania became unbearable to his wife. He would stay in his workshop day and night, neither eating nor sleeping. When asked why he was working so hard, Johann would jabber hysterically or mutter incoherently, his…
I went outside and built a bonfire in the yard. We passed a bottle of bourbon around. Soon all the wood was used up. I got the chairs off the porch and threw them in. When they were gone, I grabbed anything that would burn––my daughter’s wagon, rakes and shovels, a bag of bark dust.…