A story from the Shadow Elm Memoir. The person I’m calling Tallulah began as a single palm reader at a traveling carnival. She used her limited telepathic and impressive precognition abilities to deliver fortunes to customers. Eventually, the psychic left the Carnie life and opened up a magic supply retail store in the southeast that…
Tag: short story
A Game of SEAHORSE in the Rain (a story from The Shadow Elm Memoir)
A story from the Shadow Elm Memoir. People drinking and playing pool in the Immortal Elf would always go on about the Piedmont. They would have these long, drawn-out discussions about the Piedmont having the best sweet tea, southern hospitality, and tobacco. I always thought the tobacco thing was strange. I nodded, agreed, and said,…
The Girl from the Brown Mountain Lights (a story from The Shadow Elm Memoir)
A story from the Shadow Elm Memoir. The Pisgah National Forest is over 500,000 acres of ancient trees, peaks, secrets, and mysteries in Western North Carolina. The ghost lights above Brown Mountains are one of the many enigmas that are impossible to explain outside of folklore and supernatural reasons. The Lights first decided to reveal…
Prelude to The Shadow Elm Memoir (a story from The Shadow Elm Memoir)
I can’t repeat it enough. North Carolina is the strangest and most remarkable state I’ve ever lived in. Those western mountains, the eastern flat coast, and every crevice in between, is charged with fascinating and unusual things that confirm this. These things aren’t the lions, tigers, and bears from the Wizard of Oz. Oh my!…
The Demon Joke
“Turn right onto East Brooklyn Village Avenue, and your destination will be on your right,” the Map App navigation voice instructs Jim Fields and Edith Cruz toward the Westin Charlotte. Jim is driving his truck and disdains using the Map App. Because of that time, Map App accidentally directed him to a Lake Norman prostitution…
Once Upon a Middle School Bus Stop
So here we are again. It is another year of waiting after school for our favorite yellow school bus (Lucky #57) to transport us home from Barnaby Middle School. Tom, Gavin, Henry, Nicholas Dixon, and I are standing beside the gymnasium on the hot asphalt parking lot that’s called the blacktop. There’s no shade around….
Heather and The Heathen Part 2
Wake County Heather is the first guest Mrs. Candle has had since Robert’s funeral. She’s come to Garner for dinner at the Candle home per Bobby’s invitation to begin emotional resolution from her past with Bobby and to break her promise. For the dinner menu, Mrs. Candle planned a traditional and Southern meal. She pan-fried…
Heather and The Heathen Part 1
With the rise of superhuman activity in North Carolina, the Federal Government collaborated with the State to develop the North Carolina Supernatural Sheriffs Association (NCSSA). In 2001, eight supernormal individuals entered the Supernatural Sheriffs program to become supernatural peacekeepers. Once sworn in, they worked with North Carolina’s most populated Counties to assist local law enforcement…
Everyday Everett
Ray Everett could have had a better morning. He overslept, burned his eyes with shampoo, ripped a shoelace, and stained his lucky blue button polo shirt with strawberry and banana yogurt. All this before 7:15. Too bad because he always needs whatever luck he can squeeze out of that shirt. Things like these are always…
The Creature of Cataloochee
The majority of the drivers who rubberneck the massive Western North Carolina Cryptid Museum’s billboards have never seen one. The giant cartoon sasquatch wearing pink sunglasses on the sign promises “the best collection and artifacts of cryptids, ghosts, and spirits from the North Carolina Mountains.” Cryptids like the sasquatch and the loch ness monster are…