Hollow Bones by B. Narr

Author:B. Narr
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: paranormal, female protagonist, lgbt, small town, climate change horror, sapphic horror, female scientist, lesbian, horror novella, environmental thriller, texas, bayou, environmental horror, horror thriller, queer protagonist, east texas, caddo lake, cypress swamp, ornithologist, ornithology, queer horror, supernatural, multiple pov
Publisher: B. Narr
Published: 2019-10-20T00:00:00+00:00

WORK ZONE

DUKE USUALLY LIKED his job. He didn’t like that this one was in northeast Texas.

The sun beat down mercilessly the moment it rose. By 10 a.m., Duke was sweating. By noon, he wanted to find somewhere dark to curl up and die. He wouldn’t be the first thing on the jobsite site to do that. It’d been less than a week and they’d found two dead possums in different pieces of equipment, curled up impossibly in the guts of the machines. They’d drawn straws to determine which unlucky bastard had to scrape the dead thing out.

It was one of the many snags in what should have been a straightforward job: shifting around dirt and trees until there was enough room for massive steel pipes to lay. Everything moved was deliberately set aside; the dirt was piled close to cover up the future oil pipeline, and the trees were cut and stacked to sell later.

The pieces too small to sell were put into a burn pile just to the right of the trench. Not that they could burn it in a drought like this; Duke wasn’t sure what they were going to do with it now. It wasn’t even good for sitting on in the meantime. (One guy had tried it and fallen right on his ass.) Their only option for sitting during breaks was the real timber or the ground. Duke wasn’t too jazzed about either, considering the snakes and bugs he’d seen around here. But both were better than being slow-roasted in the cab of the Bobcat, so he went with the timber. Hopefully it was too newly stacked to have attracted critters yet.

One of his coworkers, Earl, had the same idea. Earl wasn’t exactly his favorite person. He smoked while he ate, which seemed like a waste of a good cigarette and food, and he spit too much. But Duke couldn’t afford to be picky about his company these days. He was running out of coworkers to choose from.

“You seen Curtis today?” Duke unscrewed the lid of his thermos. Lukewarm coffee and a pimento cheese sandwich, same as every day.

“Nope,” Earl flicked his almost-empty lighter a few more times before he finally lit his cigarette. He took a long drag. “Haven’t seen him since yesterday, actually.”

“Figures.” Duke shook his head. “That asshole probably left for Memorial Day thinking we got vacation or something.”

“Or he just quit without saying nothing. Seems like the type.” Earl waved his cigarette in one hand, digging into his lunch bag with the other.

“Seems like a lotta people are quitting without saying nothing right now.” Duke fidgeted with polyester strap of his own lunch bag.

“What d’you mean?”

“Well, like. You remember that one guy? Oh... Leonard what’s-his-name. That one who came in early and worked late like a goddamn maniac.”

“Yeah, I figured he was looking for an excuse to not go home and couldn’t find a bar anywhere around here.” Earl popped the top off his soda can.

“But then one day he just didn’t show up, and he hasn’t showed up since.

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