they were married late that night by a retired saint during a sandstorm that had lasted the entirety of the war.
hattie carroll was a maid in the kitchen
she was fifty-one years old and gave birth to ten children
-the lonesome death of hattie carroll
the last story board frame for a little video fred and i are working one. it will be a trailer for my collection of short stories i am writing!
general evelyn lee wallis (the assassination story)
there is a story that when general evelyn lee wallis was assassinated a bright red cardinal flew out of his wound and sat glistening in the sun from a branch of the old magnolia tree. it could be a tall tale, but he died in the presence of 4 virgins, 6 holy men, one pope and a child bride which brought the probability of miracles to an astonishing 68%.
it was a great jubilee in honor of the 250th victory of general wallis’ and everyone was there. there was moonshine served in silver cups as homage to the generals patented bullets. sweet ice to remember the 5 years he spent in the northern sugar mountains. the suckling pig was named after wallis’ greatest rival, conrad gray and they made a flambé to commemorate the blue enemies hospital he had burned to the ground.
a pope had accepted the invitation and holy water was passed around.
evelyn lee wallis was born on the left side of town. on his 2nd birthday his fathers ghost came to the door and his mother left to be with the widows. his grandparents raised the boy at the edge of the war fields where he spent his childhood watching carnage and ghosts. at 12 he went to war.
he spent the rest of his life rising ranks and spilling blood. at age 20 there were stories of his battles and at 30 there were legends. his 146th victory ended with a war field engulfed in flames, his 203rd he drowned an entire army of enemies. the 250th victory was a poem written in snapping bones and horrific screams.
on the evening of the celebration in his honor, evelyn felt proud. he consumed over 3 liters of moonshine and stuck his saber into the skull of the conrad gray pig. he retold at all his tales and kissed the child bride. she recalls his breath smelled like moist tobacco and the touch of his lips to her holy skin felt like the sting of a bee.
he had his back to the magnolia tree when he saw a few ghosts waving in the breeze. general evelyn lee wallis, a creator of countless ghosts and widows, was about to die.
out of the magnolia tree crept a soldier from the yellow corner of the war. his clothes were made from bark and his cap was the perfect camouflage of leaves and flowers. he took his blade and dragged it across evelyn’s throat, where blood came out so thick it looked like dirt. he collapsed to the ground, the alleged cardinal flew away and a ghost stood where the great general once was.
little antebellum princesses screamed while widows surrounded his wife and the old fat statesmen sipped more whiskey and frowned. time to find a new war hero, they sighed. the pope in attendance put coins on evelyn’s eyes and recorded the miracle and then the death.
the jubilee ended shortly after. by the time the moon appeared in the sky everyone had gone home.
except for the ghost of general evelyn lee wallis, who had gotten tangled in the magnolia tree.
