Coal Black Haint

by Chris McGinley

About the Author: Chris McGinley has appeared in Tough Magazine, Switchblade Magazine, Retreats from Oblivion, Pulp Modern, Dead Guns Press, Story and Grit (forthcoming), and the ID Press crime anthology (forthcoming). His work has also been featured on crime writing websites like Shotgun Honey, Out of the Gutter, Near to the Knuckle, and Yellow Mama. He teaches middle school in Lexington, KY.

Excerpt

Before she got on as a deputy, and long before she became the state’s first female sheriff, Bertie Clemmons determined the course of her life with the stroke of a cleaver. Her husband had struck her in the face out by the chicken coop at the cabin where they lived with Bertie’s mamaw. It happened often in those days, but this time something rose up inside the young bride, a vein of courage she found far beneath her country femininity, though something of it was distinctly feminine, too. Her mamaw nodded knowingly a week later when Bertie learned that she was pregnant. “It’s mountain instinct,” the old had woman said. “It’s the females that protects the young in these hills, not the males.” Bertie didn’t know whether she meant animals or humans. Likely both, she finally decided.

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