He Woke Before His Da by Peter Moulding

He walks barefoot tipping clods of mud over with his toes. Hunching down, breathing heavily through his sleeve, he forces a hand into the earth, feeling the cold. What they had planted had been mostly desecrated. Black decay seeped out the pores of the potatoes. 

By noon, the blue mist still hangs to the edges of the fields. The two of them took their leave of the farm and headed into town. There, hundreds had gathered. They stood in line waiting for the hot broth. It came in a ladle through the small window cut in the side of a brick house. Men muttered tales of wrath–burning their crops to rid the poison, scouring the land for hope. On the way back, James’s father stopped to light a cigarette. They passed it between them. Strolling, wandering, a little dance. Their faint shadows slipping away between the gaps in the stone wall.  

A letter comes on the morning. It’s from family in New Jersey. James had watched his uncle Thomas leave that one night. It had been raining again. The rain had taken the mud and flushed it under the doors. Thomas had said he couldn’t take no more. He’d hugged them both hard. James remembered the smell of tobacco on his coat. 

The letter reads that Thomas is doing okay. He’s made it across and is now in New Jersey. Enclosed is one ticket for the following week, already paid for.

Peter Moulding, originally from Peterborough, UK, has lived in Berlin for nearly a decade. He crafts sharp, uncanny fiction that is both visceral and subtly subversive, often blending the speculative with the historical. He has seen his work recognized: appearing in River Holme Connections (with an audio recording by a voice actor) and receiving shortlistings from The Writing District and Creative Writing Ink, as well as a longlisting from New2TheScene. Peter studied Literature at Birkbeck, University of London, and continues to hone his craft through workshops and mentorship.

To see Peter’s portfolio, please visit: https://petermoulding.carrd.co/