The Power Plant

By Charles Harvey

A young man’s coming of age story. Innocent and sweet with menacing undertones. In the Power Plant our protagonist works in his University’s boiler and chiller facility typing reports and running errands. He’s nineteen and trying to deal with his attraction to men while feeling he should be in love with women.

Harvey's work has appeared in Story Magazine, The James White Review, Shade, Soulfires and other fine anthologies. A great story is kept, shared, and read again for your enjoyment.

An Excerpt:

Bells ring in my head. It’s my Mother phoning the Power Plant late into the night, to inquire why haven’t I come home. I know what time the night Operator is supposed to make his rounds to read the meters. But he will sleep half the night under the narcotic hum of the big chillers and fudge the numbers on the meter sheets. He’ll eat his lunch in the control room up front by the big gaping door of the plant. He’ll piss through the grate rather than come toward the tool room to go to the toilet. There’s a side door that’s always unlocked because the lock’s broken. It’s a good way for someone to get into the power plant unnoticed and into the tool room if they have a key, like Hawkins has a key. I know Hawkins knows these things too. Because now he’s looking at me and the ropes and pulleys hanging from the ceiling. He breathes hard and his hand digs deeper between his legs. He moves the door back and forth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wes Writers & Publishers
• Release date: Jul 27, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301252848

Charles Harvey

Charles W. Harvey is a native Houstonian and a graduate of the University of Houston. At UofH he studied fiction under the guidance of Rosellen Brown and Chitra Divakaruni. In 1987, Charles was a 1st place prize recipient of PEN/Discovery for his short story Cheeseburger, which went on to be published in the Ontario Review. In 1989 Charles Harvey was awarded the Cultural Arts Council of Houston Grant for Writers and Artists. Also in 1989 he was a finalist in the MacDonald's Literary Achievement Awards. Charles has been published in Soulfires, Story Magazine SHADE, High Infidelity, The James White Review, and others. He is the author of the novels The Butterfly Killer, The Road to Astroworld, and Antoine's Double Trouble. He is also the author of several story and poetry collections. He also writes for the stage and screen.