Pick the Bones Clean and Other Stories

By Granger Stone

PICK THE BONES CLEAN AND OTHER STORIES is a collection of short stories about life and death. From the perspective of soldiers, thieves, grieving parents, and jovial schoolchildren.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      In "Pick The Bones Clean", we follow a group of soldiers rummaging through the ruins of a fallen village. As they pick through what is left, they wander if there was ever anything to begin with.

"Gaudy Body" follows two grave robbers in search of a rumored buried wealth. There is enough for both of them to share, if they can keep up the fleeting trust between them.

"Russel with the Weather" is about the unfortunate case of a missing girl. The news seems to obsess over the case as long as her disappearance keeps their ratings up.

The final story, "Ember Mungus" is about a group of children trying to score some liquor. They roam around their quirky quiet town, bothering locals, and trying to keep a low profile.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Granger Stone
• Release date: May 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223276760

Book preview

Pick the Bones Clean

Soldiers pick at what is left of the village like vultures. Men that used to struggle through narrow doorframes are reduced to rummaging skin and bones. Their wet clothes hang off their spindly figures, and with every sluggish step, more water splashes up from the inside of their black canvas boots.

The only building still standing is a white church with a large spire that has fallen off and caved in the roof. Several soldiers have already set up camp in the parts that still have cover overhead. Men heave bookshelves over before setting it all ablaze for temporary warmth as they pass through.

One soldier, a younger gaunt man swallowed almost entirely by his coat, flips through the pages of an old leatherbound book.

Can you speak it? asks a grey-haired man crouching around the pile of burning books. Can you read what they say?

The young man shakes his head no.

"Then whatever you’re doing with that has to be a waste of kindling."

The young man reaches into his oversized breast pocket and removes a pad and pencil.