Fathers — and Other Strangers
Why settle for one story from CC Humphreys when you can get two?
First, enjoy a taste of CC Humphreys’s classic novel Jack Absolute, excerpted here from Issue 40, Autumn 2023. (We have it on good authority that he’s working on a new Jack Absolute book!)
To celebrate our ten-year anniversary, we decided to reprise CC’s feature story from our very first issue. Yes, way back in Issue 1, Winter 2014, we published ‘Where the Angels Wait’, and just had to bring it to you again, in Issue 40.
We are delighted to share these literary bookends with you. Enjoy!
Jack Absolute
The snow lay deep over Hounslow Heath and the light was failing fast. They were already late, a double annoyance to Jack Absolute; not only was it considered ungentlemanly to keep people waiting for such an affair, it also meant that by the time the ground had been reached, the Seconds introduced, the area marked out, and the formalities dealt with as to wills and burials, it would be too dark for pistols. It would have to be swords; and by the look of him, his opponent was in fighting trim.
If he wasn’t twenty years younger than Jack he wasn’t far off and, as a serving cavalry officer, would be fencing daily; while it was five years at the least since Jack had fought in such a manner. With a variety of other weapons, to be sure. But a tomahawk or a Mysore punch dagger had a very different feel to them than the delicate touch required for the small sword. Of course, one could only be killed with the point; it had no cutting edge. But the point, as Jack knew all too well, was all that was required.
As his feet slipped yet again on the icy bootprints of those that had preceded him, Jack cursed. How large will the damned crowd be? The affair could hardly have been announced more publicly, and many would choose to attend such a fashionable fight. Money would already have been staked. He wondered at the odds. Like an older racehorse, Jack had form. He had ‘killed his man’ — in fact, in the plural, several more than these gentlemen of London could know about. But his opponent was certainly younger, probably stronger, and above all inflamed with the passion of wronged ardour. He fought for a cause. For love.
Find out what happens next in Issue 40, Autumn 2023!
Find Jack Absolute wherever fine books are sold, and watch for The Return of Jack Absolute, coming soon from CC Humphreys!
Where the Angels Wait
Granada, Andalusia, Spain. August 1986
Sitting on the edge of the bed now, listening. A door opened, shut, someone has come and gone, that much is certain. They’ve hidden them, and he must find them.
Unless they didn’t leave.
“Hello?”
No reply. He has to start. The drawers? Too obvious, but he tries a couple. The cushions? He pulls them off the sofa, feels down the back and side, moves carefully because if they are there, what state might they be in? He finds a crumb-covered coin, nothing else. On the high shelves, then, at the back of the cupboard, rolling in dust? Or in a jar in the bureau, pickled, floating like onions? With others? Alone? Alone, yes, has to be.
He starts to move quicker. Grapes on the table, that’s frightening. Eat one? Too risky. Time’s nearly up, pull back the sheets, grope under the pillows.
“Who’s there?”
He lies back down. “There’s no one there,” he says, challenging the dark.
He sits up. He knows where they are. His father is in the doorway, making it look small, and he has them exactly where they should be.
“Looking for these?” Dad says, and starts to squeeze his eyeballs from his face.
Find out what happens next in Issue 40, Autumn 2023!
Chris (CC) Humphreys — born in Toronto, raised in London — has played Hamlet in Calgary and a gladiator in Tunisia, waltzed in London’s West End, conned the landlord of the Rovers Return in Coronation Street, patrolled the Sun Hill beat in The Bill, commanded a starfleet in Andromeda, voiced Salem the cat in the original Sabrina, and played a dead immortal in Highlander. He is also a playwright, audiobook narrator, creative writing teacher, and award-winning author of historical fiction and fantasy. CC Humphreys has written twenty-two novels including The French Executioner, the Jack Absolute trilogy, Vlad: The Last Confession, A Place Called Armageddon, Shakespeare’s Rebel, Chasing the Wind, and his recent modern thriller One London Day. Plague won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel. His most recent book is the World-War-II thriller Someday I’ll Find You. His story ‘The Ankle Bracelet’ appeared in Issue 14, Spring 2017. He lives on Salt Spring Island, BC. Visit him at authorchrishumphreys.com.
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