Hatchie Bottom, by Barry Hollander

Hatchie Bottom
Barry Hollander
Chiaroscuro: Issue 34


Barry Hollander’s story “Hatchie Bottom” takes until page three before the reader gets the weird. The story opens with three men on a fishing boat in a maze of a marsh finding the body of a white girl hanging from a tree. One of them men takes several pictures, and leave to get the police. When they return there is no body. But there is something wrong with the pictures. Most of them are grey, blurry...but one picture comes through clear.

It’s that moment of discovery, the moment that chills.

It’s not the only moment that chills. The conclusion to the story chills, too, when Caleb returns to the tree with the Sheriff.

Good story. “Hatchie Bottom” isn’t too long, only 3800 words or so, but it is definitely worth the read.