#263 Glow in the Dark- David Dante Troutt
David Dante Troutt put together a unique collection here.
The Monkey Suit: And Other Short Fiction on African Americans and Justice, is
fictionalized tellings of true court cases. The truth about these cases have been
obscured by shady history, bad reporting, and about the ways we never truly can know certain facts. Just because these stories may not represent the facts,
doesn’t make the telling of them any less truthful.
The opening salvo is Glow in the Dark. John Henry, a runaway
slave is tied to a Sheriff awaiting his fate. He is struggling with killing
the lawman in his sleep. He holds this conversation with the rope itself:
“Hush rope, John Henry whispers hard at it. I ain’t wanna
hurt dis boy. I see bout runnin tomorruh.”
The heavy dialect sets the correct mood for this story. John
Henry has no allies except for his anthropomorphized bindings, and fate, as
expected runs it course.
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