After my father toured what would become our neighborhood in Fairfax, California, he knocked on the nearest door and asked the man who answered if it was nice living there.That man told me this story ... [+]
Rob Roy O'Keefe is the author of Small Stories: A Perfectly Absurd Novel, short-listed by the Chanticleer International Book Awards. His short story collection, 19 Doors, will be available this summer, 2025. "For whom the troll tolls" is in Short Circuit #17, Short Édition's quarterly review.
I couldn't believe it.
"10,000 Kroners! That's outrageous!"
I was deep in the Troms region of Norway on the Nordost Road. I had been for a while. At the moment, I was trying to cross the Lundefjord bridge, the only way across the fjord of the same name. Actually, it was more like I was hoping it was the Lundefjord bridge because GPS had stopped working long ago.
Now I was being told that if I wanted to cross, I would have to pay a toll that would make a loan shark blush. My extortionist? A large, stocky troll wearing a red parka and matching shorts. Yep, a toll troll.
"It's a quan