Open Stories — Short Fiction by Hank Redding

Set on a remote ranch in southwestern Montana, The Quiet Year follows a couple living through a season that refuses to declare itself. As weather turns subtly wrong and a neighbor disappears without explanation, work continues and the land quietly adjusts. Told with restraint and precision, the story explores endurance without heroism, absence without spectacle, and the uneasy truth that some answers are present only if you know how to ask.

A quiet Western story set after Vietnam, where a man tends land that does not ask questions. As the outside world grows louder and more urgent, routine, restraint, and silence carry what words no longer can.

After a long absence, a man returns to a failing ranch and works alongside the brother who never left. There is no reckoning and no restoration—only labor, weather, and the inheritance of silence. Ruts That Hold is a long short story about endurance, departure, and what remains when explanation runs out.

In a snowbound Montana mining camp, a saloon keeper bears quiet witness to a winter that presses people to their limits. There is no rescue and no promise—only endurance, restraint, and the question of whether being seen can be enough to leave. Season That Held is a long short story about survival without possession and the cost of staying.