STORY SHOWCASE #11

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THE DROMEDARY

by Marc Ruvolo

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A little taster…

A Ford F-150 towing a silver horse trailer has roared into the parking lot, throwing up gravel. It rolls to a stop and the driver gets out, hurrying to the back door of the trailer.

“Looks like car trouble, maybe,” Dustin says.

The driver of the pickup paces around the hitch, talking to someone Dustin can’t see. Then the passenger gets out too; another paunchy, middle-aged man wearing boots and a cowboy hat. The two mill around, then appear to argue. Whatever is locked inside the horse trailer is agitated, visibly throwing itself against the steel walls.

Dustin shakes his head. “Horse is gonna hurt itself.”

Cowboy Hat goes to the passenger seat and retrieves a coil of rope. The men extend the ramp from beneath the trailer, positioning themselves to either side. Cowboy Hat readies his rope while the driver unhooks the padlock securing the door. He is holding what looks like an oversized cattle prod. The men’s jaws are set, and they crouch down, ready to spring into action.

The driver leans in to throw back the door and a huge, yellow beast charges down the ramp into the parking lot.

Myrna gasps. “Oh my God, it’s a camel.”

About the author

Marc Ruvolo (he/him) is a queer writer and musician living in Portland, Oregon who once considered himself a punk. He founded the seminal Bucket O’ Blood book store in Chicago, and his poetry and fiction have appeared in Cynthia Pelayo’s Gothic Blue Book series, Slay and Slay Again: A Queer Horror Anthology, and Nocturne Magazine, to name a few. His debut horror novella, SLOE, was released in 2023 by Unnerving Books. His second novella Pieties, was originally published by Off Limits Press in 2024, and was re-released in an expanded edition by Slashic Horror Press in 2026.

Find him on Bluesky at @marcruvolo.bsky.social.

We asked Marc…

K&R: What was the spark or idea that led you to write this story?

MR: A few years ago I was living in Texas, and visited a farm that had dromedaries among the livestock. I was astonished how large they can grow, and how smart/ornery they are. The story is an extrapolation of what a dromedary might do if threatened or pushed too far.    

K&R: Do you have any other work do you have out there, for folks to dig into?

MR: I have a horror novella available from Slashic Horror Press called Waste Ground and I have a story with Baffling Magazine (January 2026).

Signed copies are available here: https://vonvorgrikbookconsortium.bigcartel.com/

K&R: What’s next for you as a writer?

MR: I’m working on a punk rock horror/noir novel set in 1986 Chicago, IL.

K&R: What does “trashy fiction” mean to you, and what do you love about it?

MR: To me, trashy is just another word for pleasurable. Fiction that’s akin to comfort food. It’s your favorite, and you don’t want it to end. 

K&R: Hit us with your own favourite “trashy” fiction recommendations!

MR: Whenever I hit the deepest, darkest pits of depression, I pull out my old Redwall novels and re-enter a calming world where good always triumphs over evil, and the food is always plentiful and delicious.

K&R: If you’ve read the rest of the stories in Trash Tales, what’s your favourite and why?

MR: I liked them all, but my favorite, I think, was “Not His Name” by Arthur Ursini. It was well-written and unfolded like a puzzle-box. 

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