Blog

The Entry Fees

November 23, 2020 | Ben Reach | Comments
“Why do all the old field trial guys treat you so kindly, Ben?” Sam asked during a sundown session in Ben’s library-conference room on a Friday afternoon. The curmudgeons had just poured themselves drams of The Macallan 12, and Ben had just got off the phone with a friend and some-time client inquiring if Ben knew of any quail plantation jobs needing filling (it was March and the “spring shuffle” time for such hands was in full bloom). Read more

Do Not Do That

October 13, 2020 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments
This had come up before, many years ago, so Ben and Sam were not totally surprised. Herb Sheer had come to Doc first, and Doc had suggested he get Ben involved. Herb had long been a patient of Doc and a client of Ben. The problem had originated, not surprisingly, with a new charismatic preacher in town. In the curmudgeons’ long experience such seldom heralded peace for parishioners. Read more

When You Ride a Borrowed Horse

September 29, 2020 | Prose | Comments
When you ride a borrowed horse At a bird dog field trial You are thirty seconds away From a mishap Unless the horse beneath you Is that rare breed that protects you From your own ineptitude Read more

Hope for Quail in Virginia

September 22, 2020 | Bobwhite Quail, Other Things | Comments
As a dedicated quail hunter in Virginia from the 1960s through the 1990s, I have since been in mourning for the bird. Wild quail seem to have virtually disappeared from the Old Dominion. But there may be hope for the noble species, at least in the coastal plain, thanks to joint efforts of the Nature Conservancy, the Virginia Department of Forestry and the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. Read more

Per Stirpes or Per Capita

September 18, 2020 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments
It seemed to Ben that sibling strife dominated his law practice these days. He and Sam Nixon MD were mulling the causes as at 5pm each nursed his three fingers of The Macallan in Ben’s library-conference room. The subject of their mulling was the Tucker family, its members long patients of Sam and clients of Ben. Read more

Buck and Booty

September 8, 2020 | Fiction, Short Stories | Comments
Buck was handling and Booty scouting for Bootjack in the opening prairie championship of the season. The dog’s owner Fred Gray was riding in the gallery for his first prairie trial. He had bought Bootjack as his first trial dog in April and put him with Buck on recommendation from a friend. The grounds were new to all. Buck and Booty had studied them on Google Earth on Buck’s iPad, a recent gift from his son. Read more

About Families

August 25, 2020 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments
Ben and Sam found themselves in old age constantly contending with family strife in their practices of law and medicine. Time after time they watched families disintegrate into discord, indeed mutual hate. They often were on hand when a patriarch or matriarch died, only to witness strife break out among the children with unbelievable ferocity. “Why,” one or the other of the curmudgeons would ask the other after a family Read more