Category: Short Stories

Sibling Heirs

November 15, 2021 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments
Ben and Sam never ceased to wonder at the venom sibling heirs often held for one another. Ben often quoted his mother, “About the only place you see brotherly love is in the Bible.” Sam had a theory, “Sibling discord springs most often from spousal discord. If kids witness fights between their parents, they are likely to fight one another. And the worst happens when parents play young children off against one another or use them as pawns in parental disagreements.” Read more

The Curse

October 21, 2021 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments
Ben and Sam had lived long and seen a lot. Ben practiced law and Sam medicine. But more than that they collaborated on trying to help solve families’ problems. Not a week passed that one or both of the curmudgeons were not consulted by a desperate parent or grandparent about a child or grandchild on the verge of ruining his or her life. The crises varied from substance addiction to academic failure to depression leading to attempted (or successful ) suicide, often in combination. And the cause was mostly affluenza: a lack of aspiration to make a worthwhile life brought on by lack of need to struggle. Mixed in were crumbling or crumbled parental marriages also linked to affluenza. Read more

The Conflict

October 4, 2021 | Bird Dogs, Short Stories | Comments
A lawyer fears a conflict of interest like a foot-plowing share cropper fears a kicking mule. And so fear grew in me after on impulse I recommended Sweetie to John Bassett as a grouse dog after his beloved Jill went to her reward. That recommendation put me in jeopardy of losing both my two best friends and best client and principal source of referrals, and my regular quail-hunting partner and key to quail hunting territory. Read more

Sweet Revenge

September 27, 2021 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments
Ben and Sam were savoring Friday afternoon drams of The Macallan in Ben’s library-conference room when the subject of back-hunters came up, and they recalled an incident. The curmudgeons agreed that the most dastardly of outdoorsmen were back-hunters, those unprincipled souls who, having hunted as a guest a host’s favorite covert, would alone or with others (but not the host) sneak back to hunt the honey hole. Read more

Advice on a Dog Sale Deal

August 30, 2021 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments
Ben Reach religiously followed a policy, preached to him by his father, not to get involved in law suits involving dogs. But ironically, he was asked for advice on bird dog matters constantly. This was because Ben had many friends in the bird dog world and was trusted. He had judged trials over many years and never shown favoritism. Nor did he ever decline to try to help a bird dog professional trainer-handler in distress, and there was never a shortage of them. The profession was by its nature highly risky. Read more

A Job Earned

August 5, 2021 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments
Ben Reach had always loved the prairie trials. When younger he had judged one most years. He was going to one this year as a gallery guest of Fred Dane, owner of Old Grove Plantation below Thomasville. They would fly in Dane’s private jet to an airstrip near Columbus, North Dakota, owned by an energy exploration company that one of Dane’s private investment partnerships controlled. Read more

A New Position for Willie

July 30, 2021 | Short Stories | Comments
Willie Goode enjoyed a special status on Tinkling Creek Plantation. His present position, at age seventy-five, was as scout for the dog handler on quail hunts. In his youth he had scouted for the Plantation’s field trial handler when the Plantation’s then owner, Creedmore Burns, sponsored a string on the all-age circuit. That had been a glorious time, right after World War Two, when Burns was among the Nation’s, indeed the world’s, wealthiest men, made so by his companies’ contributions to the war effort. Read more

What’s Fair

July 21, 2021 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments
Molly Bain was one of Ben’s favorite people. Widow of Sam Bain, also a favorite, Molly had soldiered on after Sam’s death twenty years ago. Molly had three daughters and eight grandchildren and doted on and worried about them all constantly. She professed no favorites and Ben knew she was sincere in saying it. They were certainly not equal in how they treated Molly. But Molly and Ben knew that was the universal fate of parents and grandparents. Read more

Found Love

June 29, 2021 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments
Ben Reach was not surprised by the call from Ann Cameron. “Ben, I need some personal advice. When could I see you?” “How about four this afternoon?” Ben said. “See you then” Ann said, and hung up. Read more