Short Stories

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

Magic Memories From Field Trials

October 20, 2020 | Remembrances, Short Stories | Comments

I have stored in my kit bag of field trial memories some special (to me) ones that come back often deep in the night when after waking sleep will not return. Here are a few. 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

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

Dream Trip North

August 13, 2020 | Short Stories | Comments

It was his twenty third drive from Georgia to Manitoba, interrupted only by two summers in the army. He wondered if this would be his last. He made it in five days, sharing time behind the wheel with his scout Booty Blevins. Both were exhausted when they arrived. Neighbors came over and took charge of the dogs and the stock. Too tired to eat, he and Booty were quickly under blankets and asleep in the shack that served as their home for July and August. Read more

The Blue Hen ~ Conclusion

August 4, 2020 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

One by one the sealed bids were opened by the club’s president and read aloud to the hushed crowd of tuxedoed and gowned revelers. The bids ranged in odd numbers from a low of $30,001 to a high of $50,001, of which there were two. These were, as the two the Curmudgeons had predicted, by Harvey Grant and Fred Lee. Read more

The Blue Hen ~ Part I

July 31, 2020 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

Harry Ganes got the bad news from his doctor as a total surprise. What he thought a minor scalp irritation was a melanoma, far advanced, result of too much unprotected sunshine, a common problem for those in his profession, pointing dog field trial trainer-handler. He now knew his days on earth were short, and he set to planning best he could for his wife Mary’s future without him. Read more

Callin’ in Some Chips

July 19, 2020 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

Allen Collins called on his cell phone from North Dakota on July 15. “Mr. Ben, I got a problem.” Allen had just finished successfully a two-year program at a community college. This summer he would decide whether to go on for a bachelor’s degree or take a job in the quail plantation economy where he had grown up as the son of a plantation manager. He was torn between the two futures, for he had worked beside his father since childhood and loved everything about the quail plantation world, especially the dogs and horses. Read more