Short Stories

The Odd Couple

May 1, 2019 | Short Stories | Comments

They were known in the field trial fraternity as the Odd Couple. Mike Trent was a classic Type A Competitor, perennially among the Top Ten Amateur handlers in horseback All-Age competition, as serious as a heart attack about winning, and as skilled as most any professional in developing and handling prospects. Bill East was as inept as Mike Trent was competent, but he too loved to run his dogs in competition, though he hardly ever placed a dog of his own. Read more

Pet Peeve

April 23, 2019 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

Ben Reach and Sam Nixon MD shared several pet peeves. First on Ben’s list was the practice of prosecutors, especially federal prosecutors, in pressuring minor offenders to testify against target alleged serious offenders in exchange for leniency. What Ben disliked was the temptation for the prosecutor to suggest what the testimony should be, and the inevitable willingness of the witness to testify as suggested (or demanded) whether true or not. The practice had become widespread, fueled by long mandatory sentences for drug-related offenses, even relatively minor ones involving marijuana, a drug legalized under state law in many states and in Canada. Read more

Run Off?

April 15, 2019 | Ben Reach, Short Stories, Uncategorized | Comments

Once again Ben Reach had been drafted to fill in for a no-show field trial judge. This time it was in an invitational championship (not The Invitational Championship run every Thanksgiving weekend at Paducah but a copy-cat for another category). The handlers were amateurs, and so were Ben’s judging partners. They were enthusiastic and for their years in the game quite successful as handlers in their home venues where trials were run on released birds. Read more

A Sales Job

April 4, 2019 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

Ron Spears had called Joanne on Monday and asked for an appointment to see Ben Reach. She had set the appointment for 4:00 the next day, knowing, without asking, that Ben would want it then. Spears was the long-time manager and bird dog man on Twisted Pine Plantation, recently sold by the Yankees who had owned it a century to a Silicon Valley Venture capitalist said to be “richer than Croesus.” (When Joanne had heard that at her beauty parlor she’d Googled “Croesus” to find he was the King of Lydia in 560 BC and was plumb rich. Lydia, Google said, was now part of Turkey.) Read more

Finally Justice

March 22, 2019 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

In fifty years of law practice Ben Reach had seen every manifestation of human nature, good and bad, in family relations. But this one topped them all for pure villainy in Ben’s estimation. And he had seen it more than once, always between brothers, one weak, the other treacherous. The circumstances had always been some variation of these. Read more

Trust but Verify

March 12, 2019 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

Once again Ben Reach found himself a judge for an end-of-season field trial as substitute for a no-show. He was comfortable with his fellow judge, what mattered most to Ben, until he arrived at the grounds to discover that that advertised Judge was also a no-show to be replaced by another man Ben had vowed never again to judge with. Read more

A Mule Trade Got Even

March 6, 2019 | Short Stories | Comments

Truth is often stranger than fiction. This story is absolutely true, according to one participant, Richard Spain, and a witness with no motive to tell it false, The Honorable Elmon T. Gray, friend of both participants. Elmon was a long-serving Virginia State Senator, leader of a family timber company that successfully transitioned to apartments, and perhaps best remembered as a philanthropist. It happened right after World War Two. Read more

The Sacrifice

February 23, 2019 | Short Stories | Comments

It was Thursday noon, and the staff of Short Pine Plantation were gathered at the horse barn to plan for the week-end quail hunt. By tradition, shooting guests arrived Thursday afternoon at the Big House for an all-day hunt Friday, followed by a half-day hunt Saturday. (The schedule was repeated for Monday-half-day Tuesday hunts, giving the staff Sunday and Wednesday off). The staff consisted of manager Sam Slade, dog trainer Bill Ray, wagon driver Booty Blevins, long-timers on Short Pine, and a half dozen younger and newer hands whose jobs varied with the need. Read more

A Better Way – Part 2

February 15, 2019 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

The Option Agreement between Dry River Plantation’s owner and Bill Gaps was signed, the option money was paid and Bill Gaps took possession under the lease. Bud Earp was hired by Bill Gaps as dog man and hunt manager. The Dry River stock, including horses, mules, pointing dogs and retrievers, were also bought by Bill Gaps. Bud Earp moved to a cottage near the kennels and barns and met with the Plantation’s manager to discuss plans for future operations. It was March 1. The prescribed burn was scheduled to begin tomorrow and would keep all hands, including Bud, busy fourteen hours a day for three weeks. Bud was put in charge because the manager, now seventy, knew Bud had sufficient experience and license credentials. Read more

A Better Way – Part I

February 12, 2019 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

Bud Earp had made an appointment to see Ben at Four on Friday by calling Joanne. Ben knew what he wanted because his dad Walter Earp had come to see Ben a week before to warn him. Since then Ben had been maneuvering. Walter was manager and head dog man on Pinion Pine Plantation outside Thomasville, a quail plantation with a hundred-twenty-year history of Yankee ownership since a Cleveland banker bought it from a Georgia cracker-turpentiner. Walter had come to Ben’s office to warn him of Bud’s intentions. Bud was dead set on striking out on his own as an over-the-road bird dog trainer/field trial handler. Walter wanted Ben to talk Bud out of his dream. The risks were too great, the odds too long, Walter figured, and Ben had to agree. Read more