The Twenty Bushel Racer

By Barry Pearson

THE TWENTY BUSHEL RACER, AND OTHER STORIES
Barry Pearson's short story collection casts its spell across a wide reach of life:

A boy deceives his embittered father, but a magnificent horse helps to heal the rift.

A small-town teenager discovers the importance of his attachment to the people and the place where he is growing up.

A man, who has for years considered himself a coward and a betrayer of his comrades, musters the courage to stand up against a pair of would-be assassins.

Two young men who grew up in the same town meet unexpectedly, and unveil a truth about a girl they both loved when they were boys. The discovery changes both their lives.

* THE TWENTY BUSHEL RACER

Thirteen year-old Shawn O'Neill dreams of being a jockey in the races at the county fair. Without his father’s permission, he purchases an injured racing horse with his 20-bushel share of the crop, and triggers a chain of events that will pit him against his father’s determination to sell the horse.

* A PLACE TO BELONG

In a small prairie town, teenager Might Dobson and three friends come of age one icy winter night. They find magic everywhere they look—in the Smile Café, over a jug of wine, on the slippery streets, and in the way they stick with each other.

* A MAN IS NOT ALWAYS

Peter Donohue, a prairie farmer, lives a tranquil life with his wife, Helen, until his youthful past catches up to him. Two IRA terrorists, seeking vengeance, arrive with intent to kill him and his wife.

* SHARP CORNERS

The lingering angst of poignant young love surfaces when 30 year-old Might Dobson unexpectedly meets a man from his home town who was once a rival for the love of a spirited, but doomed young girl who broke both their hearts. A revelation sparks a decision that will change Might's life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barry Pearson
• Release date: Oct 2, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301292844

Barry Pearson

Barry Pearson is a writer/producer. His script and producing credits include IRON ROAD, an international co-production with China, starring Peter O’Toole, Sam Neill, Sun Li, and Tony Leung Ka Fai. The series has aired on television around the world, and has been released theatrically. * Other feature films include ISAAC LITTLEFEATHERS, ALIEN WARRIOR, and PLAGUE. * His awards include: Best Screenplay, Best Picture, International Film &Television Festival of New York for THE LIFE AND TIMES OF EDWIN ALONZO BOYD; Best Screenplay, Feature Film, 12th International Film Festival in Sitges, Spain for PLAGUE; Special Jury Award, Feature Film, San Francisco International Film Festival for PLAGUE. * Watch for his upcoming short story thriller BURN THE SHOES, and novel, CITIZEN OF AMERICA, which centers on a wild young man who escapes the constabulary in Ireland and sails to the U.S. in the early 1800's seeking success and prosperity. * Read more at citizenofamerica.net

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DEDICATION

To my mother, Trudy Miller, who passed away on June 8, 2013, at the age of 99, her mind still acute, and her trenchant wit still on display. She was born and raised on a prairie farm, much like the setting in two of these stories, The Twenty Bushel Racer and A Man Is Not Always. Of Scots-Irish descent, she held learning and knowledge in high regard, and loved a good story.

I like to think she would have enjoyed these stories and realized that her influence made me a writer. Her love of things artistic, her avid appetite for reading, her ability to see the funny side of things, and her staunch determination to stay independent—all of these made a profound impression on me.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Thanks to my brilliant editor, Marjorie Lamb, Writer in Residence Inc., for her meticulous improvements in the text and formatting.

If you‘re writing a novel, memoir, short story, or non-fiction, check out her web site for editing and/or formatting help . Marjorie’s web site

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The Twenty Bushel Racer

And Other Stories

By

Barry Pearson

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Table of Contents

The Twenty Bushel Racer

A Place to Belong

A Man Is Not Always

Sharp Corners

About the Author

Copyright © 2013 by Barry Pearson

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Conventions.

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Cover art by Barry Pearson and Marjorie Lamb

Author’s websites:

Create Your Screenplay

Citizen of America

E-Mail Barry

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The Twenty Bushel Racer

By

Barry Pearson

A river, more like a stream at times, ran through our farm a few hundred yards from the house. I was thirteen the summer when the gypsies came by to camp by the water. Their open freight wagons rattled up beside the porch, and one of the men, his wild curly hair flopping and waving, leapt down and accosted my father on his way to the barn.

We like to water these horse, he said in a voice rich and thick with a foreign accent.

My father put down his milk pail and gestured in the direction of the flat-roofed sod barn. There's the trough, he said.

Yes, the man nodded. Then he tucked his billowing red shirt more firmly into his belt.

Tis likely you'll be selling things, my father said.

The man reacted with the forced pleasantness of the professional hawker. Oh, yes, we got cloth, lotsa pretty. We got harness. You need harness…?

Never mind what you've got. We don't have no money for nothin'. Get your horses watered and get on your way, my father said as he turned and strode toward the house, slopping the milk a little.

When he reached the front step, he said, Shawn, let you go down there and see they don't thieve us blind. He set down the milk pails, opened his shirt and tugged at the laces of the heavy back brace he wore.

Patrick O'Neill is the proud man, my mother told me one day. He hates pity worse than he hates that brace itself. The Queen's Plate he had his heart set on. Himself weighin' in at a hundred and twenty pounds, climbin' up on top of a thoroughbred in his shinin' boots an' the silk jacket an' cap, the thunder of the horses an' the crowd. An' more money than a body could earn in a lifetime of farmin'. Twas a grand dream he had, Shawn, before the accident.

He glanced at me as he tied a knot at the middle of