Dutch's Boy

By Xavier Axelson

Harry Reynolds spends his days working the family ranch dreaming of the chance to break out on his own and live up to his father Dutch's celebrated rodeo cowboy status. When his chance comes, Harry leaves everything he knows, risking the wrath of his father to find his own success.

Dreams don't come easy, but supported by the love of his best friend Reb, Harry sets out to find glory and gets a few surprises along the way. Coming of age amid sultry cowboys, huge egos, and wild horses isn't going to be easy, but Harry Reynolds is Dutch's Boy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Sep 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9781646560059

Xavier Axelson

Xavier Axelson sold his first short story in 2010 and hasn’t stopped. As a writer-columnist, he has interviewed counterculture celebrities, artisans, singers, writers, performance artists, politicians, and activists. In2012 his first full-length work, Velvet, was released with Seventh Window Publications. Contact him at www.xavieraxelson.com.

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Chapter 1

You know Daddy ain’t gonna like you leavin’, Harry’s little sister said as she tossed his socks into the huge army-green duffel bag at the end of his bed.

Well, Daddy ain’t here and I gotta get to the rodeo if I’m gonna get to ridin’ those broncs. I can’t be sittin’ around waiting for the rain to fall. Sometimes you gotta make it rain, baby girl. Harry began stomping around the floor, imitating a rain dance, making a ruckus with his new boots. His sister started laughing. From down below, they could hear their ma yelling for them to knock it off.

Still, he ain’t gonna like it, she repeated.

Harry tossed his old truckers hat at the young girl, just missing her as she managed to get one more pair of socks into his bag before running from his room.

Damn right he ain’t gonna like it, he mumbled to himself. Shoot…He’s gonna hate it.

Twenty-year-old Harry Reynolds wished he were like his friends who had started riding broncs while they had all been in middle school. That wasn’t to say Harry didn’t know his way around horses. He could train, shoe, rope, and hell, he even knew about breeding them, but his daddy wasn’t having it.

His father was Dutch Reynolds, one of the best-known and most well-loved saddle bronc riders in the state and Dutch made it a point to have all his kids familiar with the livestock that roamed on his massive ranch. Dutch, however, had made it clear that Harry was to finish school before he started working the rodeo circuit. He’d told both Harry and his sister Joanna that they were not gonna be like him—no sir, no high school diploma to speak of, forced to work and drop out to help his poor ma who’d never had two nickels to rub together on account of his no-good father. Dutch Reynolds was making sure his kids got an education and if, after they graduated, they wanted the rodeo life for themselves then he wouldn’t stop them.

Dutch, who was in and out of their lives like summer rainstorms, would say that Hell would have him before he would encourage either child to follow his lead. He came home just long enough to unpack and pack again but not before uttering the same old warning in the direction of his impatient son. "You ain’t ready yet, and that’s my final word. Don’t be getting at your ma about leavin’ for the rodeo, either, or I’ll tan your hide when I get back." Dutch was nothing if he wasn’t strict, and that had left Harry with no room to rebel. Harry would rather face a desert of prickly pears barefoot rather than piss off his father. That wasn’t to say that Harry didn’t often think horrible things about him. He would even go so far as to yell them out in the fields, but when Dutch confronted him, he would fall back into line and begin to wonder if he’d ever be able to break free from the cage of respect and obligation that his father had so carefully wrought.

He ain’t gonna like it, Harry said again into the back of the old curtains that just barely moved in the already-hot morning air. And I’ve waited long enough—too damn long. Christ, I’m already twenty; I can’t live under his rules forever. Harry was tired of kicking rocks on his father’s ranch and going nowhere with his life. He’d tried community college, to please Dutch, but it hadn’t been for him. His classes had left him unfulfilled and frustrated.

At first he had let Dutch’s threats knock him down. He had moped about, not doing anything in particular but always feeling that yearning for something else, something more. It had not been unusual to find him standing and just staring out at the fields beyond their ranch. Harry had known there was more out there. His gut had told him there was a lot more to do and see. Every day that instinct had only grown stronger.

His ma had finally needed to straighten him out. Harry remembered what she’d said one day after a couple of his friends had come around just before they were to leave for the rodeo.

You got a lot of time, Harry, and you’re just sittin’ around here like a bump on a bean. Why don’t you use the time you’ve been given and make some money? It ain’t cheap getting on the circuit, and I can only help you so much. You know your daddy ain’t gonna help. He just can’t see past his own self sometimes. She’d turned away and he had been able to tell she was thinking of the past. She’d forced a smile when she caught him watching her. "I bet you can make and save some money working down at that fancy resort in town. They got horses; I’m sure they could use someone to take the city folk on trail rides, teach them a thing or two about their mounts. They’d be lucky to have you, they being the horses. Ma had paused, and seeing Harry smile, she’d added, You being you, how could they not? You’re just so damn likeable, Harry Reynolds. I sure like you an awful lot." She’d patted him