Boy in the Bolero: The Caldera's Vice Trilogy

By Varden M Frias

Japheth Mozen is your average Rattlesnake lizard anthropomorphic creature living in a desert landscape of an alternate 1920s reality. When he stumbles upon an opal on his ranch, he attempts to flee his home in search of a better life, a life where he, his mother, and younger sister can live free of his abusive father.
He arrives in a town called Hellhole, a dirty city of desperados living inside of a giant, ancient volcano called the Moloch Caldera. There he finds a sheriff, Clayton Grant, who has a district of Hellhole called the Doonies in the palm of his hand. Japheth realizes quickly that Grant will do anything to keep the town just the way he likes it: under the spur of his boot.
Along the way, Japheth meets Lanabelle, a demon from the Soyala tribe, whose only desire is to be free of Hellhole, a city holding her back. Together, they must find a way to bring the crooked sheriff down before its too late.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Varden M Frias
• Release date: Jul 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223253334

Book preview

Prologue

J

apheth Mozen carried a crate of dynamite sticks and followed his Pops’ footsteps through a darkened opal mine shaft up to an empty minecart hidden by the cavern’s shadow.     

They been takin’ the crop water far too long, son. They gotta pay somehow, Pops said as he dumped dynamite into the cart and gestured for Japheth to do the same. Japheth didn’t look away when Pops glanced at him, despite his desire to do so. He was a snake reptilian anthropomorphic creature, a rattlesnake just like Japheth. They nearly looked the same if not for the age and the spark that had long since gone out in his father’s golden eyes. 

Years of imbibing in the happy powder known as Dolora snuffed that twinkle right out. 

Somehow they gotta pay, Pops’ attention fixed on cutting the fuses, but he glanced at Japheth with an angry glint, Ain’t you gonna help? Don’t just gawk at me, boy.

Japheth held back. 

But they gotta eat too, Pops. All folks gotta eat. How they fixin’ to eat when they can’t afford it? This mine’s the only money they got.

Pops made a sharp turn and smacked Japheth with the broad side of his hand. Japheth stumbled back but grabbed the cart’s metal side to catch himself from falling. Pops’golden eyes flashed with oncoming rage. 

Don’t talk back to me again, you hear me?

Japheth snorted up the blood threatening to spill from his nostril. 

Yes, Pops.

Pops lit a row of dynamite sticks and tossed it into the cart before dumping Japheth’s dynamite in and pushing it. 

Help me, boy. Push.

Japheth hesitated, which caused Pops to flick him a mean look. Japheth gulped. 

I ain’t gonna push, Pops. This ain’t right. 

You’re too young to know what’s right, now push or we’re both gonna get blown to Hell.

Japheth turned away, I ain’t too young, I’m eighteen.

Pops snarled and pushed the cart so that it raced down the track on its own. The sparkling light bounced against the circular earthen walls before it winked out in total darkness around a corner of the shaft.

Pops turned on his heel for the mouth of the mine where afternoon light spilled through. 

Japheth remained, listening for the bang when the fuse shortened, but Pops barked at him to follow and he trailed behind him. The explosion shook the ground the moment they exited. Amidst the scrape and growl of falling rocks, Japheth heard the screams before a landslide covered the opal mine entrance, forever silencing the workers below.

There’s a lot you gotta learn about this world, Japheth, and you ain’t gonna go nowhere if you don’t bite some bastards in the ear and show ‘em who’s boss.

Pops walked west towards the fallen sun across the Uncanny Mesa, a stretch of gray and red sand in the middle of a barren desert with only crimson plateaus to differentiate it from the infinite, dusty blue horizon. 

Japheth followed his father back to the Mozen Ranch.

Chapter 1

I

t was a hot day in June when Japheth found the rainbow gem in the Mozen Ranch well. He hoisted a metal tub onto the rocky wellhead and pulled the bucket up by the rope pulley system, but it came up dry.

Dagnabbit, he muttered and reeled back to toss the bucket back into the well when a pebble dropped down on his shoulder and fell near his scuffed boots. On any other occasion, he would have ignored it, but the sun’s rays shimmering rainbow hues on the stone’s black facets piqued his interest. He chucked the bucket into the well’s mouth and bent down to free a raw black opal stone trapped in a clump of ruddy brown dirt. Neon green, sky blue, and salmon pink interspersed with fiery hints of crimson red and sulfur yellow all gleamed within the opal’s black body.

He stuffed the gem deep into his trouser pocket, ignoring the dry water trough for the ranch livestock and opting for the wooden shack connected to the backside of the house. The sun beat down hot and he thirsted for something stronger like the underground illegal swill Pops brought in. On dry days, he saved the water for his younger sister, Kendra.

The government proclaimed hooch, beer, or any other alcohol illegal out in the Uncanny Mesa, just like the rest of the country, but no one stopped drinking it. He unlocked the shack’s padlock and grabbed an unmarked brown bottle that he stashed into his other pocket before making his way around to the house’s front door.

Once the door to their ranch house swung open, he caught Pops snoring on the wicker chair in the corner next to the radio spewing static intermingling with a sports newscaster’s frenzied voice. A burlap bag the size of a wallet and an unmarked beer bottle nestled in his lap just below the white ash sprinkled on his chest undulating to the rhythm of his unnaturally slow breathing. Booze bottles on the ground near the wicker and the glass pipe that hung loose from his limp, clawed fingers indicated Pops slumbered from the aftermath of another Dolora binge.

Japheth crept across the rug to the other side of the room where Ma stood bent over the kitchen table rolling a clump of bread dough.

Kendra was nowhere to be seen.

Japheth set the empty bucket on the table and met eyes with his mother. They were reptilian eyes like his with vertical pupils and fiery yellow scleras wrapped around a sandy brown iris. Her scaly flesh was a warm copper in contrast to his sandy brown hue. He resembled his father more in that regard. He spoke in a low voice.

Is Kendra back from feedin’ the cows?

She glanced at Pops and nodded. Japheth turned, passing by his statuesque father, and walked into the cramped hallway, narrow enough to just scrape the edges of his button-up’s sleeves. He entered the room he shared with Kendra.

She sat on a threadbare rug playing with her reptilian dolls made of rags sewn together when he came in. She glanced at him with a strained smile. Like the other members of the family, she was a snake reptilian but bore more resemblance to their copper-hued mother. When she opened her mouth to speak, her chapped lips peeled and her voice cracked.

Any water today, Japhy?

He sighed and unbuttoned his plaid shirt.

Nope, but there should be water in the hole again soon after the first summer rain.

She didn’t look at him as she picked dirt from her doll’s hair.

It hasn't rained in a long time, Japhy.

He sighed and plunged his hands into his pocket, rolling the opal around in his fingers, but didn’t take it out.

It’s gonna be alright. You’ll see.

A wild roar and snake hiss in the other room followed by a crash startled them both. They looked at each other. Japheth dashed to close the door and bolt the lock, then opened up his arms for Kendra to swoop in.

That commotion meant one thing. Something had set Pops off after a wake from a binge. For a few, long minutes there was roaring and hissing from Pops but nothing from Ma. Japheth held Kendra tight through the afternoon and evening despite the growling in their stomachs until it was morning and he woke with Kendra still in his arms.

He gently set her in the bed and as he did, the opal slipped from his pocket as his tailcoat rode up.

What’s that? she asked, rubbing her eyes. He glanced down.

Mayhaps a problem-fixer, he muttered and bent down to pick it up.

They glanced at each other. His eyes trailed to her dry skin and chapped lips.

I’m gonna have a palaver with Ma and get you some eats, he told her, tucking a wedge of her matted, dirty hair behind her shoulder, and left.

He tip toed down the hall and peered around the corner to find Pops’ wicker empty but the mess remained. Ma approached from the kitchen with a broom, mop, bucket, and sponge.

Your Pops left early, Ma’s voice was always louder when Pops was gone. Japheth turned. Her reptilian eyes glanced his way then down again. There was a bruise under her eye. Her gaze lingered on him long enough that she registered he had seen it.

She set down all the items except for the broom which she used to sweep up the silvery dust from the glass pipe left on the floor. Japheth picked up the pipe and set it on the ashtray near the radio.

I can’t do this no more, he spoke with a constricted voice.

There’s nowhere worth goin’ except for Hellhole or Mayville. You know that, Japhy, she brushed the broom across the floor, sweeping the contents into the pan, avoiding eye contact. He felt for the opal in his pocket. Its weight filled him with cautious optimism.

Supposin’ we had some money.

Supposin’ we live in a fairy tale, she chuckled humorlessly.

I reckon I might be able to get some real soon.

She stopped sweeping but didn’t look at him.

What on the Creator’s Earth gives you that notion?

He dug in his pocket and pulled out the opal to show her. She glanced at his open palm where the opal was nestled atop the cream-colored scales.

Where’d ya find that? she cast her sharp gaze at him.

Came out of the well when I went for the draw yesterday. Ma, there ain’t no water and hasn’t been for a while. Mayhaps Pops ruined the water line when he did what he did to the mines last month. Who knows if it’ll rain soon enough. Pops’ don’t wanna move, he’s a stubborn mule on that one. We can’t live here no more, plain and simple as that.

And what’re you fixin’ to do with that there rainbow gem? Hm? Sell it?

He gulped.

Mayhaps.

She sighed.

Japhy, the gremlin miners will know we stole it from them. Especially after Pops.... she trailed off.

"After Pops knocked off