Excerpt
“What do you mean she can’t go in the sale?” He had just driven
several hundred miles through the Montana night to be here and
he was the first one in line. There was no one else waiting.
“Look, I’m really sorry about the confusion, mister,” the attractive
lady tried to explain, “but it is a select, catalogued sale.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” boomed Joel. It was
early and he was pissed off. He didn’t like being told that he had
just wasted his time. Or maybe she was saying his mare wasn’t
good enough? Hell, she hadn’t even seen the mare.
“Well, you see,” the lady continued, trying to be very understanding,
“the horses for this sale have been pre-qualified. The
sellers have submitted the performance records and pedigree of
the horses they want to sell at the auction, and we have selected
the fifty head that we consider the best. That’s why we call it a
select sale. If you want, you can come back next Saturday when
we have our regular horse sale and you can sell your horse then.”
If there was one thing Joel knew, it was that this mare was no
regular horse. She was blonde, she was flashy, and she was from
Texas. Besides that, the idea of hauling the mare all of the way
back to the CircleHand then repeating the journey in a week was
not his idea of a good time.
“What a way to run a business,” Joel fumed. “You advertise
your sale on posters, I bring my horse to the sale, and now . . .”
A smiling, plump man stepped up to the counter and interrupted,
“Now, what exactly is the problem here?”
Recognizing that he wasn’t making any headway with the
lady, Joel welcomed the opportunity to make his case to someone
else. And from the man’s demeanor, Joel could sense that this
someone else happened to be in charge.
Harry pulled the registration papers for the mare out of his
shirt pocket and laid them out on the counter. “Well sir, let me
introduce myself. I am Joel Hooper and I have just driven half the
night to bring this mare to the sale and now I am being . . .”
“Joel Hooper. What relation are you to Edward Hooper?”
Libros Libertad 