The universe belonged to Red Hellion and
me! And I was going to conquer… I wasn't going to set back and die from
inaction and boredom! Excitement—action—speed! Any damn thing to keep from
thinking!
This story appeared in the September 1952 issue of Dime
Western magazine.
Here we have a post-World War II tale of a former
rodeo rider who lost a hand in combat. We travel inside our protagonist’s head as
he navigates the waters of recovery, bitterness, and re-claiming the whole man
inside as he comes to grip with this new lot in life.
It is a brief tale, but one of maturity. There are no
shoot-em-up heroics; just a man with an obstacle to surmount and the complicated
issues of the soul that go along with a man who chooses not to lay down no
matter what is handed to him.
A bonafide buried treasure of mature Western writing
from an author I was unfamiliar with and as far as I can tell his only printed
piece.
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