About Home Station on the Prairie
by Kara Larson
45 pages / 21000 words
ISBN: 978-1-60370-528-8, 1-60370-528-7
Available file types - html, lit, pdf, prc
The Nebraska territory is a lonely place for young Jamie, who longs to be a Pony Express rider, but only manages to take care of their horses. Still, he has the ponies, and his father, and before he knows it he has Thad, a boyhood friend from back in Iowa.
Jamie has always found Thad fascinating, and soon the two young men strike up a friendship that might just turn into more. War looms on the horizon, though, and even as Jamie is realizing his dream of riding for the Pony Express, he knows his life is about to change drastically. Will he find a way to keep all he holds dear, including Thad?
Review
Chris Owen, author of
Bareback, writes: Jamie Boyd and his Pa live a lonely life in Nebraska.
The mid-nineteenth century is a time of coming changes -- there's war on
the horizon, the railroad is spreading and there are stories of trouble
with the indians. Jamie dreams of adventure, of having people around the
place if their little stop on the Pony Express route could grow into
something more than just a relay station.
Then it happens. Jamie becomes a rider for the Pony Express, the relay
is made a home station and there's people sharing the loft with him and
his pa. Thad Richardson, the boy Jamie had adored in his youth is now a
grown man, doing Jamie's old job with the horses while Jamie, Mattie and
Cyrus ride to get the mail through. Mattie is small and feisty, quick to
argue, and Cyrus is grizzled and trail weary. Jamie's never been
happier.
Happiness blooms into sheer joy when he and Thad find their way to each
other, taking advantage of being alone so often, and then is dashed away
again by the toll that life and living can take as the world crowds in
on them and choices have to be made. A man has to pick sides sometimes,
no matter how Jamie tries to avoid it, and with war breaking out and the
Pony Express dying, things can turn to ashes in a blink of an eye.
Poignant, almost gently sweet, Home Station on the Prairie by Kara
Larson is a step back in time to when things were both simpler and
harder. Needs were basic and met or not met, and people took their joys
where they found them. Hard work and brutal stakes were worth it when
the reward was pure love and a kind touch. Jamie and the people around
him are genuine, personable and easy to get to know; Kara Larson writes
with a deft hand and leaves the reader almost able to taste the dust in
the air.
Home Station on the Prairie is a story with heart, with unexpected
twists, and with the perfect moment of sorrow that draws a sigh before
the reward of the perfect, lovely ending.
Sample
“Jamie! Jamie boy, if you don’t get that behind of yours out here right now and help me with these supplies…”
Jamie heard his pa hollering all the way from inside, curled up on his straw tick under the eaves as he was. “Comin’, Pa!” he yelled back, struggling with his trousers. He’d just meant to get a little shut-eye after chores were done. Meant to do some wash while the sun was shining. 'Cept that never happened.
He tugged his trousers on, hopping on one foot as he shoved the other down the wrong leg. He near to killed himself, stumbling out the door. “If you just wait--“ he started to say, looking up as he fastened the buttons on his trousers over his backside instead of his front.
Weren’t just Pa that stared at him. There were three others with him--two riders, by the looks of them, and a big-shouldered fella that Jamie swore was--
“Thad?” Backward trousers forgotten, Jamie ran toward the tall man that sat in the seat of the second wagon. “Thad Richardson!”
“Jamie boy!” The blond fella swung down from the wagon and grabbed Jamie in a huge bear hug, squeezing him tight around the waist. “I betcher pa you wouldn’t remember me, but damned if you did.”
“'Course I did,” Jamie muttered, feeling his face flush. “It’s… you’re Thad.”