Free Lean on Pete by Willy Vlautin

and the window glass and fell asleep.
    When we parked the truck and trailer we were at a ranch near Pasco, Washington. There was a house and a huge white barn and a couple other outbuildings. Del got out and went up to the house and knocked on the door and went inside. Harry and I opened the trailer, got the two horses out, and led them into the barn and to a couple empty stalls. There was a black and white dog walking around. He came up to me wagging his tail, and I pet him for a while.
    Harry went out to the truck and got his duffel, then came back in and changed his clothes across from me and the dog. He was in his underwear when I looked up at him. Even though he was thin and bony he had a small gut. There was a scar on his left leg that ran from six inches above his knee to a few inches below it. There were two scars on his shoulders, and when he turned around I could see a long scar running down his back.
    “Do any of the scars hurt?” I asked him.
    “They all do a bit, but my knee’s the worst and I didn’t even hurt that one riding. I did it when I wrecked my car.”
    “You wrecked your car?”
    “I fell asleep and went off the side of the road and ran into a tree.”
    “And you didn’t get hurt except your knee?”
    He nodded. “The worst part was that they took my license away. I like having a car.”
    The dog pulled on my pant leg with his teeth.
    “You’ve got a friend,” Harry said.
    “I’ve never had a dog,” I told him. “But I’d like one.”
    “They’re a pain in the ass, but I like them too,” he said as he put on a T-shirt and a padded vest. He put on jockey pants and boots too, then a long-sleeve Western shirt. He went over to a sack and took a beer from it and sat down across from me.
    “So what do you like about football?”
    “I like that you can hit people,” I told him.
    “I always thought I’d like that part of it.”
    “Plus you’re a part of a team. Everyone helps everyone else. And if you do, if you do act like a team, then you win, and if you don’t, you lose.”
    “What the hell are you doing hanging out with Del?”
    “I’m only fifteen,” I said. “I tried applying for a real job but no one would hire me.”
    “Don’t let him bully you and watch out. He’s tight, he’ll rip you off.”
    I nodded.
    “And don’t listen to half of what he says.”
    “Alright,” I said.
    “Does he still lecture on and on about the Daily Racing Form ?”
    “He tests me on it sometimes.”
    “I’ve never met a guy who hates the Beyer number as much as he does,” Harry said. “You can learn from Del, but watch out, alright?”
    “Can I ask you a question?”
    “Sure,” he said.
    “I heard somebody at the track say Del runs his horses into the ground. Will he do that to Lean on Pete?”
    “Is Pete the black one Del brought?”
    I nodded.
    “If Del’s broke he has the tendency to run his every week or every other week, but Pete’s probably alright ’cause the season hasn’t even started yet and I don’t think Del did the fair circuit this year. Plus he’s a quarter horse so he’s got that going for him, and he’s probably been laid off all winter. Once it gets going, who knows. Del runs them sore, that’s for sure. A lot of guys do. But listen, don’t get attached to a horse. They ain’t like that dog over there. If they can’t run they ain’t worth a shit to anyone.”
    We sat there for a while longer and then the dog went over to Harry and sat on his lap and tried to lick him in the face. Harry laughed and pet him for a while, then asked me to call the dog back and I did.
    Del came into the barn and told me to clean out the trailer and handed me the keys. I moved the truck behind the barn, in a clearing, and cleaned it and from where I was I could see a saddled horse tied to the side of a red horse trailer and six Mexican men standing near a round pen. There were three horses in it. They were talking in Mexican so I couldn’t understand anything they