Story: Blood under the Sun

                The sun rose over the north Texas plains and I knew what I had to do. Fort Worth was a large city, but I would find him. I would find the man who ruined my life. The man who stole my joy. The man who took the life out of my eyes. The man who took away what I loved the most in this world. The man who killed my son, Boomer.

                I spent the day finding out what I could around town. The best information I heard was that he liked to hang out in a bar called the Stockyard Saloon. I walked over to the saloon, and right when I was in sight of the bar I saw him walk inside. I knew I couldn’t go inside and do it in there. There would be too many witnesses. I had to wait.

It was just me and the sun waiting outside together for hours, but the sun eventually started to inch further away from me towards the horizon. The sun was about thirty minutes away from disappearing, and then he appeared: Bevo, the man with the face of a bull. I followed him through the streets of Fort Worth, all the while my rage was building and building. My hand wanted to grab the shotgun on my back so badly, but I knew I had to wait for the right moment.

                He turned down an alley and at this point I realized this was my chance. I wanted to shoot the bastard in the back with everything I had, but I knew I couldn’t stoop to his level the same way he took my son out. I wouldn't let him take my integrity away from me too. I yelled, “Hey Bevo! No guns, just you and me, man against man.” At that instant, Bevo whipped around and drew his revolver and fired the first shot. I dove behind a car and pulled out my shotgun. “Come out, come out,” Bevo hollered firing another shot. “This is only going to hurt a little.” Another bullet whizzed just over my head.
              “That’s three,” I thought to myself. “Don’t make this harder than it needs to be. Your son sure didn’t," said Bevo. Another bullet flew by and my rage grew immensely. “He didn’t even see me coming,” Bevo taunted as he fired another shot. My blood boiled and I rose to fire a shot. Right before I pulled the trigger a bullet tore through my left shoulder. I cried out in agony and looked at what remained of my shoulder. I looked up at Bevo and smiled, “That’s six.” The look of pride and arrogance drained from his face and what remained was a look of horror. Sweat dripped from my brow. The pain from my shoulder faded away as I pulled up my shotgun and drew a bead between his eyes. “Boomer,” I said as I squeezed the trigger.

                Looking out over the sun setting over the north Texas plains I can’t help but think my son is watching me. And I hope he knows that I would do anything for him... anything.

"Boomer and Bevo": Source

Author’s notes:  Mahabharata Online: Public Domain Edition:"Arjuna and Karna." In this story I went with a very dramatic Red River Rivalry scenario! The story has more of a one on one battle scene than the both of the warriors meeting in the midst of a war. The reason I chose the one on one battle is because of the Red River game instead of them meeting in the middle of a war like in the original story. To give it a fun and interesting vibe to the story I added a few local locations like the Stockyard Saloon. Which is an awesome place if you have never been there! The idea behind the weapons that Boomer used was modeled off of the Roughnecks' cannons that they fire at every game so the only gun type I could conjure up was a shotgun. Bevo was given the revolver basically because he is from Texas and the revolver is a very “Texas” weapon. I also wanted to tie in the counting of the bullets for the revolver just like when Karna ran out of arrows in his battle in Arjuna. In my opinion in the original story line when Karna brought up the death of Abhimanyu to Arjuna that was the turning point for the battle. That is why I had to incorporate Boomer in the story to give Sooner a true reason to go after Bevo. I wanted to keep the drama of losing a son so I had Sooner be the son of Boomer. I really hope that you enjoyed this story and you got a few laughs out of it! Have a safe and Happy Texas Hate week! BOOMER!