Charley is 15 years old. His mother went away when he was a baby. He and his father move around a lot. He has no other family except an aunt he knew when he was a child. But he doesn’t know where she lives now; when he was 11, his Dad got mad at her, and that was the last Charley ever heard of his aunt.
Right now, he and his Dad live in Portland, Oregon. His Dad stays gone a lot, leaving Charley on his own with nothing to do, and often, nothing to eat. Charley starts hanging out at a nearby race track. He meets an old man named Del Montgomery who agrees to let him work for him, tending his horses and stalls. One of the horses is named Lean on Pete.
Then one night Charley’s philandering Dad is assaulted by an irate husband, and eventually dies from his injuries. Charley doesn’t know what to do or where to go, so he keeps working for Del, until he finds out that Del is going to send Lean on Pete off to be slaughtered. Charley steals Del’s truck and trailer, loads Lean on Pete up and sets off for Wyoming to find his aunt.
304 pages
