Ashes

In Short

Set within the soot-stained yards of the D. & R. railway system, this narrative follows Juan Mendoza, a gentle crane operator who rescues a starving, abused puppy he names Sammee. While Juan cherishes his new companion, a vicious, one-eyed worker named Smith harbors a deep hatred for the dog. When Smith ultimately causes Sammee's tragic death under a locomotive, a blinded rage drives Juan to confront him. Utilizing the immense power of his overhead crane, Juan faces a moral precipice between vengeance and redemption, ultimately choosing humanity over malice.

The Story

The narrative opens in the grimy, deafening expanse of the railway shops, focusing on the ash pit where locomotives discharge their waste. Juan Mendoza, a mild-mannered and slight young Latin man, operates the great clamshell bucket from a high control cage during the midnight shift. Walking to work one night, Juan hears a plaintive whimper from a partially opened freight car and discovers a starving, abandoned puppy. He names him Sammee and brings him to the pit crew's headquarters, where the dog instantly wins over the other men.

However, Smith—a heavy-framed, one-eyed man with a gorilla-like posture—immediately takes a cruel dislike to Sammee, threatening to kill him. Despite the hostility, Sammee and Juan become inseparable, the puppy sleeping on a bed of clean waste while Juan operates his crane above. The tension steadily escalates over subsequent nights. Smith repeatedly kicks at the dog and hurls curses, prompting Juan to gently defend his pet while trying to keep the peace.

The breaking point arrives when Smith, slipping on grease, goes looking for waste and encounters Sammee growling in defense of his bed. Smith chases the puppy with a brake-stick into the night. Shaken but unharmed, Sammee is comforted by Juan. Shortly after, during a lunch break, Smith purposefully hurls a stick onto the tracks just as a silent, backing locomotive approaches. Mistaking it for a game, Sammee dashes forward and is crushed to death by the tender.

A triumphant laugh from Smith sparks a blinding fury in Juan. He rushes at Smith and throws a flurry of blows, but Smith easily counters, landing a devastating punch to Juan’s stomach that leaves him writhing in agony. Left alone on a box to nurse his physical and emotional wounds, Juan looks up at his massive steel crane bucket. He realizes that from his high cage, he possesses colossal, god-like power over everyone on the ground, including Smith.

When the shift resumes, Juan climbs back to his cage, tormented by the temptation to drop the heavy clamshell bucket and crush Smith into the deep, water-filled ash pit below. As Smith works near the edge of the pit, Juan maneuvers the heavy steel I-beam covering dangerously close to him, terrorizing him with sudden snaps of the bucket jaws. Tormented by the memory of Sammee and the gloating laughter of his enemy, Juan wrestles with his conscience as an opportunity for a fatal "accident" presents itself.

Just as Juan resolves not to kill, he lowers a heavy section of the pit covering. Startled and nervous, Smith steps backward, catches his heel between the slats, strikes his head against an engine casting, and plunges into the dark, thirty-foot-deep waters of the pit. Stricken with horror, Juan initially contemplates letting him drown. Overcome by his conscience, however, he swings the crane back, plunges the great clamshell bucket deep into the murky water, and skillfully gropes the bottom until he retrieves Smith’s unconscious body, successfully saving him.

How It Unfolds

• The rescue in the dark: While walking to his midnight shift through the freight yards, Juan hears a faint whimper and discovers a starving puppy locked inside an empty car.
• An immediate enmity: When Juan brings Sammee to the crew's headquarters, a brutal, one-eyed worker named Smith expresses instant hatred and threatens to kill the dog.
• The fatal trap: Smith intentionally throws a stick onto the tracks near a moving locomotive, luring Sammee to his death under the wheels.
• The temptation of the crane: After Smith easily overpowers a grieving Juan in a fistfight, Juan climbs to his control cage and contemplates using the massive steel bucket to crush his enemy.
• The accidental fall: While Juan lowers a heavy pit cover, a startled Smith trips over the slats and falls backward into the deep, freezing water of the ash pit.
• The redemption from above: Overcoming his initial shock and the temptation to let him perish, Juan uses the crane to carefully dredge the bottom of the pit and hoist Smith's body back to safety.

The People

• Juan Mendoza: A mild-mannered, quiet young crane operator of Latin descent who possesses a gentle soul and a deep capacity for kindness. He wants only to live peaceably and care for his pet, but discovers an unexpected inner strength and commanding power when pushed to his limits.
• Sammee: A gaunt, starved puppy rescued by Juan who becomes his loyal and inseparable companion. He wants safety and affection, instantly recognizes cruel intentions in others, and ultimately meets a tragic end that triggers the story's central conflict.
• Smith: A broad, heavyset worker with a gorilla-like frame and one eye gouged out in a brawl. He is defined by malice and cruelty, taking an immediate, violent dislike to Sammee and constantly threatening both the dog and Juan before his fateful accident.

In Its Own Voice

• Describing the harsh environment where the story unfolds, the narrator notes: "Huge locomotives lumber about, vomiting clouds of black smoke and adding the discordance of their whistles and bells to the din of bellowing blowers, the rumble of cranes and the growl and mutter of many machines."
• Highlighting Juan's gentle nature when first meeting the outcast animal, the text observes: "Juan looked at the starved outcast cowering back in the beam of light, and clucked in pity."
• Reflecting on the sudden shift in perspective when operating his machinery, the narrative states: "On the ground he was small, puny. But the moment he entered the little cage, high above, he ceased to be himself—became instead a cable-thewed giant capable of prodigious feats of strength."

What It's Really About

The story explores the fragile balance between human mercy and the dark, primitive urge for vengeance. Set against the dehumanizing backdrop of an industrial machine shop, it questions whether kindness is a weakness or a true form of strength. Juan’s internal struggle interrogates the ethics of power: when given absolute control over another person's life, how does a gentle individual maintain their moral center? Beyond the plot of a man and his dog, the narrative examines guilt, conscience, and the difficult grace required to forgive or rescue an enemy who has caused irreparable harm.

Why Read It Today

Readers who appreciate classic, character-driven pulp fiction with a strong moral core will find much to love here. Reading it feels like stepping directly onto the smoke-choked floor of a 1920s rail yard, complete with the sensory roar of machinery and the gritty realism of working-class life. The story does not shy away from raw cruelty, particularly in its depiction of the puppy's suffering and Smith's unyielding malice, which can make for difficult, heart-wrenching reading. However, the reward lies in Theodore Thomas Flynn's rich atmosphere and the psychological tension of Juan's upward ascent into the crane cage. It stays with you as a striking meditation on how solitude, grief, and power test the boundaries of human compassion.