My Conversation with a Mule

Pickled Dill—legal name Dale Rufus Dillard—has spent his life learning the hard way: from his mama's correction, honest work, stubborn mules, a sharp-tongued wife named Ola Mae, the death of a little boy, and the long silence grief leaves behind. Told in the warm, weathered voice of an elderly Black Southern cowboy, My Conversation with a Mule is a funny, tender, faith-laced life story about shame, love, loss, pride, marriage, and the strange mercy of being stopped before you pull the wrong direction. When Ola Mae dies, Dale tries to return to work before his sorrow can speak. But Old Judge, a gray mule with courtroom eyes and no patience for foolishness, stands in the gate and refuses to move. What follows is a conversation Dale cannot explain—and a truth he can no longer outrun. Wise, humorous, and deeply human, this is a story about speaking the names, feeding what still lives, and letting love keep working after loss.