Pony Rides – a short story

breakawayglenn — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 21:15:05 +0000

My short story, PONY RIDES, came to me all at once. The story wrote itself. The drive on Interstate 10 across New Mexico has always seemed magical to me; a place tethered to an earlier time of roadside diners, old motels, and miles of golden grassland fenced by wire and wooden sticks driven into the ground. I could miss driving it for years, and then I’d hit that highway again and darned if it didn’t always seem the same—an old friend. I write about the same roads in DARK HORSE.

I even drew a picture of the café. The café exists only in my imagination, but I know it has thousands of cousins. At the time I drew the picture, the café was called Hi-WAY café. In a later version of the story I changed it to Pinion Café. I think I’ve revised this story a few times since it appeared in Tucson Weekly years ago. PONY RIDES was my first short story, and I was overjoyed when it placed in the Tucson Weekly Words & Images contest–behind some damn fine, prestigious writers who went on to have serious careers. PONY RIDES also got me into the U. of A. Creative Writing MFA program, although I didn’t stay.
Nothing in life is certain, but I do expect to make that drive from Tucson to Deming to Las Cruces to Alamogordo to Ruidoso again. That piece of road will be forever in my heart.
— J. Carson Black

J. Carson Black » Pony Rides

Pony Rides – a short story