Pony
by Rose McDonagh
“Look,” Declan said.
Joanna moved to the living room window, from which she could see the back green, the bright square of it.
“Oh,” she said. Her pony was munching grass under the washing-line.
“Bloody hell,” Declan said, “Some nutcase has gone and got themselves a horse.”
“Looks like it,” she said.
“What were they thinking?”
The thing was she’d pitied it, all plastered in mud and roped to a lamp post.
“Maybe they didn’t think, maybe they just did it,” she said.
The pony walked under a low-slung bath towel. Its shadow created a cut-out shape. Declan heaved the window open and let in the gentle sound of teeth tearing grass. “Idiots. They’ll not be able to keep it.”
“How’d you know?”
“You can’t keep a feckin horse in a shared garden.”
“It’s more a pony,” she said.
Dinner smells and radio noise rose from the other flats.
“How did they even get it here?”
It had clopped along the pavement. Only once stopping to eat questionable flowers. “I don’t know,” she said. Its forlornness had spoken to her of vocation.
“They’re expensive,” he said.
“Probably won’t cost more than a big dog.”
Declan turned to her. “You’re not going to start moaning at me for a bleeding dog again?”
“Honestly, no.”
“Good. I worry dogs lead to babies.” He pinched her arm, leaving a white patch.
“Ow. I’m over dogs and I’ll never get on to babies. I’ve got finer things to think about nowadays.”
They stepped away from the window and headed into their nook of a kitchen where nothing was cooking.
Out back, the pony shook its mane full of sun and its silhouette shivered. Other figures gathered at other windows. They gazed at it the way they would have gazed at a bonfire.
About the Author
Rose McDonagh was born in Edinburgh. She has had writing published by BBC Wildlife Magazine, Gutter, SmokeLong Quarterly, Fairfield Review, the Guardian online, The Eildon Tree, Brittle Star, The Nottingham Review and New Writing Scotland. She read at Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2017 as part of their Story Shop programme. She currently works for two Scottish charities.
Catherine Edmunds was educated as a classical musician at Dartington College of Arts, and the National Centre for Orchestral Studies, Goldsmith’s College, London. After twenty years as a professional musician, she re-invented herself as an artist and writer. Her artwork includes book illustrations and TV appearances, and her written works include a poetry collection, four novels and a Holocaust memoir. She has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, four times shortlisted in the Bridport, and has been published in many journals, including The Frogmore Papers, Aesthetica, The Binnacle, Butchers’ Dog, and Ambit.
Matthew Gibson was born and brought up in London, where he lives with his partner and two cats. He studied English literature at university where he developed a love of the short story form. Now, several years later, he has decided to try his hand at his own. This is his first flash fiction win and his first published work.
I live and work (as a teacher and painter) near Lancaster with my two children. I was born in Leeds and studied in Lancaster, Leeds and Cambridge. I have been writing for many years. This is the first time I have had any fiction published, in fact, the first time I have sent a piece of flash fiction anywhere. I won a Northern Writers’ Award for fiction this year. I am seeking a publisher for my short-story collection and am writing a novel.
Al Kratz lives in Indianola, Iowa with his fiancé, their three dogs, and any college kids that return to the nest. He is working on a short story collection and a novel. He writes fiction reviews for Alternating Current. He finished second in the February 2016 Bath Flash Fiction Award, and his story in Jellyfish Review was nominated for Best Small Fictions 2017. This year, he has had work in Ellipsis Zine, Train, (b)OINK, and forthcoming in Bull.
