A Mechanical Horse and a Bag of Dimes

Daily writing prompt

If there was a biography about you, what would the title be?

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A great title is a chocolate covered cherry.

Take this title, for example: A Mechanical Horse and a Bag of Dimes. Right away, you know there’s something going on there. There has to be a deeper meaning. The whole thing must be a metaphor for something. Maybe.

When I was a kid parked at our Ben Franklin store for the day (this was before I was on the payroll, so I must have been very young), my dad would give me a canvas bag of dimes and tell me to go ride the mechanical horse at the front of the store. It was good for business to see a smiling kid on the horse. And I would be smiling, because the mechanical horse was kick-ass.

The horse was brown with a white mane and flowing tail. Everything about the horse was detailed, carefully painted, so beautiful. But the best part was the saddle which, I swear, was an actual Western saddle put on the mechanical horse. It was solid leather with tassles and little silver details and a gorgeous leather horn that a million little hands had held on to. Best of all, there were leather reins, just like real reins. I know this because I’ve ridden real horses. I have.

Anyway, I loved the mechanical horse an enormous amount and then I got too old to ride it, at least in front of customers, and then, just like that, I was on the payroll, weighing out candy by the quarter pound on the world’s most ancient scale. I slipped a lot of chocolate covered peanuts in my pocket in my time behind the candy counter, but no chocolate covered cherries. They were in a box, wrapped up tight with a bow, just for special occasions. A metaphor for something. Maybe.